We first learned of plans for a two-part animated adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen during last year's San Diego Comic-Con.
As of now, Warner Bros. Animation hasn't announced a cast or release date. However, a teaser trailer was recently released which suggests the CG-animated project will stick closely to the critically acclaimed graphic novel it's based on.
Zack Snyder did that with his live-action version of Watchmen in 2008, though he controversially changed the story's ending to replace the squid with a bomb. This version looks like it will adhere even closer to the source material.
Today, an MPAA Film Ratings listing has confirmed that Watchmen: Chapter I will be "Rated R for violent content and some graphic nudity."
The fact this adaptation isn't shying away from depicting Watchmen's violent moments is good news as it would be a terrible shame for Moore and Gibbons' work to be watered down in any way. As for that mention of "graphic nudity," we'd imagine it refers to Dr. Manhattan's habit of walking around naked.
In a rare interview back in 2008, Moore explained why he wouldn't be sitting down to watch Zack Snyder's Watchmen.
"He may very well be [a very nice guy], but the thing is that he's also the person who made 300. I’ve not seen any recent comic book films, but I didn't particularly like the book 300. I had a lot of problems with it, and everything I heard or saw about the film tended to increase [those problems] rather than reduce them: [that] it was racist, it was homophobic, and above all it was sublimely stupid."
"I know that that's not what people going in to see a film like 300 are thinking about but…I wasn’t impressed with that…. I talked to [director] Terry Gilliam in the '80s, and he asked me how I would make Watchmen into a film. I said, 'Well actually, Terry, if anybody asked me, I would have said, 'I wouldn't.'' And I think that Terry [who aborted his attempted adaptation of the book] eventually came to agree with me."
"There are things that we did with Watchmen that could only work in a comic, and were indeed designed to show off things that other media can't."
Something tells us he won't be sitting down to watch this version either...
In an alternate world where the mere presence of American superheroes changed history, the US won the Vietnam War, Nixon is still president, and the cold war is in full effect. Watchmen begins as a murder-mystery, but soon unfolds into a planet-altering conspiracy. As the resolution comes to a head, the unlikely group of reunited heroes--Rorschach, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias--have to test the limits of their convictions and ask themselves where the true line is between good and evil.