Director Paul Greengrass explained what his approach to a Watchmen adaptation would be, and it bears a lot of similarities to the 2019 DC movie Joker. Watchmen, the dark comic book series from 1986, has been adapted more than once by DC, to varying degrees of success. Acclaimed director Zack Snyder attempted to bring the comics to life in 2009, but his Watchmen movie didn’t meet fan expectations. The popular Watchmen series on HBO even used some scenes to criticize Snyder’s stylized approach to the story.
On the other hand, Paul Greengrass claims he would have had a much different approach to the Watchmen movie. Greengrass is primarily an action director, most well-known for his work within the Jason Bourne franchise on the Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum films. Though this is a slightly different genre than Joker, the Todd Phillips movie and Greengrass’ work have something important in common: their setting in a gritty “real world.” This is the same tone and setting that Greengrass says he wanted to bring to Watchmen.
In an interview as part of the podcast Happy Sad Confused, Greengrass talks about his vision for a Watchmen movie and says it would have been very similar to Joker. Greengrass says that the biggest similarity between the Joker film and his unmade Watchmen adaptation would have been the gritty real-world setting. “I wanted to believe these characters lived in the real world and that a lot of what they were thinking and doing was delusional. There was something in Joker that had [a similar] quality to it,” Greengrass said about his vision.
While Greengrass was being considered to direct the 2009 Watchmen film, that honor ultimately went to Zack Snyder. Greengrass says he thinks part of the reason he didn’t get the job was that he couldn’t clearly convey his ideas for the story. While Joker might be a good point of comparison for his ideas, Greengrass would not have had that exact comparison in 2009, making his ideas that much harder to describe. Despite this rejection, Greengrass was able to move on to other projects and is still directing. The filmmaker is currently promoting his most recent film, News of the World, starring Tom Hanks.
Though Greengrass was prevented from pursuing his Joker-like Watchmen vision, audiences have not gone without amazing Watchmen content. The HBO series has gained more critical acclaim than either Snyder’s Watchmen or Phillips’ Joker, and fans seem happy with this new adaptation. Greengrass’s ideas might have been interesting to see realized, but a Joker-inspired Watchmen adaptation isn’t something fans are hungry for right now.
Source: Happy Sad Confused
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