Smash hit

When Warners finally called Snyder, he soon realised they hadn’t exactly got the measure of Watchmen, either. “They said, ‘We have something called Watchmen. I don’t know if you’re aware of it? Would you like to make it into a movie? We guess it’s based on a comic book. What do you think?’ That’s kind of funny in itself, although when I looked at the script — and I’m very familiar with the graphic novel — I too was thinking, ‘What the f*** is this?’ ”

That script, penned by the X-Men and X2 scribe David Hayter, was set in the modern day and was focused on the war on terror. It was also written as a PG-13, with a 97-page script that ran to about 100 minutes. “Straightaway I said, ‘No to the war on terror — it’s got to be the cold war, it’s got to be 1985, it’s got to be R-rated,’ ” Snyder recalls. He then embarked on a version that stretches to about 160 minutes. To fend off concern about the lack of a potential sequel, he also worked on two directly linked projects, the first being Tales of the Black Freighter. A big favourite among true fans, in the original graphic novel it’s a comic within a comic, about a sailor who is the sole survivor of an attack by a ghostly vessel. Snyder has shot this as a Japanese-style cartoon, and it will be released on DVD less than a week after the main film rolls out in cinemas, with 300’s Gerard Butler voicing the main character.

The DVD set will also include Snyder’s second pet project, a documentary-style film he has produced called Under the Hood, which will delve into character back story. “It was a lot of extra work, but I love the fact that around the time of release, you’ll be able to buy a DVD of a related movie, Black Freighter, and Under the Hood, which is a mock documentary. I’ve got to tell you that’s pretty damn funny and very fetishistic. We’re also constructing a 3hr 20min version of Watchmen, where we’ll be weaving Tales of the Black Freighter through the movie, as the graphic novel does.”

Whereas Snyder’s 300 brilliantly exploited the use of green screen — first filming actors in a special studio, then putting them into computer-generated landscapes — Watchmen is full of real sets, including a sprawling New York City. For Snyder, it’s a grittier work than 300. “It shouldn’t feel as stylised as that. This has more of a Taxi Driver aesthetic.” Even the most dedicated fans will concede that he remains remarkably faithful to Moore’s story, in tone as well as texture. It’s a complex, multilayered tale, but the 42-year-old film-maker has captured its essence frame by frame.

It still isn’t likely to get approval from Moore, who has thus far distanced himself from every movie adapted from his work — including the disappointing trio From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V for Vendetta. Yet Gibbons believes that should Moore ever see the film (and the chances are slim), he would not be too displeased.

“Of course, I’ve tried to be as faithful to Alan’s work as humanly possible,” Snyder says. “I’m such a fan myself. Really, though, I’m just glad we got the movie out.” He smiles. This is no throwaway comment: the past few months have proved stressful for the film-makers, after a court ruling last December in which a judge upheld a claim by 20th Century Fox that it retains the film’s distribution rights under an earlier deal with the producers, despite Warner Bros spending in excess of $150m on bankrolling the movie. As talks progressed, Watchmen looked set for a lengthy delay.

With almost comic-book speed, however, the legal wrangle has been settled. That so many studios want to ally themselves with a project once deemed unfilmable indicates Snyder must have done something right. After all, as two of his actors can testify, there’s no smoke without fire.

Watchmen: The Art of the Film, by Peter Aperlo, is published by Titan Books; the film opens on Friday

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