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March 15, 2007 - 300 director Zack Snyder's next film will indeed be the long-awaited feature adaptation of the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons graphic novel classic Watchmen, although the budget on the film is reportedly looming towards $150 million. That's quite a hefty price tag for a dark, adult comic book movie without sequel or franchise potential.
Snyder believes that he and the producers can bring the Warners film in for less than that. "I think it can. We have ideas and I think there's a way to do it," Snyder told ComicBookResources.com. "I really don't know yet. We're trying to get something together to show the studio right now and we're hoping to get that as low as we can."
The helmer cautions, however, that "none of this is real yet. The reality is that it's still an R rated movie, it's an R rated super hero movie, something that's never been tested before and no one knows what the hell that means. But I think if you went to see 300, I would hope that you'd go see Watchmen."
Snyder also commented on those recent reports that Tom Cruise was interested at one point in playing Ozymandias, saying simply, "I don't think he's doing it."
The helmer also advised fans that, while he expects his film to be faithful to the source material, they should expect some minor alterations to Watchmen when it comes to the silver screen.
"A lot of what we're doing will look exactly as it does in the book, but there are a couple of things we'll update, like the girls. Not update in the sense that it won't be 1985, it'll still be 1985, but to give them a little sexier look or to update the outfits a bit," he explained. "I think Rorschach will look exactly as he does. Dr. Manhattan will look probably exactly as he does. Night Owl will be pretty close, but we're trying to make him look a little scarier."
-IGN