- Notes provided by Warner Bros. -

A complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, "Watchmen" is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the Doomsday Clock-which charts the USA's tension with the Soviet Union- moves closer to midnight.
When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the outlawed but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion- a disbanded group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers- Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future.
Their mission is to watch over humanity...but who is watching the Watchmen?
"Watchmen" is directed by Zack Snyder ("300") and produced by Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin and Deborah Snyder. The screenplay is by David Hayter and Alex Tse, based upon the graphic novel co-created and illustrated by Dave Gibbons and published by DC Comics. Herbert W. Gains and Thomas Tull are the executive producers, with Wesley Coller serving as co-producer.
Playing the film's core group of "Masks," the adventurers at the center of the story, are Malin Akerman ("27 Dresses") as Laurie Jupiter, aka Silk Spectre II; Billy Crudup ("The Good Shepherd") as Jon Osterman, aka Dr. Manhattan; Matthew Goode ("Match Point") as Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias; Carla Gugino ("Night at the Museum") as Sally Jupiter, aka Silk Spectre; Oscar® nominee Jackie Earle Haley ("Little Children") as Walter Kovacs, aka Rorschach; Jeffrey Dean Morgan (TV's "Grey's Anatomy") as Edward Blake, aka The Comedian; and Patrick Wilson ("Little Children") as Dan Dreiberg, aka Nite Owl II.
Joining Snyder behind the scenes were director of photography Larry Fong ("300"), production designer Alex McDowell ("Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"), editor William Hoy ("300"), costume designer Michael Wilkinson ("300"), and visual effects supervisor John "DJ" DesJardin ("The Kingdom"). The music is by Tyler Bates ("300").
Warner Bros. Pictures and Paramount Pictures present, in Association with Legendary Pictures, a Lawrence Gordon/Lloyd Levin Production, a Zack Snyder Film, "Watchmen," based on the award-winning graphic novel.
"Watchmen" will be distributed domestically by Warner Bros. Pictures and internationally by Paramount Pictures. "Watchmen: The IMAX Experience"-digitally remastered to the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® with proprietary IMAX DMR® (digital re-mastering) technology-will debut concurrently with the nationwide 35mm release in traditional theatres.
The film has been rated R by the MPAA for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language.
www.watchmenmovie.com
For downloadable information and photos from "Watchmen," please visit press.warnerbros.com.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
WHO WATCHES THE WATCHMEN?
New York, 1985-a world darkened by fear and paranoia. Where regular human beings who once donned masks to fight crime now hide from their identities. Where the ultimate weapon-an all-powerful superbeing-has tilted the global balance of power, pushing the world implacably closer to nuclear midnight. Where desperate men conjure desperate measures in the stark face of Armageddon.
This is the world of "Watchmen," the big-screen adaptation of the most celebrated graphic novel of all time, brought to life for the first time by visionary director Zack Snyder.
Spray-painted across a wall in the shadows of a dark, gritty New York alley is a question that pervades "Watchmen": "Who watches the Watchmen?" Snyder offers, "Who has the right to say what's right and what's wrong? And who monitors those who decide what is right and what is wrong?"
Watchmen first appeared as a 12-issue limited comic book series. It was originally published by DC Comics from 1986 to 1987, then republished as the now-legendary graphic novel. The blood-stained "smiley face" on the cover, the image of a clock face advancing one minute closer to midnight, and the twelve-chapter structure are all emblematic of the richly complex work that has long been credited with elevating the graphic novel to a new art form: Watchmen is the only graphic novel to win the prestigious Hugo Award or to appear on Time magazine's 2005 list of "the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present." It also earned several Kirby and Eisner Awards.
When it was released, Watchmen resonated with a generation raised with the prospect of nuclear war, not as an abstraction but a palpable reality. It has been praised for giving voice to the anxiety and unease of the times, the fear and awe of power and its abuses, and the cloud of paranoia and impotence experienced every day by average people considered insignificant to the power brokers. In the decades since its publication, it has garnered a legion of diehard fans from all walks of life that continues to grow.
"In the '80s, there was a lot of paranoia about the Cold War-was it going to escalate and what would happen if it did-and how fragile our society was, how very little would have to be done to completely wipe out everything that we had," the graphic novel's co-creator and illustrator Dave Gibbons comments. "That was very real to me. And though it has receded a bit, there are new fears of mass destruction, so I think that paranoia is always going to be there."
Subverting and deconstructing the concept of superheroes, the story introduced a handful of characters that have been called "more human than super"-real people who deal with ethical and personal issues, who struggle with neuroses and failings and who, aside from Dr. Manhattan, are without superpowers. The original team of heroes, the Minutemen, was comprised of The Silhouette, Silk Spectre, The Comedian, Hooded Justice, Captain Metropolis, Nite Owl, Mothman and Dollar Bill. The next generation of masked adventurers-those at the heart of the graphic novel's mystery-are Silk Spectre II, Nite Owl II, Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan, Ozymandias, and The Comedian, who is the only holdover from the Minutemen. Each is a symbol of a different kind of power, obsession, and psychopathology. A different kind of superhero.
Adding to the book's mystique-with its intricate, multi-layered storytelling and dialogue, symbolism and synchronicity, flashbacks and metafiction-Watchmen has long been considered both in a class of its own...and virtually unfilmable.
For over a decade, producers Lawrence Gordon and Lloyd Levin held the faith that it wasn't the latter, nurturing the project and waiting for the right moment and the right filmmaker to bring the book to life in a manner worthy of the work itself. "I read Watchmen when it first came out," Levin relates. "I was a big comic book fan, but I had never read anything like it. It was the first time that I really connected with a graphic novel, just in the sense of feeling that it was my world, the world we all live in. It's a great piece of literature. The clockwork nature of the storytelling, how profoundly it deals with the human condition, the epic nature of the story-all of that makes it a very thrilling and provocative read."
The project fully came together when filmmaker Zack Snyder, while still in production on what would become the blockbuster "300," expressed to the producers his affinity for the graphic novel and desire to direct it. "With Watchmen, there has always been an element of serendipity, coincidence, and timing," says Gibbons. "It seemed to be that this was a good time for it to happen, and Zack was absolutely the right person to do it properly. But none of this would have ever come to pass without the patience and passion of Larry and Lloyd, who wouldn't do it until they could do it right."
Lawrence Gordon offers, "After having worked for over 15 years to get 'Watchmen' made, I couldn't be more thrilled. In every aspect of the production-from developing the screenplay to assembling our creative team, from directing the wonderful cast to realizing the film's look-Zack Snyder did an incredible job."
Snyder's goal was to bring Watchmen to life as it was, not updated to the present, not substantially altered, but to be as true to the work as possible with a motion picture. "Zack respected the source material so much that he knew the only way to adapt it was to hew as close to the source as possible," says the director's wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder. "Changing the time period, or emphasizing any of the characters over the others, would never serve the story that's told in the graphic novel, which has always been more than the sum of its parts. There were aspects we knew we couldn't include entirely-like Under the Hood, which was Hollis Mason's chronicle of the Minutemen, the first masked adventurers from the 1930s, and Tales of the Black Freighter-but we knew we could do something with these ancillary bits on the DVD. For Zack, the key for doing this massive project was to always stay true to the graphic novel."
"People always said Watchmen was the unfilmable graphic novel," says Zack Snyder. "The story itself is a pretty straightforward mystery, but inside of that, there's this huge plot that has international intrigue and a super-villain and everything you want from a superhero story. There is a tonal quality to every bit of it, from the interaction of the characters to the design structure, whether it be a flashback or a flash forward, or a parallel story being told. It's at once very traditional and also unusual in the way that it's structured. It doesn't owe anything to any specific genre; it's just its own, true to itself and all of its characters."
The screenplay, adapted by David Hayter and Alex Tse, maintained the graphic novel's depiction of superheroes as very human characters subject to the same social and psychological pressures as anyone else. Snyder observes, "With all these characters, you feel that they are deeply loved by their creators, regardless of their flaws or how they're viewed in a real-life context, or what they point to in other icons of superhero mythology."
"Watchmen is more complex in that it doesn't just create an archetypal character; it goes through all the variations of why you would put a costume on, why you would want to fight crime," Gibbons states. "Are you slightly mad? Are you altruistic? And what would happen if you did get super powers and you couldn't care less?"
THE MASKS OF "WATCHMEN"
"Watchmen" unfolds in a world at the brink of war, in which costumed superheroes, called Masks, have been outlawed, driven underground by a society that once revered them but then grew to fear and despise them.
The uniqueness of the project attracted many talents. "We read a lot of actors for the movie," Levin affirms. "Ultimately the cast that emerged were, of course, talented, but also they absolutely believed in the words that they were saying and in the characters they were playing."
"'Watchmen' studies these characters' politics, their sexuality and their philosophy, their deviances and inadequacies," says Patrick Wilson, who plays Nite Owl
II. "That's something you haven't seen before in this genre."
Carla Gugino, the film's Sally Jupiter, notes that the prospect of embodying the characters of what she calls "the 'Citizen Kane' of graphic novels" was both daunting and exhilarating. "There was a great amount of responsibility to do it justice," she says. "There was not one person who felt the need to shine more than anybody else. It was a wonderful true ensemble."
Cast as Rorschach, Jackie Earle Haley was struck by the opportunity to portray "the humanity behind the mask," adding, "It explores what the world might be like if people really did dress up in costumes and went into the vigilante business. What are their weaknesses, their morality, the beliefs driving their behavior?"
They also quickly found that Snyder's enthusiasm was infectious. "I've never seen someone more passionate about a project in my life," says Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays The Comedian. "How passionate he is about this novel and making this movie true to it was a sight to behold and it invigorated everybody."
Even before Snyder selected the cast, fans were trying to select it for him. "About three years ago," recalls Haley, "people on the 'Net were suggesting me for the role of Rorschach. At the time I didn't know the novel. I looked it up and was fascinated by it. So when I heard the film was going ahead, I was very pumped and fought like hell to win the part."
The only Mask to openly defy the Keene Act, which outlawed costumed heroes, Rorschach remains vigilant, continuing to haunt the gutters of New York, hunting society's "vermin"...his mask the last thing they see before he metes out his judgment. Rorschach's moral compass has only two directions: right and wrong.
"We live in a complex world of shades of gray, but for Rorschach, the world is black and white," says Haley. "For him, complexity makes no sense. Complexity simply justifies the victimization of himself and everybody who is made to suffer from someone else's special interest."
Rorschach's psychology and sense of honor alike are reflected in the mask he wears, with shifting, mirror image patterns of black and white, like the inkblots of a Rorschach test. "Rorschach has this noirish quality about him," says Snyder. "He is the detective of the story, but at the same time, he is almost psychopathic in his uncompromising pursuit of justice. He's a very fascinating character. He comes from a broken family and grew up on the mean streets, and then gradually, through events both in and out of the mask, he became Rorschach."
The mystery unfolds following Rorschach's discovery that Edward Blake, also known as The Comedian, has been murdered, thrown from his 30th-floor apartment window. A disenchanted killing machine who has spent his years doing unsavory jobs for the government in both war and peacetime, The Comedian sees the world as a dark place where small acts of brutality or heroism alike make little to no difference.
"The Comedian is as American as can be, but he is also the dark side of what America has the potential to be," remarks the director. "He rides that edge; he's always doing some dark job for the government, but he's doing it as a superhero would do it."
To Rorschach, he's nothing short of a super-patriot, an American hero who died in service to his country.
Tonight, a Comedian died in New York, Rorschach writes in his journal. Somebody knows why.
Rorschach believes someone is picking off costumed heroes, of which The Comedian is only the first. He sets out to warn the members of the interconnected group that in past years fought by his side-six souls tied together by fate and the desire to make their own brand of justice. His first visit is to Dan Dreiberg, who, as Nite Owl II, was his partner in the glory days of the Masks.
"Dan was probably the closest friend that Rorschach has ever had on the planet," says Haley. "The police don't like Rorschach. The citizens don't like him. None of the other Masks like him. When he stumbles upon this murder, he is going to pursue it all the way to the end. But I also think there's a little piece of him that sees the murder as a reason the guys should get back together."
Unlike Rorschach, however, Dan has moved on. Prior to assuming the identity of Nite Owl, Dreiberg had been "rich and bored, with this romantic fantasy of fighting crime, being a superhero, of saving and getting the girl," says Patrick Wilson. "He has an old-fashioned sense of values. He sees the good in people. When he went out and fought crime, it was about justice and helping people."
Dan now lives a quiet life and makes weekly visits to his predecessor, the original Nite Owl, Hollis Mason (Stephen McHattie), to reminisce over a beer. "Dan has gotten soft physically, politically, sexually..." Wilson notes. "Without the costume on, he doesn't have an identity. He has no place in society and feels impotent in the face of its problems. He's terrified to put the suit on, but you also get the sense he can't live without being Nite Owl."
"It's only when he is confronted with this mystery that's unfolding-his colleagues being murdered-that he begins to see the potential of putting on the old costume," adds Snyder. "Once he gets the costume back on, he realizes that that's who he really is. He's this sort of Everyman who is lost until he rediscovers his purpose."
Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, has already established a new purpose beyond his previous life as a Mask. The world's smartest man and now one of its richest, Veidt retired before the Keene Act and made his fortune exploiting the masked vigilante era in the form of action figures, cartoons, perfumes, books and movies. Nevertheless, he believes he has a higher calling. Obsessed with the exploits of Alexander the Great and the Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II (Ozymandias is the Greek name for Rameses II), Veidt seeks to perfect the human condition.
Where Rorschach seeks to punish the guilty, Veidt considers those efforts pointless when everything they know could be obliterated at any minute. "Adrian has a bit of a god complex," explains Matthew Goode, who plays the gilded magnate. "He has this idea that the world needs to be fixed because humanity seems to be broken. We are constantly warring with each other and he believes that no price is too high to get the world to unite in brotherhood."
"That philosophy is in many ways the spine of the movie," Snyder asserts. "How do you reshape humanity and make it peaceful? Can anyone really have that kind of control?"
"They're all just fundamentalists, in a way," says Billy Crudup, who plays Dr. Manhattan, the only Mask with true superpowers. "They see a threatening world where their only recourse is to take matters into their own hands, and their desire to order a disordered world overcomes morality. But Jon believed in the goodness of his country, in following the designs of his leaders."
Before the accident in a nuclear lab that forever altered his life, Dr. Manhattan was Jon Osterman, the son of a watchmaker, a brilliant physicist and "a quintessential '50s male," says Crudup, the actor behind the blue light that emanates from Manhattan's body.
Though Manhattan chose to join the informal group of Masks, the others are, by comparison, "people who play dress up," Crudup states. "They are vigilantes. They don't believe in the stability of the government. They don't believe in the community's capacity to take care of itself. Osterman was the exact opposite: someone who was by the book, believed in the stability of his country and the morality of his government. He did whatever they wanted. And initially after he becomes Dr. Manhattan, he continues to do it."
The accident transformed Jon Osterman into a superbeing, who experiences past, present and future at once and has the power to control matter itself. "He didn't put himself back together as mortal; he put himself back together as a deity," says Crudup.
Comparing Dr. Manhattan to the existence of a nuclear bomb, Snyder remarks, "It became a force in itself in that its existence changed the way we looked at everything. I think in some ways that's what Manhattan represents-this ability to save us or destroy us at the same moment. The implications of this new power are tremendous: Is he truly on our side? What if that power goes away or turns on us? How do you relate to that as a person? He brings into question so many things about our own way of thinking."
As Manhattan moves further into the limitless dimensions of time and matter, he commences a gradual disconnection from humanity and ambivalence about its existence. "He has apathy for almost everything, except for the inner workings of the atom," attests Crudup. "He sees the way the universe works. Humanity has a variable that physics doesn't seem to have. Physics is an ordered world to be discovered. And human interaction is a chaotic world to be taught through harsh experience. It becomes frustrating and burdensome to the point that I think he just doesn't care anymore."
"He longs for a relationship in a sense, but at the same time he's outside of his ability to connect to humans," describes Snyder. "He can see your subatomic particles; therefore you become an abstraction to him and it's hard to relate to that abstraction.
"What would that do to you as a person?" Snyder asks. "What does that do to your relationships with other people, with humanity?"
The one human being with a genuine connection to Dr. Manhattan is Laurie Jupiter, aka Silk Spectre II, who fell in love with Manhattan as a teenager. Laurie is played by Malin Akerman, who offers, "Laurie was head over heels in love with him, but as he grows more and more distant, there's nothing left for her in the relationship. His work comes before her in her eyes. She feels him falling out of love with her and the more he drifts away, the more she loses her identity."
After the murder of The Comedian, Laurie reconnects with Dan Dreiberg, who shares her inchoate sense of loss. "Reconnecting with Dan gives Laurie back her sense of being a woman," Akerman affirms. "Someone is looking at her, for the first time in God knows how many years, as one human being to another. That reconnection reignites the fire that used to be there as Silk Spectre, the need for the adrenaline rush."
"Their common bond is that they have the same memories of fighting crime," adds Wilson. "They've since become regular human beings just trying to muddle through life without any special powers, moral certainty or superhuman brilliance. Laurie opens Dan up to putting the suit on again. It's the thing that he's most terrified of and the thing he wants more than anything. He just needed somebody to look him in the eye and say, 'Let's do it.'"
Laurie had been pushed into the role of superhero as an adolescent by her mother, Sally Jupiter, who had been the first Silk Spectre. "As Silk Spectre II, Laurie learned to fight like a man," says Akerman. "She was this strong, powerful woman and, in spite of her reluctance to be a Mask, somewhere inside she loved it."
The vampy Sally Jupiter now lives in a retirement community in California and spends her time reminiscing about the limelight she once enjoyed as a rare female crime fighter. "Sally is from the old school of superheroes, the same as The Comedian," says Snyder. "She represents to me the golden age of superheroes. They were almost like movie stars then. So, in a lot of ways, she's like a faded movie star who was never able to recapture that same glory and spotlight that she had in her heyday."
Carla Gugino describes her character as someone who "likes to think of herself as a little more polished than she really is. Sally definitely wanted to fight crime but she also wanted the attention. As she aged she foisted that upon her daughter. Sally's a very complex character who has been through a lot, but much of the drama was self-induced. This is a woman who in her heart of hearts is in love with The Comedian, even though they were never really able to be together."
Sally and Edward Blake, aka The Comedian, were intensely attracted to each other during the golden years of the Minutemen, the original group of superheroes. But their relationship was irreparably marred by an encounter that changed both their lives. "That was the moment that everything changed for Edward Blake," asserts Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays the role. "That's when the true lone wolf came about. He realized he didn't have the skills to convey his feelings; instead, he hurt the woman he's in love with. After that, his whole life is spent virtually alone. I don't know what kind of existence that would be for somebody. I think there's something incredibly sad about The Comedian. I think he wants so much more than he's been able to have in his life. He's a lost soul. The only time he isn't alone is in the midst of a war, with his buddies behind him. He laughs through the worst of it because the little things don't matter for him. Even death doesn't matter to him - until that moment when he realizes what's really going on."
Morgan provided at once the charisma and the brutality of his character. "There's duality in every role, but particularly in The Comedian," says Deborah Snyder. "When he's firing on a mob during riots, it makes you wonder, 'Who's better, the angry mob or The Comedian?' The way Jeffrey plays him, you shouldn't really like this guy and yet you do."
From New York to Mars, plots and conspiracies are unfolding with the fate of all life on earth suspended in the hands of a few. As the Doomsday Clock moves to near-midnight and humanity falls into its shadow, these masked heroes-lonely or megalomaniacal, compassionate or disturbed, loving or outcast, human or superhuman-must decide if they can make a difference, if the world is theirs to make or if, in the end, their fate is to simply find comfort in their mission or each other as the pieces of history fall into place around them.
"Who makes the world?" muses Dave Gibbons. "I guess it's the people in it. It's planning, because people do nothing if not plan. But, at the end of the day, I believe plain luck and happenstance are much more important factors than any of us thinks; they're woven throughout the fabric of reality. No matter how carefully you plan or however many people want something, it still doesn't mean it's going to happen. I think in the end, you have to bow to the greater power of the universe."
FROM PANELS TO FRAMES
Snyder's goal, and that of the cast and filmmaking team he built around him, was to create an experience true to the feeling of the graphic novel and unlike anything put to screen before. "There's massive spectacle in this movie," says the director. "It's that mix of hard emotional reality with Dr. Manhattan on Mars in this giant glass palace, floating above the Martian landscape, or Manhattan 200-feet-tall walking through the jungles of Vietnam. It goes back and forth between action and what that action means to the characters. We tried to push the storytelling to the very edge, and to push the look as far as we could to truly bring to life the experience of the graphic novel."
Using the graphic novel and the screenplay as a starting point, Snyder storyboarded the entire film to lay out his vision for all involved in what would no doubt be an epic undertaking.
Production designer Alex McDowell remembers, "Zack opened his books of storyboards and that in itself was revelatory. Then, on the opposite page, he had picture references and extensions of the ideas contained inside the boards. So, we had two incredible volumes that we constantly referenced: the graphic novel and Zack's bible."
But where the visual landscape of "300" was created almost entirely on a computer, for this film Snyder wanted to set his characters on solid ground. "With 'Watchmen,' the sets are so intimate," he notes. "As we started to build New York City, we realized these characters are going to be walking down these streets. You might as well build the whole thing. So, we ended up having something like 200 sets in the movie."
But the film also encompasses less earthly vistas. "'Watchmen' is this gritty, real story, but yet a quarter of the film takes place on Mars," Snyder continues. "And other scenes take place in Antarctica, at a retreat built by a millionaire ex-superhero. So there are operatic aspects to it as well. I'm naturally interested in those big thematic visions of reality. That's not to say Rorschach doesn't walk down a seedy 42nd Street world, but at the same time, there is this giant glass palace that's built on Mars. There are flying machines, huge blimps hanging over the New York skyline, and other things that we were able to layer in. I think that that's part of the strength of this visual approach."
One set among the many created for the film would be entirely digital: Dr. Manhattan's Glass Palace on Mars. "The design is a combination of quantum physics and a clock," comments McDowell. "There are layers and layers of references to clocks and watches in 'Watchmen'-the ticking clock of the nuclear countdown, the watch Osterman wears and then leaves behind, setting off the chain of events that leads to the creation of Dr. Manhattan. So, there's some idea that the Glass Palace is an elaborate clock mechanism that he creates in reference to his father."
With so many sets, including an entire city, needing to be constructed, the next step, says executive producer Herb Gains, was "to figure out where we could shoot this movie. As Zack continued to draw the boards and I started seeing more and more of his vision, I realized that even under the best of circumstances any single location was going to fall short of what he required. It became obvious that we had to control our own destiny, to build everything and create the environments with very little location work, which is essentially what we did."
McDowell created a large schematic that incorporated images from the graphic novel, set designs, and other references to keep track of the multiple sets and characters and the timelines that define them. This schematic became a valuable tool for every member of the crew. "As we developed the language of the production, we used this as a way of feeding all the necessary beats back to all the departments, from set dressing, construction and costumes to the actors," he explains. "It was really a vital part of how we planned the film."
BUILDING THE WORLD OF "WATCHMEN"
Filming was accomplished at several locations around Vancouver, Canada, and a number of sets were constructed on four stages at CMPP Studios (Canadian Motion Picture Park). In addition, a new backlot was built from the ground up on what once was a vast lumber yard on the outskirts of town. There, McDowell and his team built from scratch the New York City that Watchmen fans will recognize-from the Gunga Diner to Rorschach's alley to The Comedian's high-rise apartment.
"In 'Watchmen,' there are many subplots and threads layered within the imagery," observes McDowell. "It's very, very dense. As a production designer, one of the tasks is to set up an environment that the audience can enter and become completely immersed in, and then your work becomes part of the storytelling process."
Production utilized mostly local crew, under department heads from both sides of the border. Everyone was provided with a binder of source materials that included extensive clippings and interviews with the creators, and the graphic novel itself, which was referenced daily. "Putting together a crew is just as important as casting the picture," says Gains. "We often had activity on four stages every day for weeks, different units shooting and Zack going back and forth. It wasn't just a job; there was passion. We all knew we were working on something magical."
Under McDowell's direction, the crew compressed the entire city as represented in the graphic novel into three intersecting streets. The relatively upscale Brownstone Street incorporated Dan Dreiberg's apartment and also that of the first Nite Owl, Hollis Mason, while Blake Street housed The Comedian's high-rise apartment building.
Blake Street was eventually converted to Riot Street, where the Owl Ship lands during a scene depicting the Keene Riots. The central hub street, intersecting both Riot and Brownstone and representing the seedier part of town, was called Porno Street. An off-shoot, called Fight Alley, became the site of a major fight sequence between Dan and Laurie and the Knot Top gang.
Also built at an intersection on the backlot was the Newsstand, a key element from the graphic novel containing the overlapping stories presented in the Tales of the Black Freighter novel-within-a-novel chapters. Snyder shot those sequences specifically for a planned feature on the future DVD.
"One of the things that was great about working with Zack," says McDowell, "is that he was as fanatically interested in finding the Easter eggs in the graphic novel and pulling them into the film. On some films, you make a decision that you've gone deep enough; let's just shoot the thing. But Zack shares my same obsessive interest in the fine detail, so it was great fun to do."
In the middle of the New York environments, McDowell's team situated the Saigon bar, where Edward Blake has a run-in with a former Vietnamese mistress, with a full exterior and an interior shooting space with a depth of 40 feet. "We created a little piece of Vietnam right in the middle, with Brownstone Street on one side and decrepit New York on the other side," McDowell notes.
One of the production designer's favorite sets to create was President Nixon's bunker at NORAD, which was inspired in part by the War Room in Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove." A member of the crew added an extra layer of serendipity to the sequences shot on this set. Director of photography Larry Fong remembers discussing how the moving, changing maps in the War Room might have been done. "My hunch was projection, others thought it was painted graphics with light bulbs, and then the gaffer said, 'Oh, I know how they did that. That was rear projection.' I had to ask him: 'How do you know that?' And he answered, 'Because I was there. I was doing the rear projection.' It was crazy. What were the chances? There was a lot of experience on this crew."
Production also took over Vancouver's former Riverview Hospital, and remade it into the Gila Flats nuclear testing facility where Jon Osterman becomes Dr. Manhattan.
On soundstages at CMPP, McDowell's team built the production's largest set, Adrian Veidt's Antarctic retreat, Karnak, where the film's climax unfolds. They also created Veidt's palatial office at Veidt Enterprises in the form of a multi-purpose set that could be his interior office if shot from one angle, and his exterior office if shot from another.
Also built on these stages were the interiors for The Comedian's and Dan Dreiberg's apartments. The Comedian's apartment was comprised of three sets: the living room set, where Blake fights off his assassin; a tall platform set with a trick window for visual effects elements; and a bedroom set, with his closet and the secret compartment where he hides his Comedian memorabilia. Additionally, CMPP held the green screen stages for the film's visual effects sequences.
Veidt inhabits an environment of extravagant materials, in a palette of royal purple and gold, surrounded by priceless artifacts collected from his travels. "With the set design, we wanted to show what Veidt Enterprises is doing in terms of its connection to airlines, toys, and other endeavors," says McDowell. "Around his office, you can see the Mask action figures, so he is profiting from his friends. We also wanted to infuse the backgrounds with imagery surrounding the Nostalgia perfume that Veidt created. It became one of the ways of insinuating how pervasive his empire is in the culture of 1985."
"The guys were so good, it got to the point where I just expected a Veidt aspirin bottle to show up, or a pair of Veidt shoes," Snyder says with a laugh. McDowell confirms that "the shoes did, in fact, appear."
A soundstage at CMPP also housed the old subway tunnel, which Dan Dreiberg converts into the Owl Chamber. "Dan's brownstone leads through a secret passageway down into an old, abandoned subway station. We created three sets: the exterior of the apartment, built on the backlot, and, on the stage, the interior of Dan's home and the Owl Chamber, which houses the Owl Ship," explains McDowell.
Nite Owl's Owl Ship, Archimedes ("Archie")-an engineering marvel that Dan created and once used to combat crime-is one of the indelible elements of Watchmen. McDowell brought together a team of artisans, starting with sculptor and boat builder Jack Gavreau, to bring Archie to life down to the hull scrapes and turbine exhaust ports. "Everyone, from sculptors and painters to set dressing and props, worked in this tiny little space," McDowell recalls. "But it proved to be one of the most satisfying sets in the movie for us. The idea with the Owl Ship is that form follows function, and everything is there because it has a purpose. In the Owl Chamber, we also incorporated dents and damage where we assumed he crashed while flight testing. It was very important for the audience to believe that this was a real craft, so it's covered in scratches and scrapes."
The other multi-purpose location taken over by production was an old paper mill called Domtar, which was large enough to contain Dr. Manhattan's government lab and apartment. "We built Manhattan's apartment based on the idea that Manhattan lives in the middle of this industrial space," McDowell describes. "But we imagined that the government officials had hired the best decorators to design an elaborate living space within the lab, befitting the most important man in the world."
At the height of shooting, Dave Gibbons visited the set, an experience he found overwhelming. "I was just bowled over by the level of attention to detail," he attests. "Careful thought had been given to every little corner, even things I had stuck in the artwork that I hadn't given a second thought to. When you draw something from your imagination, you have this misty impression of a picture that you then try to interpret. This was like seeing that misty picture crystallized into reality."
Gibbons, who had previously only seen his Owl Ship on paper, had the rare experience of physically exploring his creation. "I looked at the model of the full-size Owl Ship, knocked on it, stood inside it, moved some of the controls," he marvels. "It was so fantastic for somebody who lives in their imagination a lot of the time to see these things actually become solid in the real world. It was one of the most exciting experiences I've had connected with comics."
Snyder admits he was as nervous as everyone else about Gibbons's visit to the set. "When Dave arrived, we were all a little bit afraid, but excited at the same time. We loved the book, we loved the images; we cared to make them come to life as much as we could, and to make it respectful. You can show a set to a fan who says, 'The Owl Ship looks awesome,' but it's another thing entirely when the creator sees it and says, 'Wow, you guys loved that, didn't you?' That was what we wanted. It was pretty cool."
The cast was equally inspired by the world within a world they inhabited for a few months over a Vancouver winter. Jeffrey Dean Morgan asserts, "The details of it were just astonishing in their quality, right down to the smallest detail. I've never been a part of anything like this in my life. Every day I came onto the set and I was blown away by the scale of it, the work that so many people put into this thing. The novel literally came to life."
One of the most subversive elements of the novel, which McDowell sought to incorporate into the film, was "the twisting of the conventional primary palette of comic books into the secondary colors. It immediately made the Watchmen series into an incredibly striking package. People had not seen those colors in this medium before. Watchmen had fantastic graphic decisions throughout, from the smiley face cover onward, so that was key for us."
What would not work on film were the clean lines of a graphic novel. "To embed these characters in the real world, clean lines don't translate," the production designer says. "But we found that if we took a grittier, more textured style, then added the strong secondary palette of the graphic novel to it, it became a way to find a common language of stylization."
FABRICATING THE MASKS
The use of the graphic novel's color palette extended to costume design as well. "We wanted to be very respectful to the source material, so that affected a lot of our color choices," notes costume designer Michael Wilkinson. "We used a lot of greens, purples, oranges and browns...the murky secondary colors that darken as the story progresses."
With the novel spanning several decades-from 1938 to 1985-and with much cutting back and forth between eras, it was essential to choose clothing that was appropriate for each period to make it clear where in the timeline a scene is taking place. The design team settled on "archetypal pieces that really summed up each decade and gave a sense of period authenticity to the movie," says Wilkinson. While that sounds straightforward, the task was anything but, especially considering there were, at times, more than 300 extras in a scene. "There is a myriad of uniforms in the film-everything from World War II soldiers and sailors, to 1938 NYPD, to Vietnam War uniforms from both sides-and each one had to be meticulously well-researched. Adding to that, we had diner waitresses, prison cooks, security guards, flower children protesting in the 1960s, Soviet soldiers, astronauts and much more. I estimate there must have been about 150,000 pieces in our costume stock. We had a 600-page manifest, down to every last earring, and that's a lot to wrap your brain around."
The costumes for the key cast, like their environments, would need to be intimately designed, particularly their crime-fighting outfits. Wilkinson worked with the specialty costume company Quantum FX to create full body casts of all the major characters, upon which they then sculpted the details of each costume in clay. "We could then take those molds and render them in foam latex so you get a stylized physique-wrinkle-free and with beautiful, sculpted details, while being flexible and breathable for the actors," he says.
For Dreiberg's Owl costume, Wilkinson and his team researched 1970s aerospace technology to mimic Dan's knowledge of birds and aerodynamics. "We looked at interesting NASA-style technology, things like exposed zippers, and air vents that might help him move through the air in a smoother way," the costume designer offers. "At the same time, Zack wanted Nite Owl to be a little fear-inspiring; it's important that putting on his costume has a very empowering quality. It helps Dan access a side of his personality that's different from his very shy, retiring daytime character."
The juxtaposition of daytime personality against the masked vigilante is also quite dynamic in the character of Silk Spectre. Sally Jupiter had created a sexy costume for her teenage daughter, a yellow and black mini-dress only marginally more modest than Sally's costume had been. Wilkinson updated Laurie's costume to be a form-fitting latex suit. "We wanted to keep the spirit of the graphic novel intact; Silk Spectre is in the same colors and has the same graphic silhouette as her costume in the book," Wilkinson explains. "But we rendered it in latex because we liked the idea of that extreme, hyper-sexualized version of her character. It juxtaposes so beautifully with Laurie's day-to-day look, which is very stitched together, tailored and precise, wanting to be taken seriously. We enjoyed exploring the two different sides of her personality."
In contrast to the characteristically extreme costumes of the majority of the Masks is the almost non-descript costume of Rorschach: a simple trench coat. "When you read about the character in the graphic novel, he has a very bleak outlook on life," Wilkinson observes. "He's very misanthropic. He just wants to bring a little bit of justice in the world. In terms of his costume, there is the sense that he gave up caring about his appearance a long time ago. He just wears this outfit, not to make a particular impression, just because it's what he wears. He keeps it in a dumpster. It has years of layers of grime and other encrusted crud on it. The whole litany of his past can be read through his trench coat."
TRANSFORMING THE MASKS
Nevertheless, Rorschach has one of the most striking attributes of all the costumed superheroes: his mask of shifting inkblots. "The evolution of Rorschach's mask was a long and complex one," remarks Wilkinson. "We developed a printing process onto a fantastic four-way Lycra that enabled us to create a rough, canvas-like texture but also had a stretchy quality, so we could achieve that smooth, egg-like silhouette. And then the digital effects team created these beautiful moving inkblots on top of the fabric. It was a great collaboration between costumes and visual effects."
In order to complete the effect of the perpetually morphing inkblot mask-which Rorschach calls his "face"-the lycra was embedded with motion capture markers. "It was covered in tracking dots, except for my eyes," describes Haley, who dubbed his mask "the sock." "Even though Rorschach's eyes aren't visible under the mask, I was able to see what I was doing. So, the material and the blots move; it's just absolutely awesome."
"It was fascinating how Jackie was able to communicate so much emotion through this medium," comments Deborah Snyder. "The patterns were designed as a reflection of his performance, and it was amazing how much complexity Jackie brought to Rorschach through his voice and body...how the mask became part of him."
The visual effects team, under the supervision of John "DJ" DesJardin, animated the transitions between the inkblot patterns at different speeds, according to what Snyder wanted for the given scene. "We tried to model his expressions after the ones Dave Gibbons drew for the graphic novel," DesJardin reveals. "The inkblots are not just black and white; the edges are grey and animated in a way that makes it look like the ink is coming out of the cloth and sinking back in again."
Snyder and DesJardin engendered a natural collaboration in ensuring the tone of the visual effects would align with the vision the director was creating on the live sets. "The visual effects are a partner in the movie," says Snyder. "Whether it was extending practical sets or inserting floating blimps in the skyline, or rendering Rorschach's mask or Dr. Manhattan's body-those are all things that have to go into the pipeline. And DJ did an amazing job of keeping this massive endeavor down to a very personal, shot-byshot approach to the movie."
Beyond visual effects, the embodiment of Dr. Manhattan hinged primarily on the actor playing him. "Dr. Manhattan was the biggest challenge for us," says Deborah Snyder, "because we had to figure out how to create this god on earth that glows blue light, who can be 100-feet-tall, then shrink down to human size. At the same time, there was a real person playing Dr. Manhattan, through the medium of performance capture. It takes a really disciplined actor to pull that off, and Billy did such a great job."
Billy Crudup's performance would provide both the physical and the emotional anchor for the superbeing. Notes Levin, "Manhattan is an amazing, fascinating character, yet I never made the kind of emotional connection to the character in the book as I did watching Billy play him. It was deeply moving. There are so many moments in the film where the material coupled with the cast's performances resulted in the kind of alchemy that only great actors are able to conjure when bringing a character to life."
In addition to his physical embodiment, Manhattan has an effect on the environment around him: a blue glow that emanates from his body. "When I read the graphic novel, Manhattan was the only element that made me think, 'How do we do this?'" recalls cinematographer Larry Fong.
Together, DesJardin and Fong found a creative solution. "We ultimately made a suit that had all the tracking markers we needed for motion capture but also thousands of LEDs that put out this nice, diffuse, blue light," DesJardin explains. "Zack's idea was that when Jon Osterman pulled himself back together, he made this ideal male form for him to embody. So, while keeping Billy's face and remaining accurate to his performance, we created a CG character with a powerful, ultra-ripped, perfected body."
Other cast members, however, could not rely on digital effects to alter their physical appearance or to prepare them for the intense action sequences in the film. Instead, they each undertook an individualized training program under the guidance of veteran stunt coordinator Damon Caro and his team.
"We looked at the characters specifically to determine what would be needed for each of their fight scenes, and all of the actors brought so much energy and enthusiasm to the table" says Caro, who had also worked with Snyder on "300."
Malin Akerman had never done any kind of fight work so, Caro relates, "We pieced together a series of drills for her and she was so game to learn everything." The actress also worked closely with her stunt double, Bridgett Riley, whose background is in women's kickboxing and boxing.
"Bridgett trained me so hard, but I loved it," Akerman states, admitting, "After the first week of training, I was thinking, 'What did I get myself into?' But then it got easier and it was such an amazing experience to learn the fight choreography. It brought out a whole different side of me that I didn't know was there," she smiles, "and definitely helped me get more into the character."
For Rorschach, whose stature belies his strength, Caro offers, "Going in we figured that since Rorschach wears a mask, it would be easiest just to double him. But it turned out that Jackie was so psyched to do it. I looked at his movement and martial arts ability, and it was awesome. We ended up using him a lot."
Haley adds, "I've been working out for a long time, doing different things to stay in shape. When I got this part, I started a new regimen to increase muscle mass and I also started to look at the proper way to eat. It was all about core training, and I started getting results that were off the hook."
Unlike his partner, Patrick Wilson, as Dan Dreiberg, aka Night Owl II, had to appear alternately mild-mannered and threatening. The actor actually put on a fair amount of weight to reflect the contradiction between his alter egos. "I was in a different place from the other guys because I needed to be in shape to do all this fighting, but I had to gain 25 pounds or so to do the role; there was always an issue of Dan's weight. I'm a runner but I had to stop doing any sort of cardio. Instead I did weights and more strength training because I needed Dan to be big but a little soft."
Executive producer Herb Gains remarks, "We put the actors through physical training; aging makeup; wigs; prosthetics; bulky, uncomfortable suits... Everybody had a tremendous amount of pressure put on them and everybody delivered."
Apart from the cast, the combination of intense action sequences and digital effects, done in such a stylized way, put specific demands on Larry Fong and editor William Hoy. "I tried to get my cues from how Zack wanted to apply his visual style to the film, from the complicated title sequence onward," says Fong. "The shots he wanted were very precisely designed; they're very specific, if you look at the storyboards."
"The whole idea of symmetry plays a big role in the graphic novel, and Zack took that approach in composing shots," comments Deborah Snyder. "The best way to do that was with a single camera. There's not a lot of SteadiCam. The action plays out within the shots almost like the frames of a comic panel. It was something we all gave a lot of thought to and worked closely together to achieve."
Every shot was highly controlled. "There were certain iconic frames that we wanted to stay true to that relate back to the graphic novel," says Hoy. "These are the images you want to just burn into the viewer's mind, but not to encroach on what's happening emotionally among the characters."
In addition to the characters who are so well known to Watchmen aficionados, the film has glimpses of some famous people of the day. A team of special make-up designers, led by Greg Cannom, created facial prosthetics to bring to life the many historical and celebrity figures that were integral to their respective eras, including Presidents Kennedy and Nixon, and younger versions of Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Annie Leibowitz, and The Village People.
Music also plays a major role in establishing the timeline of the story. Snyder affirms, "Music is really important to me because not only does it set us in a place in time, it has the ability to evoke a flood of images and emotions."
"Watchmen" features a collection of classic songs from such legendary artists as Nat "King" Cole, Billie Holiday, Simon & Garfunkel, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. In addition, the group My Chemical Romance performs a reinterpretation of the Bob Dylan song "Desolation Row." The film's musical score is by composer Tyler Bates.
Snyder asserts, "It's a history with similarities to the one we all know. The big events-the sounds and sights-are largely the same. It's the details that are different."
"All of the different elements of the film made it hugely complex logistically and a colossal endeavor overall. I have to commend Zack, who took the whole thing on his shoulders and never seemed to break a sweat," says producer Lloyd Levin. "He knows how important Watchmen is to so many people. But he embraced it fully and completely, without any fear."
Producer Lawrence Gordon agrees, adding, "Perhaps equally as impressive as his exciting vision for the movie was Zack's ability to remain a nice guy throughout the making of it. And now that the film is finished, I can say it was well worth the wait."
Deborah Snyder states that everyone involved brought unparalleled passion and commitment to their work in bringing Watchmen to the screen. "Watchmen is not only significant to the comic book community; it has so much significance as a piece of literature. Our hope is that whoever sees the film discovers or rediscovers the graphic novel because there's so much more than we can possibly get on the screen."
Zack Snyder reflects, "Watchmen is such a milestone; it was a privilege to direct this film. Deborah and I had so much fun working alongside everyone involved to finally make it happen. For me, the 'why' of this movie is all the small moral questions that lead to a giant moral question, and that question has no real answer. The end of the movie is meant to spark debate. I hope people come out of it thinking about which side of the question they might fall on. The graphic novel makes you question who is a good guy and who is a bad guy, and I hope the movie does the same thing.
"What is it that someone does that makes him a hero, even in real world terms? Those questions aren't always as cut and dried, or as easy, as they are in movies. I think in the end 'Watchmen' wants to make that really difficult for you. And I think that's how it should be."
# # #

ABOUT THE CAST

MALIN AKERMAN (Laurie Jupiter/Silk Spectre II) is fast becoming one of the industry's busiest young actresses. Last year, she starred in the hit romantic comedy "27 Dresses," with Katherine Heigl, James Marsden and Edward Burns, under the direction of Anne Fletcher. Akerman recently reunited with Fletcher to star with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in the upcoming romantic comedy "The Proposal," due out this summer. Also in 2009, she will star in the Peter Billingsley-directed comedy "Couples Retreat," with Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman and Jon Favreau.
In 2007, Akerman starred with Ben Stiller in the romantic comedy "The Heartbreak Kid," directed by the Farrelly brothers. Her other film credits include the independent releases "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" and "The Brothers Solomon."
Born in Stockholm, Sweden, Akerman moved to Toronto with her family at the age of two and spent her youth in both Canada and Sweden. At age five, she began modeling and acting in television commercials. When she was 17, she won the "Ford Supermodel of Canada" search and began spending her summers modeling in Europe. While enjoying success as a model, Akerman ultimately decided to attend college and to focus on her acting.
Soon after, she moved to Los Angeles and began landing roles in independent films, as well as guest roles on television series. Her breakthrough came in 2005 on the HBO series "The Comeback," starring Lisa Kudrow. Akerman gained attention of both critics and audiences for her work in the series regular role of Juno Millken on the show. In addition, she recently had a memorable recurring role on the third season of the hit HBO series "Entourage."
BILLY CRUDUP (Jon Osterman/Dr. Manhattan) has tackled a diverse mix of roles on both the stage and screen. He most recently starred in the independent films "Pretty Bird," which screened at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and "Dedication," opposite Mandy Moore. In 2006, he was seen in Robert De Niro's drama "The Good Shepherd," with Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, and in J.J. Abrams' "Mission: Impossible III," starring Tom Cruise. He next portrays J. Edgar Hoover in the 1930s-set crime drama "Public Enemies," directed by Michael Mann.
Crudup made his motion picture debut in Barry Levinson's 1996 drama "Sleepers," with Robert De Niro, Kevin Bacon and Brad Pitt. He was then featured in Woody Allen's "Everyone Says I Love You" and starred in Pat O'Connor's "Inventing the Abbotts." In 1998, Crudup garnered praise for his portrayal of runner Steve Prefontaine in the biopic "Without Limits" and for his performance in Stephen Frears' drama "The Hi-Lo Country," winning a National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance of the Year for the latter. He went on to star in the acclaimed independent film "Jesus' Son," for which he won the Best Actor Award at the Paris Film Festival and earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination.
In 2000, Crudup starred in Keith Gordon's "Waking the Dead," and in Cameron Crowe's award-winning, semi-autobiographical film "Almost Famous," with Kate Hudson and Frances McDormand. His additional film credits include Bart Freundlich's "World Traveler" and "Trust the Man," both with Julianne Moore; Gillian Armstrong's "Charlotte Gray," opposite Cate Blanchett; Tim Burton's fantasy drama "Big Fish"; and Richard Eyre's "Stage Beauty."
An accomplished stage actor, Crudup won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role in the 2006 Broadway production of "The Coast of Utopia." He has also been honored with two Tony Award nominations in the category of Best Leading Actor in a Play, the first for his performance in the 2002 revival of "The Elephant Man," and another for his role in the 2005 production of Martin McDonagh's "The Pillowman."
He made his Broadway bow in 1995 in Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia," directed by Trevor Nunn, for which Crudup won an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Theatre World Award and a Clarence Derwent Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut. Crudup has also appeared on Broadway in William Inge's "Bus Stop," and Chekhov's "Three Sisters," for which he earned a Drama Desk Award nomination. His stage work also includes the 2001 New York Shakespeare Festival production of "Measure for Measure," and recent off-Broadway presentations of "Oedipus," with Frances McDormand, and "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui," with Al Pacino.
Crudup graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and holds a Masters of Fine Arts from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
MATTHEW GOODE (Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias) follows "Watchmen" with a starring role in Tom Ford's feature film directorial debut, "A Single Man," based on the Christopher Isherwood novel. Last year, he starred as Charles Ryder in the 2008 feature film adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's classic novel "Brideshead Revisited," directed by Julian Jarrold.
Goode's other recent film credits include Scott Frank's crime drama "The Lookout," with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels and Isla Fisher. He also starred in Woody Allen's widely acclaimed crime drama "Match Point," with Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer and Brian Cox.
In 2003, Goode made his feature film debut in as the celebrated Spanish-speaking British writer Gerald Brenan in the biopic "South from Granada," directed by Fernando Colomo. Among his additional film credits are "Copying Beethoven," for director Agnieszka Holland; writer/director Ol Parker's "Imagine Me & You"; and the romantic comedy "Chasing Liberty," opposite Mandy Moore.
On television, Goode starred alongside Imelda Staunton in the BBC telefilm "My Family and Other Animals,' which aired in the U.S. as part of PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre." His credits also include the English crime drama "Marple: A Murder is Announced," the BBC miniseries "He Knew He Was Right," and the ABC telefilm "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister," with Stockard Channing.
Raised in the city of Exeter, England, Goode studied drama at the University of Birmingham and, later, classical theater and stage acting at London's Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts. His stage credits include the roles of Ariel in Shakespeare's "The Tempest," and La Luna (The Moon) in Lorca's "Blood Wedding," with the Mercury Theatre Company.
CARLA GUGINO (Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre), a favorite of film and television audiences, next stars in Andy Fickman's family adventure "Race to Witch Mountain," opposite Dwayne Johnson. The follow-up to the classic "Escape to Witch Mountain," the film is set to open on March 13. Her upcoming films also include the indie features "Every Day," and "Electra Luxx," in which she plays the title role.
Last year, Gugino shared in a Screen Actors Guild Award® nomination as a member of the cast of Ridley Scott's acclaimed 2007 drama "American Gangster," with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. In 2006, she starred in the smash hit comedy "Night at the Museum," opposite Ben Stiller. Her recent film credits also include Jon Avnet's "Righteous Kill," starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, and Scott Frank's "The Lookout." In addition, she starred opposite Antonio Banderas in the hugely successful "Spy Kids" film trilogy, all written and directed by Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez also directed Gugino in the action thriller "Sin City."
For television, Gugino recently had a recurring role on the hit HBO series "Entourage," playing uber-agent Amanda, who proves a formidable nemesis to Jeremy Piven's character, Ari Gold. Among her earlier television credits are regular roles on the sci-fi series "Threshold"; "Karen Sisco," as the title character; the hospital drama "Chicago Hope"; and the sitcom "Spin City," opposite Michael J. Fox.
On the stage, Gugino is currently starring in the role of the alluring and headstrong Abbie in the Eugene O'Neil play "Desire Under the Elms," which runs from January 17 to February 22 at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. She made her Broadway debut as Maggie in the 2004 revival of Arthur Miller's "After the Fall," earning an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination and a Theatre World Award for her performance. In 2006, she starred in the off-Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' "Suddenly Last Summer," opposite Blythe Danner.
Gugino began her career while still in her teens, making her feature film debut in the comedy "Troop Beverly Hills." She went on to appear in such films as "Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael"; the drama "This Boy's Life," with Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio; and the comedy "Son in Law." Her additional film credits include "Miami Rhapsody," with Sarah Jessica Parker; Nora Ephron's "Michael," starring John Travolta; "Snake Eyes," opposite Nicolas Cage under the direction of Brian De Palma; and "The Singing Detective," with Robert Downey Jr.
JACKIE EARLE HALEY (Walter Kovacs/Rorschach) has the rare distinction of being a successful child actor who, after virtually disappearing from Hollywood for 15 years, made an almost unprecedented comeback in back-to-back feature films: Steven Zaillian's "All the King's Men" and Todd Field's controversial drama "Little Children." Haley's courageous performance in the latter brought him numerous accolades, including an Academy Award® nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He was also honored with a Screen Actors Guild Award® nomination and won Best Supporting Actor awards from several critics groups, including the New York Film Critics Circle and the Chicago Film Critics Association.
He more recently appeared in the Will Ferrell basketball comedy "Semi-Pro." This fall, Haley will be seen in the thriller "Shutter Island," in which he co-stars with Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Kingsley under the direction of Martin Scorsese.
Haley first came to fame in the mid-1970s with his scene-stealing performance as Kelly Leak, the cigarette-smoking, motorcycle-riding hellion, in Michael Ritchie's comedy hit "The Bad News Bears," reprising his role in two sequels. Haley again won praise from critics and audiences for his role as the romantic but short-tempered Moocher in Peter Yates' Oscar®-winning 1979 sleeper hit "Breaking Away." In 1983, Haley played the sex-obsessed Dave in Curtis Hanson's "Losin' It," with Tom Cruise. That same year, he made his Broadway debut, starring in John Byrne's play "Slab Boys," with Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon, and Val Kilmer.
Despite his early prominence, however, Haley found it difficult to successfully transition to more adult roles and turned his focus to directing. After years of struggling to make ends meet, he began directing industrial videos, which eventually led to commercial directing.
He had been off the screen for more than a decade when, in October of 2004, Steven Zaillian tracked Haley down-on his honeymoon in France-and asked him to audition for the role of Sugar Boy in "All the King's Men." Haley sent in a tape and won the part. Following that film, he landed the role of Ronnie McGorvey in Todd Field's "Little Children," resulting in his first Oscar® nomination and what has been the resurgence of his acting career.
Today, Haley divides his time between acting and directing.
JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN (Edward Blake/The Comedian) has, in just the past few years, emerged as one of the industry's most sought-after leading men. "Watchmen" is only the first of four very different motion pictures in which the busy actor stars this year. He next plays a detective who becomes emotionally involved in the case of a missing woman in the murder mystery drama "All Good Things," directed by Andrew Jarecki and also starring Kirsten Dunst, Ryan Gosling and Frank Langella. In August, Morgan stars opposite Emile Hirsch in "Taking Woodstock," a story surrounding the seminal 1969 music festival, directed by Ang Lee. The following month, he stars in the World War II period drama "Shanghai," with John Cusack and Ken Watanabe under the direction of Mikael Hafstrom.
Morgan is about to start work on the suspense thriller "The Resident," in which he stars as a seemingly charming landlord who develops a dangerous obsession with his newest tenant, played by Hilary Swank.
The new film reunites Morgan with Swank, with whom he worked when he played her prospective love interest in the romantic drama "P.S. I Love You," under the direction of Richard LaGravenese. His film credits also include a cameo role in the holiday comedy "Fred Claus," and the independent comedy "Kabluey," with Lisa Kudrow.
Morgan first gained the attention of television audiences with a recurring role in ABC's smash hit series "Grey's Anatomy." His dramatic arc as heart patient Denny Duquette, who wins the heart of Katherine Heigl's Izzie Stevens in a star-crossed romance, made him a universal fan favorite. In addition, he has also had recurring roles on the hit CW series "Supernatural" and on the award-winning Showtime series "Weeds."
PATRICK WILSON (Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II) is an award-winning theatre actor who has also become well-known for his work on the screen. He next stars in the title role of the independent comedy "Barry Munday," due out later this year. In 2008, Wilson starred in three very different films: Neil LaBute's thriller "Lakeview Terrace," with Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington; the mystery drama "Passengers," opposite Anne Hathaway; and the independent film "Life in Flight," which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Wilson previously received praise for his work in the critically acclaimed drama "Little Children," in which he starred with Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley under the direction of Todd Field. His motion picture work also includes the indie films "Evening," with Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Claire Danes and Vanessa Redgrave; "Purple Violets," directed by Edward Burns; "Running with Scissors"; and "Hard Candy," opposite Ellen Page. He also starred as Raoul in Joel Schumacher's big-screen adaptation of "The Phantom of the Opera," showcasing his musical talents.
On the small screen, Wilson received Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations for his portrayal of the morally conflicted Joe Pitt in the HBO miniseries "Angels in America," the much-honored 2003 adaptation of Tony Kushner's award-winning plays "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches" and "Angels in America: Perestroika."
Wilson has been honored with two consecutive Tony Award nominations for Best Actor in a Musical, the most recent coming for his performance as Curly in the successful 2002 Broadway revival of "Oklahoma!," for which he also received a Drama Desk Award nomination. He earned his first Tony nomination for his work in the 2001 Broadway hit "The Full Monty," for which he also garnered Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations and won a Drama League Award.
In 2006, Wilson returned to Broadway to star in the revival of the Neil Simon comedy "Barefoot in the Park," opposite Amanda Peet. He most recently starred in the 2008/09 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons," with John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest and Katie Holmes.
Born in Virginia and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, Wilson earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Starting his career on the stage, he earned applause in the national tours of "Miss Saigon" and "Carousel." In 1999, he starred off-Broadway in "Bright Lights, Big City," winning a Drama League Award and receiving a Drama Desk Award nomination. That same year, he made his Broadway debut in "Gershwin's Fascinating Rhythm," for which he won another Drama League Award.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
ZACK SNYDER (Director) is the acclaimed director and co-writer of the blockbuster action drama "300." The film, based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller and starring Gerard Butler and Lena Headey, was a worldwide hit in 2007, and earned Snyder praise for his groundbreaking blend of live action and computer-generated imagery.
Together with his wife and producing partner, Deborah Snyder, Zack Snyder formed Cruel and Unusual Films, of which he is co-president. The production company recently signed a two-year overall production deal with Warner Bros. Pictures. In addition to the upcoming adaptation of "Watchmen," Cruel and Unusual Films' projects include the drama "The Last Photograph," to be directed by Sergei Bodro; the fantasy-adventure "Sucker Punch," co-written by Snyder; and the animated film "The Guardians of Ga'Hoole." The company is also developing a feature film adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic "The Illustrated Man," which Snyder will direct, and also produce alongside Denise Di Novi, Deborah Snyder and Frank Darabont in collaboration with Di Novi Pictures. Other films in development to be produced by Cruel and Unusual Films include the zombie film "Army of the Dead" and the apocalyptic thriller "Cobalt 60." Continuing his dedication to groundbreaking film, Snyder provided the original stories for "Sucker Punch," "Army of the Dead" and "The Last Photograph."
Zack Snyder made his feature film directorial debut with the 2004 horror thriller "Dawn of the Dead," which topped the box office its opening weekend in 2004. The film brought Snyder widespread acclaim from critics and audiences, who praised his inspired re-imagining of George Romero's cult classic. "Dawn of the Dead" was also nominated for the prestigious Camera d'Or Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.
Snyder's feature film success follows years as an award-winning and respected director in the commercial and music video arenas. His commercials have garnered numerous awards, including two Clios, as well as a Gold Lion Award at Cannes for his Jeep "Frisbee" spot. Britain's Communication Arts Magazine featured Snyder as one of the most talented commercial directors in that country, and the London advertising community presented him with an award for his impressive body of work.
Snyder attributes his distinctive style, in part, to his early artistic training in London, where he studied painting at the Heatherleys School. He later refined his artistic sensibilities at the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, where he developed the bold, cinematic style of filmmaking for which he is known today.
LAWRENCE GORDON (Producer) has been one of the entertainment industry's most prolific and successful producers in a career spanning four decades. He has been behind such timeless films as the drama "Field of Dreams," for which Gordon received a Best Picture Oscar® nomination; the landmark action film "Die Hard"; and the ultimate buddy picture "48 Hrs.," starring Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy. Gordon more recently produced "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," the sequel to the earlier hit "Hellboy," reuniting the original cast under the direction of Guillermo del Toro.
Born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, Gordon graduated from Tulane University with a degree in business administration. Moving to Los Angeles in the early 1960s, he went to work as executive assistant to Aaron Spelling at Four Star Television and soon became a writer and associate producer of many Spelling shows. He followed with a stint as head of West Coast talent development for ABC Television and later as an executive with Bob Banner Associates. In 1968, he joined Sam Arkoff and Jim Nicholson at American International Pictures (AIP) as story editor, and rose to vice president in charge of development. He then segued to vice president at Screen Gems, the television division of Columbia Pictures, where he helped put together the classic television movie "Brian's Song," as well as the first "novel for television," the adaptation of Leon Uris' QB VII.
Accepting an offer to become the first executive in the company's history to head worldwide production, Gordon returned to AIP. His many projects included "Coffy," "Foxy Brown," "Hell's Angels '69," "Wild in the Streets," John Milius' "Dillinger" (which Gordon also executive produced), and Ralph Bakshi's groundbreaking and controversial animated hit "Heavy Traffic," which was named one of The New York Times' top-10 films of 1973.
Gordon then formed Lawrence Gordon Productions and began a long and successful association with director Walter Hill. Among the duo's memorable titles are "Hard Times," starring Charles Bronson; "The Driver," with Ryan O'Neal and Isabelle Adjani; the cult classic "The Warriors"; "48 Hrs.," teaming Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, in his feature film debut; the rock-and-roll fable "Streets of Fire"; "Brewster's Millions," with Richard Pryor and John Candy; and "Another 48 Hrs.," which reunited the stars from the original. Gordon also produced the comedy hit "The End," starring Burt Reynolds, and collaborated with Reynolds again on the box office smash "Hooper." During this period, Gordon also produced the Paul Schrader-penned "Rolling Thunder," and the now-cult movie musical "Xanadu," starring Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly. In 1982, he reunited with his old boss Aaron Spelling to create and executive produce the ABC television series "Matt Houston."
In 1984, Gordon became president and chief operating officer of 20th Century Fox, where he oversaw such successful titles as James Cameron's "Aliens"; James L. Brooks' "Broadcast News"; "Commando," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; and "Jewel of the Nile," starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. During his tenure, the television series "The Simpsons" was created by Matt Groening and James
L. Brooks, as were shows by Stephen Bochco and David E. Kelley.
After his stint at Fox, in 1986, Gordon produced the critically acclaimed "Lucas," marking the directorial debut of David Seltzer; and "Jumpin' Jack Flash," starring Whoopi Goldberg, which was Penny Marshall's first film as a director.
During the 1980s, Gordon also produced for the stage. For Broadway, he produced the 1986 musical "Smile," with music by Tony, Grammy and Oscar® winner Marvin Hamlisch and book and lyrics by Tony and Oscar® winner Howard Ashman. OffBroadway, Gordon produced the 1982 revival of Joe Orton's "Entertaining Mr. Sloane," which won the Drama Desk Award for Best Revival of a Play.
For the screen, Gordon produced the 1987 summer action hit "Predator," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and, later, its sequel. In 1988, he produced the mega-blockbuster "Die Hard," which introduced Bruce Willis as an action hero and forever changed the action genre. The film went on to spawn three hit sequels, in addition to becoming one of cinema's most successful and imitated franchises.
The following year, Gordon produced another seminal hit, "Field of Dreams," starring Kevin Costner under the direction of Phil Alden Robinson. The beloved film earned three Oscar® nominations, including one for Best Picture, while the title itself and the famous line "If you build it..." became part of the cultural lexicon.
Gordon subsequently produced "Family Business," directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick; the comedy hit "K-9," starring James Belushi; "The Rocketeer," directed by Joe Johnston; and "Lock Up," starring Sylvester Stallone.
In 1989, Gordon formed Largo Entertainment with the backing of JVC Entertainment, Inc. of Japan, representing the first major Japanese investment in the entertainment industry. As the company's chairman and chief executive officer, Gordon was responsible for the production of such films as "Point Break," starring Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves; "Unlawful Entry," starring Kurt Russell, Ray Liotta and Madeleine Stowe; "Used People," starring Shirley MacLaine, Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates, Marcia Gay Harden and Marcello Mastroianni; and "Timecop," starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Largo also co-financed and handled the foreign distribution of the acclaimed biopic "Malcolm X," directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington in the title role.
Gordon left Largo in 1994 in favor of a long-term producing deal with Universal Pictures. There, his first production was the controversial Kevin Costner-starrer "Waterworld," which grossed $300 million worldwide. Other Lawrence Gordon Productions films include "The Devil's Own," starring Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt; the critically acclaimed "Boogie Nights," directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds, Heather Graham and Julianne Moore; and "Mystery Men," starring Ben Stiller.
In 2001, Gordon produced two pictures that opened at number one at the box office: the summer hit "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," starring Angelina Jolie, and the acclaimed "K-PAX," starring Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges. In summer 2003, "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" was released, with Jolie back as Lara Croft.
The next year, Gordon produced Guillermo del Toro's "Hellboy," based on the popular Mike Mignola comic book series and starring Ron Perlman and Selma Blair. In summer 2008, he scored an even bigger hit with its sequel, "Hellboy II: The Golden Army," reuniting the original cast and filmmakers.
Gordon is a member of the Board of Directors of the Producers Guild of America (PGA). He served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as the Board of the American Film Institute. He is a recipient of the ShoWest Lifetime Achievement Award and the PGA's prestigious David
O. Selznick Lifetime Achievement Award.
LLOYD LEVIN (Producer) most recently produced "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" with Lawrence Gordon, continuing an ongoing association with Gordon that began in the mid-1980s. Directed by Guillermo del Toro, "Hellboy II" starred Ron Perlman, Selma Blair and Doug Jones, and featured the voice of Seth MacFarlane. Levin had previously teamed with Gordon to produce the first film in the franchise, 2004's "Hellboy," based on Mike Mignola's Dark Horse comic book series.
In 2006, Levin produced the acclaimed real-life drama "United 93," directed by Paul Greengrass. The film was nominated for two Academy Award® nominations, including Best Director. "United 93" also received numerous other honors, including Best Picture awards from such top critics groups as the New York Film Critics Circle and the London Film Critics Circle. Additionally, it was nominated for six BAFTA Awards, including Best British Film, winning for Best Director and Best Editing.
Levin is continuing his collaboration with Greengrass on the director's new film "Green Zone." Based on journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran's critically acclaimed book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, the film stars Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan, Khalid Abdallah, Jason Isaacs and Brendan Gleeson.
Other upcoming films Levin is producing include the thriller "Meg," based on Steve Alten's best-selling book, and "Concrete," based on Paul Chadwick's Dark Horse graphic novels. For television, Levin, together with Andrew Cosby and Nick Nunziata, is producing the series "Runoff," based on Tom Manning's graphic novel.
Levin gained his first producing credit in 1988, as an associate producer on the blockbuster "Die Hard," which was based upon Roderick Thorp's 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever. Levin brought the book to Lawrence Gordon's attention and subsequently oversaw the film's development. He then served as associate producer on 1989's Oscar®-nominated hit "Field of Dreams," directed by Phil Alden Robinson and starring Kevin Costner, and "K-9," starring James Belushi.
In 1990, Levin was executive producer on both "Die Hard 2: Die Harder" and "Predator 2." The following year, he produced "The Rocketeer," directed by Joe Johnston and starring Bill Campbell and Jennifer Connelly.
Joining Lawrence Gordon at Largo Entertainment, Levin served as president of production. He oversaw the production of such hit movies as "Point Break," directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze; "Unlawful Entry," starring Kurt Russell and Ray Liotta; and "Timecop," starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. He also executive produced "Used People," starring Shirley MacLaine, Kathy Bates and Marcello Mastroianni.
Departing Largo, Levin continued his partnership with Gordon as a producer. In 1997, he executive produced "The Devil's Own," starring Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt, and also produced "Event Horizon," starring Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill. The next year, he produced Paul Thomas Anderson's breakthrough movie "Boogie Nights," with an ensemble cast that included Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Heather Graham and Burt Reynolds. The film earned numerous honors, including three Oscar® nominations.
In 1999, Levin produced "Mystery Men," starring Ben Stiller, William H. Macy and Geoffrey Rush, and followed it with "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," starring Angelina Jolie. Based on the popular video game, the film went on to gross more than $280 million at the worldwide box office, making it the most successful action movie starring a female lead of all time.
Levin's other film credits include "K-PAX," directed by Iain Softley and starring Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges, and "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life," with Jolie reprising the title role.
DEBORAH SNYDER (Producer) is co-president of Cruel and Unusual Films, which she formed with her husband and producing partner, Zack Snyder. The company recently signed a two-year deal with Warner Bros. Pictures. Snyder made her feature film producing debut with "300," a film based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller. The 2007 film followed the Spartan warriors' courageous stand against the Persian Army.
Directed by Zack Snyder, the blockbuster was a hit with critics and audiences, and at the worldwide box office.
In addition to the highly anticipated "Watchmen," upcoming Cruel and Unusual Films productions include the Sergei Bodro-helmed drama "The Last Photograph," the adventure-fantasy "Sucker Punch," and the animated feature "Guardians of Ga'Hoole." Cruel and Unusual Films is currently developing a number of projects, including "The Illustrated Man." The film, based on the classic story by Ray Bradbury, will be jointly produced by Zack Snyder, Denise Di Novi, Deborah Snyder and Frank Darabont, in collaboration with Di Novi Pictures. Other films in development by Cruel and Unusual Films include the zombie film "Army of the Dead" and the apocalyptic thriller "Cobalt 60."
Deborah Snyder graduated from Ithaca College in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Video & Film Production. She began her producing career in advertising as an assistant producer and video editor at Backer Spielvogel Bates. Promoted to producer in 1992, Snyder produced commercials for such clients as M&M/Mars, Miller Brewing Company, and Estée Lauder.
In 1998, Snyder took a senior producer position at Kirshenbaum Bond and Partners. Producing ads for clients including Tommy Hilfiger, Target and 1-800-Flowers, she shot all over the globe from Amsterdam, London, Zimbabwe, and New Zealand to Kansas City. Continuing her ascent through the advertising ranks, in 2000, Snyder became a vice president/executive producer at the renowned BBDO NY, where she produced spots for such clients as AOL, Visa, Gillette, Frito-Lay and Pizza Hut.
DAVID HAYTER (Screenwriter) has worked on films that have grossed more than a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. His credits as a screenwriter include such films as the blockbuster "X-Men" and its hit sequel, "X2: X-Men United," both directed by Bryan Singer; and "The Scorpion King," starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. He also wrote the television movie "Lost in Oz," on which he also served as executive producer. In addition, he produced the 1998 independent film "Burn," with Bryan Singer, in which Hayter also starred.
Born in Santa Monica, California, Hayter spent the first 18 years of his life traveling the world with his family, learning the French and Japanese languages along the way. After graduating from high school in Kobe, Japan, Hayter went on to study theatre at the prestigious Ryerson Theatre School in Toronto, Canada.
As an actor, Hayter's credits include the lead in the sci-fi film "Guyver: Dark Hero," and the voice of Captain America on the "Spiderman" animated series, as well as a decade-long stint in the role of Solid Snake in the hugely popular "Metal Gear Solid" video game franchise.
ALEX TSE (Screenwriter) grew up in San Francisco and attended Emerson College in Boston. His first script to be produced was "Sucker Free City," a 2004 Showtime movie, directed by Spike Lee.
Tse is currently working on the film adaptations of the thriller novel The Winter of Frankie Machine, to star Robert De Niro under the direction of Michael Mann, and The Illustrated Man, by legendary science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, to be produced and directed by Zack Snyder.
DAVE GIBBONS (Graphic Novel Co-Creator) has been involved in the comic book world for the last 35 years, beginning in fanzines and underground comics in his native UK. His work has been published throughout the Americas, Europe and Japan, though he is probably best known for the award-winning comic series-turned-graphic novel Watchmen, which he illustrated and co-created with writer Alan Moore.
A frequent contributor to Britain's influential 2000AD weekly, he co-created Rogue Trooper, in addition to illustrating such renowned strips as Harlem Heroes and Dan Dare. Gibbons also worked on the popular Doctor Who strip and, in 1982, began his long association with DC Comics, drawing the Green Lantern series.
Since then, he has both drawn and written many of their major characters, including Superman and Batman. Among his other published works are World's Finest, Aliens: Salvation, Batman vs. Predator, Captain America Lives Again, Green Lantern Corps: Recharge and The Rann-Thanagar War. He co-created the Martha Washington series with Frank Miller, and his semi-autobiographical graphic novel, The Originals, won an Eisner Award in 2005.
HERBERT W. GAINS (Executive Producer) recently served as an executive producer on Neil Jordan's psychological drama "The Brave One," starring Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard. He had previously produced the horror thriller "The Reaping," starring Hilary Swank, and was an executive producer on "House of Wax," starring Elisha Cuthbert and Chad Michael Murray.
Gains also executive produced the 2004 romantic comedy "Little Black Book," with Brittany Murphy, and was a producer on Michael Tollin's poignant sports drama "Radio," with Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ed Harris. His other credits as an executive producer include "Cradle 2 The Grave," starring Jet Li and DMX; Jake Kasdan's comedy "Orange County"; "Hardball," starring Keanu Reeves and Diane Lane; and "Summer Catch," starring Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Jessica Biel. Gains counts among his coproducing credits "Varsity Blues," with James Van Der Beek, Jon Voight and Amy Smart; "Ready to Rumble"; and Rob Cohen's "Daylight," starring Sylvester Stallone.
In addition, Gains was a production manager for such films as "The Negotiator" and "Mouse Hunt." He had earlier worked as an assistant director on a variety of films, including "Natural Born Killers," "Heaven & Earth," "Point Break," "Pacific Heights," "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story," "Dirty Dancing" and "The Fan."
THOMAS TULL (Executive Producer) is the Chairman and CEO of Legendary Pictures, a private equity-backed film production company with more than 1.5 billion dollars in total financing. Legendary Pictures' current deal, through which it co-produces and co-finances films with Warner Bros. Pictures, runs through 2012.
Since its inception in 2005, Legendary has joined with Warner Bros. to make such successful films as "Superman Returns," "Batman Begins," the blockbuster "300" and the record-breaking, award-winning film phenomenon "The Dark Knight." Following "Watchmen," upcoming releases in the partnership include "Observe and Report," "The Hangover," "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Ninja Assassin." Legendary films about to go into production include "Clash of the Titans" and "Gears of War," the latter with New Line.
Legendary Pictures is also developing a number of film projects in-house, including "Paradise Lost," "Warcraft," "Kung Fu," "The Mountain" and "The Lost Patrol."
Tull is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Film Institute (AFI). He serves on the Board of the Fulfillment Fund and is a board member of the San Diego Zoo. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1992.
LARRY FONG (Director of Photography) reunites with director Zack Snyder on "Watchmen" after their collaboration on the worldwide blockbuster "300." The two originally met in film school at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design, and went on to shoot various music videos and TV commercials together.
In 2005, Fong was nominated by the American Society of Cinematographers for his work on the pilot episode of the hit television drama series "Lost," directed by the show's creator, J.J. Abrams. He also shot the 2005 telefilm "The Catch," written and executive produced by Abrams, and most recently lensed the television pilot "Anatomy of Hope," which Abrams directed.
Fong's additional film credits include the independent features "Cost of Living" and "Cape of Good Hope." Among his other television credits are the pilots "Sleepwalkers" and "Secrets of a Small Town."
Fong's camerawork has also garnered numerous advertising industry accolades, including the Golden Lion, the Clio and the Belding. Additionally, three music videos lensed by Fong have won MTV Awards for Best Video of the Year.
ALEX McDOWELL (Production Designer) has worked on both live action and animated features, and has also received praise for his work blending practical and digital production design in film genres ranging from period and contemporary to science fiction and fantasy. He is currently serving as the production designer for a new computer-animated feature for DreamWorks Animation.
He most recently completed work on Wes Anderson's stop-motion animated comedy "Fantastic Mr. Fox," starring the voices of George Clooney and Cate Blanchett. McDowell is also making his producing debut as a co-producer on the upcoming indie film "Bunraku," starring Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson, Ron Perlman and Josh Hartnett.
McDowell earned a BAFTA Award nomination and an Art Directors Guild (ADG) Award nomination for his work on Tim Burton's 2005 fantasy film "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." He also collaborated with Burton on the 2005 stop-motion animated film "Corpse Bride." McDowell previously won an ADG Award for Steven Spielberg's 2004 film "The Terminal," for which he designed a full-size airport terminal, one of the largest architectural sets ever built for a film. The designer had earlier worked with Spielberg on 2002's sci-fi action hit "Minority Report," for which McDowell received his first ADG Award nomination.
His additional film credits include Anthony Minghella's "Breaking and Entering"; "The Cat in the Hat"; "Fight Club," for director David Fincher; Terry Gilliam's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"; and "The Crow."
A classically trained painter, McDowell attended Central School of Art in London. In 2006, he was named Royal Designer for Industry by the RSA, the UK's most prestigious design society, and continues as a Visiting Artist at MIT's Media Lab. He is also co-director of 5D: The Immersive Design Conference.
WILLIAM HOY (Editor) edited Zack Snyder's worldwide hit "300," having first worked with the director as an additional editor on "Dawn of the Dead."
Hoy has also edited such films as Tim Story's "Fantastic Four" and its sequel "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer"; Alex Proyas' "I, Robot"; F. Gary Gray's "A Man Apart"; and Randall Wallace's "We Were Soldiers" and "The Man in the Iron Mask." He has collaborated with filmmaker Phillip Noyce on three films: "The Bone Collector," "Sliver" and "Patriot Games."
Hoy's additional credits include editing work on "Se7en," "Outbreak," "Star Trek
VI: The Undiscovered Country" and "Dances with Wolves."
For television, he has edited "Houdini" for TNT, "Shattered Mind," and the series "Star Trek: The Next Generation."
TYLER BATES (Composer) previously collaborated with director Zack Snyder on the 2007 blockbuster "300" and the 2004 thriller "Dawn of the Dead." He recently scored the sci-fi thriller "The Day the Earth Stood Still," as well as Rob Zombie's hit remake of "Halloween." All of the films opened number one at the box office.
He has worked with Rob Zombie on several projects to date, including the cult classic "The Devil's Rejects." Bates recently provided a string arrangement for the song "The Man Who Laughs," on Zombie's forthcoming CD.
His additional credits encompass more than 50 film, television, and video game projects, including Showtime's hit television series "Californication"; Liquid Entertainment's epic video game "Rise of the Argonauts"; Neil Marshall's sci-fi thriller feature "Doomsday"; and the 2006 horror-comedy "Slither," which reunited him with "Dawn of the Dead" screenwriter James Gunn.
Bates' upcoming projects include Rob Zombie's next Halloween installment, "H2: Halloween 2," and Electronic Arts' (EA) highly anticipated video game release "Army of Two."
MICHAEL WILKINSON (Costume Designer) was nominated for a Costume Designers Guild (CDG) Award and a Saturn Award for his work on Zack Snyder's worldwide hit "300." The previous year, he received a CDG Award nomination for his contemporary designs in the international ensemble drama "Babel."
Wilkinson's work will next be seen in two highly anticipated projects, beginning with the action thriller "Terminator Salvation," directed by McG and starring Christian Bale, due out this summer. He is currently designing the costumes for the futuristic sci-fi thriller "Tron 2.0."
His additional film credits include "Rendition," "The Nanny Diaries," "Friends with Money," "Sky High," "Dark Water," "Imaginary Heroes," "Party Monster," "American Splendor," "Garden State" and "Milwaukee, Minnesota."
Earlier in his career, Wilkinson worked as a design assistant for such films as The Wachowski Brothers' "The Matrix," and the Baz Luhrmann-directed films "Moulin Rouge!" and "Romeo + Juliet."
Beyond film, Wilkinson's theater work includes award-winning costume designs for the Sydney Theater Company, Opera Australia, the Australian Dance Theater, Radio City Hall and the Ensemble Theater. He also works in special events, having created hundreds of designs for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Wilkinson has a degree in Dramatic Arts (Design) from the National Institute of the Dramatic Arts in his hometown of Sydney, Australia.
JOHN "DJ" DESJARDIN (Visual Effects Supervisor) has been creating visual effects for more than 20 years, and has built a body of work encompassing over 30 feature films.
He has collaborated with the Wachowski Brothers as a visual effects supervisor on the second and third films in the blockbuster "Matrix" trilogy, "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions," as well as on the brothers' award-winning video game "Enter the Matrix." His credits as visual effects supervisor also include the more recent action hit "Fantastic Four" and the Middle East-set thriller "The Kingdom," as well as the earlier thrillers "Firestorm," "The Astronaut's Wife" and "End of Days."
Desjardin's film credits also include "X-Men: The Last Stand," as additional visual effects supervisor; "Friday Night Lights," on which he served as on-set visual effects supervisor; and "Mission: Impossible II," as CG supervisor.
WESLEY COLLER (Co-Producer) is a producer at Cruel and Unusual Films Incorporated, where he works in collaboration with Zack Snyder and Deborah Snyder to create entertaining and groundbreaking feature films.
Coller previously served as an associate producer on the blockbuster hit "300," directed by Zack Snyder. The film had a record-breaking opening weekend in March 2007, going on to gross more than $450 million worldwide. He also recently worked as a creative consultant on the book 300: The Art of the Film, collaborating with the design team at Darkhorse Publishing to establish the overall look and design for the book.
Currently, Coller is involved in the development and production of a wide range of projects for Cruel and Unusual, including "Sucker Punch," "Guardians of Ga'Hoole," "Army of the Dead," "The Illustrated Man," "The Last Photograph," and "Cobalt 60."
Prior to starting his career, Coller graduated from Eastern Michigan University in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Telecommunication & Film and a minor in graphic design. Immediately following graduation, he moved to Los Angeles and joined Zack Snyder's production team, working with the director on numerous commercial projects, as well as the development of several feature films, including the remake of "Dawn of the Dead."