Dawn of the Dead was a good start, but it was 300 which put Zack Snyder on the map as a filmmaker. The movie, deemed unfilmable by some, was a surprise hit and gave the future Justice League helmer the chance to tackle another tricky adaptation: Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen.
The likes of Terry Gilliam and Darren Aronofsky had tried and failed to do something with the property, and Snyder's Watchmen - which was strikingly comic accurate outside of the giant squid's absence - was released in 2009.
Unfortunately, it didn't receive the warmest of responses from critics and grossed just $185 million on a then-sizeable $120 million budget. The movie hasn't quite managed to achieve cult classic status in the years since, but Watchmen still has more than its fair share of fans.
Among them is The Dark Knight Trilogy and Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan.
In a profile on Snyder from The Hollywood Reporter, Nolan tells the trade, "I’ve always believed Watchmen was ahead of its time. The idea of a superhero team, which it so brilliantly subverts, wasn’t yet a thing in movies. It would have been fascinating to see it released post-Avengers."
He's right in a lot of ways here, and the fact HBO's Watchmen TV series received a much better response arguably adds some weight to this argument as well. It came at a time when people were ready to see this genre subverted; the movie, on the other hand, was released just one year after Iron Man and The Dark Knight.
When we spoke to Silk Spectre actress Malin Åkerman in 2020, she said this of Watchmen:
"I feel so lucky that I got to be a part of that project. It was a real big experience for me. You're right, I think that the material itself is so interesting and intricate, and thoughtful and thought-provoking. Now, would have been the time [for it], but at the same time, I'm sometimes glad it was before its time. It's something to be proud of, and I think Zack Snyder did a fantastic job."
"Visually, it's just a masterpiece. As an actor, I struggled with it because it was a big undertaking and a big project for someone like myself who hadn't done many projects just yet. I didn't have much under my belt to draw from. I felt like I was out at sea a little bit among all these veteran actors, these beautiful, wonderful, theater actors, but looking back, I'm super proud, I think it's beautifully executed, and has a really interesting message. It's a powerful film."
Next year, Warner Bros. will release an animated adaptation of Watchmen. Snyder isn't involved with that and there's currently no word on the creative team or cast.