TheWATCHMEN Screenplay Reviewed & Compared

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD 

The Watchmen was the book that put the world on notice--comics could be serious literature! It set a benchmark against which all superhero comics since have been judged, so it was only natural that this groundbreaking work make the transition from printed newsprint to silver screen. Watchmen was optioned as a movie almost as soon as it was released, but no one could figure out how to get it made. Sam Hamm (writer of the Tim Burton Batman screenplay) was hired to write a script 20 years ago (Download it here) and it was met with mixed reviews. It was well written enough, but there was an entirely new beginning involving a terrorist plot at the Statue of Liberty and an totally different ending involving a time paradox in which fan favorite Rorschach lives and Ozymandius dies.

Fan reaction to the script was mixed at best. Over the years, it was widely circulated and conventional wisdom was that Alan Moore’s original ending was unilmable (at least by the standards of 1980’s special effects and budgets.)
 
Since then at least two other scripts have been commissioned. The first by David Hayter, and a second by Alex Tse, which appears to be a re-write of the David Hayter's first attempt.

The David Hayter script also has some distressing changes in it, though most of them serve to move the film along more quickly. Two scenes become one for brevity. All three of the scripts discard the “Tales from the Black Freighter” storyline, but we know that Watchmen director Zach Snyder brought it back in the form of the DVD being released with the film.

The biggest thing I disliked in the Hayter script was changing Laurie Jupiter’s codename from Silk Spectre into Slingshot. Not only was she shackled with this horrid name but she had a superpower. For me this was a deal breaker. The theme of Watchmen revolves around Dr. Manhattan being the only super-powered being on the planet, and examining what the introduction of a single powerful being would do to our reality. Much like the alternate history sci-fi of Harry Turtledove, Alan Moore picked one catalyst of change and examined what introducing it would do to our history. He creates an entire alternate reality based around the question “What if Superman was American?” Giving Laurie Jupiter a superpower weakens the main premise of the entire series.

To Hayter’s credit he at least does it in a logical fashion. Dr. Manhattan grants Laurie a little piece of his superpowers after the first time then make love. In the scene he touches her with his glowing index finger and then she begins to glow. When we first see Slingshot in action, she flashes a peace sign. Her hand glows and energy arcs between her thumb and forefinger. She grabs the energy with her other hand and pulls it back like a kid shooting a slingshot and fires a small ball of blue energy at her attackers. I can hear the eyes of the collective internees rolling right now.

In the Hayter script, the comic book ending was gone. No teleported space squid causing brain hemorrhages in Times Square. In its place he had a plot that involved Adrian Veidt sending a solar death ray down from space, incinerating the capitols of a dozen nations that represented every political and religious stripe. He also sent packages with small communications devices to the various world leaders threatening to do so again should the nations refuse to stand down and make peace with each other.

I must admit that I thought the space squid was not going to work as well on the big screen as it did on the printed page. It was better than the ending Sam Hamm conceived which involved Veidt firing a sniper rifle back through time to assassinate Jon Osterman before he can become Dr. Manhattan. It resulted in a time paradox that left Night Owl, Rorschach and Silk Spectre being dumped into the Times Square of our reality which is now returned to normalcy in the absence of Dr. Manhattan.

The Alex Tse script reworks the Hayter script bringing it much closer to the comic. Most of the bits where he strays from the comic only serve to strengthen the original premise. The comic book ending of the Watchmen is gone, but this ending works the best on the silver screen as any I can imagine and perhaps makes more sense that Moore’s original ending. I know this is sacrilegious to most comic fans, but bear in mind I’m a huge fan of the comic and Moore’s work so I don’t say this lightly. Even the greatest comic of all time can be improved upon, and Alex Tse may have just proven it.

Hero House interview with Ghost Rider creator Gary Friedrich

Hero House: You came in with that new wave of Marvel writers that followed Roy Thomas getting hired on by Stan Lee around 1965, correct?

Gary Friedrich: Roy and I were both from Jackson, Missouri about a hundred miles south of St. Louis. Roy went to New York first and then he brought me out a short time after.

HH: But you didn’t start working for Marvel right away. Didn’t you do some work for Charlton comics first?

GF: I did some freelance work for Charlton editor Dick Giordano, and I also did some work for a bubble gum company writing the text for their set of Tarzan trading cards.

HH: Tarzan trading cards? Cool! I didn’t know that.

GF: I finally went to work for Marvel in September of 1966.

HH: When you were at Charlton I know you did some of the Ghostly Tales, but you also did work on some of the Steve Ditko superhero books.

GF: Blue Beetle. I did dialogue on those original Blue Beetle stories.

HH: What was the process like working on those with Ditko?

GF: Mostly I wrote straight scripts for Ditko, but on Blue Beetle, I’d have meetings with Steve where he’d detail the plot and give me some general notes. Then he would break the plots down in his pencils and I would go ahead and script the dialogue.

HH: Ditko’s famously reclusive, and you’re one of the few people out there who's actually met him in the flesh.

GF: :::LAUGHS:::

HH: When you went to Marvel, you started out on the Western titles, right?

GF: I did the Western titles, but I actually started on Millie the Model first. Stan (Lee) actually made everyone start out on Millie. Then I graduated to the Western books, Sgt. Fury, then The X-Men. I wrote just about every Marvel character of that period at one time or another.

HH: While searching your name in an online comic database in preparation for this interview, I noticed that virtually every Silver Age Marvel title had an entry that you worked on.In fact, I remember one of my first comic buying experiences was buying those three packs of marvel books and it had Hulk #153 in it--the one where they had captured the Hulk and put him on trial. Matt Murdock was his lawyer. I loved that comic as a kid and was fascinated with finding out about all these heroes who were testifying for and against him.

GF: I wrote a lot of Hulk issues. I was the first guy to write the Hulk after Stan. When the Hulk finally got his own title again (Incredible Hulk #102), I took over.

HH: You created the Ghost Rider and Son of Satan, correct?

GF: ... and also the Phantom Eagle.

HH: I did not realize that!

GF: I created him with Herb Trimpe. We did just one issue (Marvel Superheroes #16) and then, of course, Herb and I created Son of Satan as well.

HH: Any title you have a particular fondness for?

GF: I did Sgt. Fury so much that he was almost my roommate. Nick (Fury) and I got pretty close over the years. There’s some fondness their for Sgt. Fury.
 
HH: And you also did some work on the Jack Kirby characters that Topps tried?

GF: Bombast. Just a one issue deal. I think they hoped for better things, but It never happened.

HH: I saw online credits for some novels you’ve written. What can you tell me about those?

GF: I wrote a novel about a country and western singer for a small paperback publisher. I did a country-western encyclopedia with Len Brown and the we did one on rock and roll, and also a rock and roll quiz book.

HH: There seems to be some confusion about the origins of Ghost Rider. There was a precursor to Ghost Rider that you did for Skywald called Hell Hider, and then there was a Stunt Rider villain that you and Roy worked on together in Daredevil. Can you shed a little light on which came first and how Ghost Rider came to be?
 
GF: I personally don’t remember this villain “Stunt Master,” I think he was called. Roy apparently created him in an issue of Daredevil that I did scripting on but he didn’t really have anything to do with Ghost Rider. I had been thinking about the Ghost Rider idea for a long time.

HH: Did Hell-Rider come first?

GF: Hell Rider came first. Sol Brodsky (Skywald publisher) called me up and wanted me to do something for him. I told him I wouldn’t mind doing a motorcycle guy for him. I didn’t want to give him my Ghost Rider idea though because I had my doubts about how Skywald was going to do and I didn’t want to waste my big idea with them if things didn’t work out. I just saved Ghost Rider back and came up with this off-the-wall thing called Hell Rider.

HH: And Son of Satan debuts around then as well?

GF: Stan had some idea that he wanted a character called Son of Satan. I have no idea why or where it came from. All he really had was the name and he wanted us to create a character based around that. I guess it just popped in his mind. He said “I want a title called Son of Satan. Do It!”

HH: The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby were huge then, and I imagine that had something to do with it.

GF: So we worked the Damien Hellstrom character into the Ghost Rider series to get it started.

HH: Thanks so much for your time, Gary. It was a real treat meeting one of the superstars of the old Marvel bullpen.

GF: My pleasure.