Benedict Carver, Pandemonium's Bill Mechanic and Hayter are all teaming up to bring Deadworld to life, of which Hayter has said:

"It's very much about the design of the Deadworld and creating cool, frightening but not necessarily gory creatures," Hayter said. "I am a huge fan of zombie mythology."

The book takes place months after zombies have totally taken over the planet. There's no telling which storyline they'll pull out of the book's rich tapestry, but I quite enjoyed the husband-and-wife story, where she's still alive and he's a zombie.

[Variety]

Dark Hero Studios is actually the name of Hayter's new company (co-founded with Doomsday and upcoming movie adaptation Castlevania producer Benedict Carver), which has been created as a place to produce new SF, horror and fantasy franchises in whatever medium possible (They're looking at movies, comics and video games to begin with, but Hayter feels like he's got a great cookbook in him somewhere). (Update: Warren Ellis clarifies in the comments that he's written an animated Castlevania movie, not the live-action version.)

The new company will launch with Demonology, which Hayter describes as based on his own teen years:

It's about an American kid who goes to one of these schools in Belgium, but it brings my own horrible experiences of school to life.

Presumably, there'll be demons involved somewhere along the line to make it live up to that title. Whether or not Hayter will make creepy public statements about the movie (or any other future projects from the studio) post-release remains to be seen.

Hayter, Carver form Dark Hero [Variety]

Nothing like being on the ass end of a press tour: the actors are sick of talking abou the material, and yet here they are talking about it again. I have to say seeing the gaggle of Watchmen fellas sitting around a table with old Ray Ray struggling for conversation is uncomfortable, and clearly one of the signs of the apocalypse. Thank god Billy's brother painted himself blue, because ha ha funny, sigh...

Meanwhile, screenwriter David Hayter busted out a long letter to Hard Core Nerdity begging true fans to go and see the movie a second time this coming weekend, so it'll make a profit. And gee wiz everyone worked really, really hard, and they don't want to be considered a failure in the box office. So even though it's a recession and a lot of us are still struggling between deciding whether to pay the phone bill or the cable bill, won't you please hand over another $10? Says Hayter:

So look, this is a note to the fanboys and fangirls. The true believers. Dedicated for life.

If the film made you think. Or argue with your friends. If it inspired a debate about the nature of man, or vigilante justice, or the horror of Nixon abolishing term limits. If you laughed at Bowie hanging with Adrian at Studio 54, or the Silhouette kissing that nurse.

Please go see the movie again next weekend.

You have to understand, everyone is watching to see how the film will do in its second week. If you care about movies that have a brain, or balls, (and this film's got both, literally), or true adaptations — And if you're thinking of seeing it again anyway, please go back this weekend, Friday or Saturday night. Demonstrate the power of the fans, because it'll help let the people who pay for these movies know what we'd like to see. Because if it drops off the radar after the first weekend, they will never allow a film like this to be made again.

Well, that's not necessarily true, judging from the line-up for the next few years. There are plenty of comic-book movies on the slate, although some of them may not be quite as edgy, or as faithful to the source material, as Watchmen.

In Hayter's defense, he does say that he doesn't profit a cent from an increase in box office. Hayter's letter sounds more like a drowning plea to save a movie everyone had such high hopes for, and which some people loved. When half the world hated your film, you either have to shrug and cite artistic differences, or write a letter begging the other half to see it a second time.

And yes, people will continue to go see Watchmen, but it is what it is. It's not going to win over a mainstream audience the way the film-makers envisioned, this is heavy subject material where you almost have to have read the book to enjoy and internally deal with what's really going on. And please don't ever use this line again:

Trust me. You'll come back, eventually. Just like Sally.

Is this the first time the maker of a film has ever suggested that his movie raped the audience?

We asked Hayter what he had coming up in the future...

"I'm working on a film right now called Lost Planet for Warner Brothers. It's a video game adaptation. And I've got a film that I've got set up to direct that I can't talk about."

Is it in your scifi wheelhouse?

"Ummm some fantasy, yeah. Everything I do is sort of fantasy. Magical realism, I'm a big fan of Terry Gilliam, so if I could follow in his footsteps, I'd be very happy."

So what could it be? Hayter's directing rumors have been pretty quiet, ever since the rumors of him directing Black Widow got crushed a few years ago. What about Crystal Lake's Werewolf... that's kind of magical realism, no? Oh and don't get too excited, since we've heard he's not directing Metal Gear Solid, because as of right now, they're still merely in talks, according to Collider.

Note: hit the links to read these suckers for yourselves. The Alex Tse draft was out there at one point (we saved an older copy), so you might be able to find it by sifting the web. Or you could just put David Hayter's draft in a tumbler and give it a couple of shakes, it's roughly the same experience.

Sam Hamm, 1989: Hamm is probably best-known for writing Batman, also in 1989, so it's probably no small wonder that studios suits thought he'd be perfect to adapt Watchmen for Joel Silver at Fox. However, the resulting script is pretty much utter trash.

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• In the opening scene, the Watchmen try to foil a terrorist scheme in the Statue of Liberty, although it results in the death of their teammate Captain Metropolis, and Lady Liberty gets blown up. Cue the government's war on "masks" and superheroes.
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• The opening credits are described as dozens of watches floating around the screen. Lame.
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• Adrian Veidt has developed smokeless cigarettes that are supposedly non-cancerous, while "cleaning your lungs at the same time." A far cry from the glass pipes in the original, plus it turns out Veidt was actually giving them cancer. Evil.
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• Veidt has also created "Nostalgia," which isn't a perfume like in the comics, but rather an "anti-aging" Dick Clark-esque skin cream.
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• The whole premise is built on the fact that the creation of Dr. Manhattan changed the world forever, so Veidt spends his time and millions trying to create a wormhole in time and space so he can kill Jon Osterman before he becomes the good doc. Dr. Manhattan stops him, but realizes he was right and goes back in time to prevent himself from existing, thereby changing the future.
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• This "new world" (actually, our own present-day New York City) shimmers into existence around Dan (Night Owl), Laurie (Silk Spectre), and Rorschach, leaving them confused and wondering what happened. Fin.
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• Lamest moment: EXT. SEAPORT - THAT MOMENT - DUSK
  Ground level. From the midst of the bewildered CROWD we watch as the OWLSHIP and the CTU talk some serious trash:

  NIGHT OWL OVER OWLSHIP LOUDSPEAKER— "or we'll BLOW YOUR ASSES OUT OF THE SKY!"

  CTU LOUDSPEAKER — "UNREGISTERED CRAFT. IDENTIFY YOURSELF."

  OWLSHIP LOUDSPEAKER — "BABY . . . WE'RE A BLAST FROM THE PAST."

• David Hayter, 2003: Hayter was tapped to write the script once the project ended up at Paramount in turnaround from Fox. Hayter, who also wrote X-Men and X-Men 2 (and plays the voice of Snake in the Metal Gear Solid video games) stayed much closer to the source material than Hamm did, but he took some liberties as well.

• Dr. Manhattan is much more godlike in this script, creating a "magic mirror" for Laurie that can allow her to see any point in her past. This only seems to serve as a plot device so that we can see her fighting with The Comedian in the past.
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• Dr. M also uses his abilities to give Laurie one of the lamest superpowers since Jubilee: she can now shoot a blue ball of energy from her fingers, slingshot-style.
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• She uses this power to try and stop Adrian, but he catches the ball and pummels her. Not quite as dramatic as catching a bullet, is it?
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• Instead of a vat-grown alien-tentacled telepath, Veidt fires a concentrated beam of radiation at orbital mirrors which reflect into New York City, killing 20 million people.
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• Night Owl and Veidt square off in the end, and although Veidt beats the crap out of him, Night Owl still wins by tricking Veidt with an Owl-o-rang and killing him. Yes, really.
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• Lamest moment: ADRIAN — "Why an Owl? I mean, assuming your intention is to intimidate the criminal element... What's so frightening about an owl?"

  DAN — "I don't know, really. I guess it's because... No matter how hard you listen, you never hear them coming."

  Dan DUCKS. Having circled the room, the OWL-WING ZOOMS OUT OF THE DARKNESS, OWL-FACE SCREECHING INTO FRAME —

  — And STRIKES ADIAN THE IN THE CHEST, KNOCK HIM OFF HIS FEET. Adrian SLAMS to the ground, THE BOOMERANG'S LEFT WIND IMBEDDED IN HIS SOLAR PLEXUS. He wheezes blood.

• Alex Tse, 2006: Novice writer Tse was hired to come in and work on David Hayter's draft, which remains mostly intact. He changes a few things, but it still seems like it's mostly Hayter's script.

• Dr. Manhattan is seen as the "peacekeeper of the world," keeping all of the world's government in check, for better or for worse.
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• Rorschach busts in on an army officer with a hooker, beats the crap out of him (and her) and takes his uniform. Later, he disguises himself as the officer, so he can enter Dr. Manhattan's army lab and tell him about The Comedian's death.
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• Veidt impersonates Dr. Manhattan, and fires beams of concentrated... er, "big blue energy clouds" into key cities around the globe, killing three million people.
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• Dan and Veidt square off again, but this time Dan crashes the Owl-Ship via remote control into Veidt, wounding him badly. You think he might survive, but as Laurie flies the ship out, she sets his body on fire. Whoops.
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• Lamest moment: ADRIAN — "I have to say, I've always thought your choice of an owl was quite juvenile."

  DAN — "Really? I've always liked owls..."

  Adrian sees that Dan has pulled one last item from his belt. Adrian STEPS on Dan's WRIST, bones crunching. Dan's hand falls OPEN, revealing the OWL-SHIP REMOTE.

  DAN (cont'd) — "... because you can never hear them coming."

  BEHIND ADRIAN: FLOODLIGHTS BLAZE, targeting Adrian as the OWL-SHIP CRASHES THROUGH THE WINDOW and into Adrian and Dan.

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At any rate, we'll be watching these Watchmen.