io9: tales of the black freighter

What Is Tales Of The Black Freighter, Anyway?

Graeme McMillan — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 11:42:56 PST

Tales of The Black Freighter is a comic within a comic; a fictional comic that exists in Watchmen's world that the reader occasionally sees panels from, telling a story that mirrors that of Ozymandias in the main story.

Black Freighter's pirate setting comes from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' reasoning that superheroes - the dominant mainstream comic genre in the real world - wouldn't necessarily enjoy the same commercial success in a world where people with superpowers actually existed (Please, someone tell the writers of Heroes that), and that other genres would take its place. The melodrama and grime of pirates were thought by Moore to provide a suitable counterpoint to the main story, and so poor Richard Reynolds finds himself set adrift in the sea and forced to do terrible things to survive.

While Black Freighter is in no way necessary to understand the core story of Watchmen, the fan upset over the news that it won't be included in the cinema release of the movie - it will, apparently, be included in one of the future DVD/Blu-Ray releases, and is getting released as an animated DVD in its own right at the end of this month - illustrates how central many feel it is to the overall experience of the book, adding in metatextual commentary on the main plot, as well as just being an enjoyably chilling story in its own right.

Watchmen's Black Freighter Trailer Released

Graeme McMillan — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 12:00:27 PST

The trailer for the animated DVD that "completes the Watchmen experience," Tales Of The Black Freighter, has been released, letting you see just how zombies and pirates fit into Zack Snyder's vision for the movie.

Tales of The Black Freighter is released on DVD and BluRay on March 24th.

‘Tales Of The Black Freighter' Trailer - Get Your First Look Here, ‘Watchmen' Fans! [MTV Splash Page]

Black Freighter Gets An R Rating, Will Teach You How To Sail Atop Dead People

Meredith Woerner — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:30:00 PST

This is cinema done right. Tales Of The Black Freighter, the pirate comic book featured throughout Alan Moore's Watchmen graphic novel, is going to be released separately on DVD — if and when Watchmen is released. The graphic story about a man sailing home on the corpses of his former shipmates deserves, and received, an R rating from the MPAA. Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince, on the other hand, could have used a little dirtying up but rests soundly on a PG rating. [Rope Of Silicon]

Watchmen DVD May Be Even Longer Than 3 Hours

Graeme McMillan — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:30:00 PDT

While plenty of you seemed to be ready to spend three hours - or even more - in theaters watching Watchmen, co-creator Dave Gibbons let slip that an even longer version may be waiting for fans on DVD while speaking at an event this weekend. But the changes made to create the even-longer-than-the-Director's-Cut edit of the movie are some that will correct a decision that many fans initially saw as a mistake.

Speaking at the British Film Institute, Gibbons hinted at plans for the movie's second planned DVD release:

Dave has seen a 2 hour, 45 minute rough assembly of the – in his words – “very sexy, very violent” movie which he expects will receive an 18 certificate from the British censor. There’s no Black Freighter animation, that will be released as a separate ‘Animatrix’ style DVD and probably (eventually) be remarried with the live action film in a future ‘Absolute Watchmen’ DVD release.

(The term Absolute Watchmen refers to DC Comics' deluxe hardcover versions of their comics, which collect storylines with background material and often - as is the case for Watchmen - recolored pages to reflect updates to printing technology; the end results are called Absolute [Name of Book].)

But still: A version of Watchmen complete with Tales Of The Black Freighter animation? Somewhere, a million Alan Moore fans are very happy indeed.

Dave Gibbons Q&A, and the Watchmen SuperTrailer [TimesOnline]

This. Is. The Black Freighter!

Kevin Kelly — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:41:42 PST

Gerard Butler confirmed that he's voicing the Captain for scenes in the animatedTales of the Black Freighter for director Zack Snyder's Watchmen, in a segment solely being created for the DVD. Last year at Comic-Con Snyder said that the Freighter portion of the book (a comic book-within-a-comic book about pirates) would be in the film. But then Warners later nixed the idea, probably to keep the length down.

According to Butler, "It's this descent into madness but explained in such a sane way that you totally feel it yourself." Which doesn't make much sense now, but we'll go along with it. If all future comic book related DVDs received this much attention to detail, it might create a new market and medium for comic books. Just imagine X-Men: Days of Future Past, The DVD. Unfortunatelty, it also means you'll have to double dip at the theater and later on DVD if you want the full experience. [Empire Online]

Watchmen Comic-Within-A-Comic Becomes Its Own Movie

Kevin Kelly — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:30:00 PST

The movie version of Alan Moore's classic dysfunctional superhero comic book Watchmen continues to move forward, although one key element might be coming to your DVD player before the film comes out.

In the 12-issue series, occasional panels are devoted to a young boy sitting next to a newstand, reading a comic book about pirates called "Tales of the Black Freighter." Over the course of the series, it becomes clear that the book is meant to serve as a metaphor for the events occurring in the main Watchmen storyline, but it's also beautifully written as a standalone story that holds its own, even after repeated readings.

Director Zack Snyder told audiences at this year's Comic-Con International that he'd be including that story in the feature film. However, Warners has threatened to make it the first thing on the chopping block in the vein of keeping the film short. Although after they'd seen what he'd already filmed, he was given the go-ahead to film it as a special feature for the DVD.

Now it looks like Snyder will be doing it as an animated film, and the studio will be sending it out to store shelves just as Watchmen starts hitting the big screen. How will Snyder be able to keep his focus on making a good movie while working on this direct-to-DVD project? We're already concerned that Watchmen is getting short shrift because of Snyder's high on visuals, low on writing style (see his 300 as evidence of this).

Plus you'll have to buy a movie ticket and a DVD to get the whole story. Darn double-dipping. Still, we're gonna do it.

The Watchmen Universe Expands [CHUD]