Oct 28, 2008 11:40 AM
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San Francisco, 3:46 PM
Tue Feb 9
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Will the Watchmen movie retain the original comic book ending or won't it? We told you about the recent Portland, OR preview screening of Watchmen, and the reaction of fans upon discovering that the ending of the classic comic series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons had been changed by director Zack Snyder for cinema audiences. Now we're hearing that everything may not be as cut and dried as it may seem . . . spoilers ahead.
Rich Johnston's Lying In The Gutters column is reporting that the preview's climax - which saw the comic's pan-dimnsional squid replaced by a New York destroyed by a nuclear explosion - may have been a test by the moviemakers to see whether or not they could get away with deviating from the source material:
I'm told that this screening was intentionally leaked to the fan press - with the exact time and place posted online with details of how to evade the security. The intent is to gauge fan reaction to a squidless ending for Watchmen and see what they can get away with, believing it to be more suitable for a more mainstream audience. The FX for the squid has been completed however.
If true, this is an interesting development - and one that may implicate Collider.com as a studio patsy, if not willing participant in the experiment.
We'll wait and see what reports come from the second screening to see whether the squid makes its reappearance.
Lying In The Gutters [Comic Book Resources]
Send an email to Graeme McMillan, the author of this post, at graeme@io9.com.
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