'Watchmen' Report from Comic Con, Plus New Character Posters

I was not in attendance at this year's San Diego Comic Con, an oversight I thought I had rectified in the months leading up to the event, but learned the hard way that I had not. As hard as it might be to believe, though, I actually do have friends, and one of them was out at Comic Con, and he fills us in on a few things and even let us post some of his photos, which was very generous. The first Iron Man suit Mark Hamill The lovely Olivia Munn from G4's Attack of the Show

I'd guess based on the reactions I've read online that Watchmen and Terminator Salvation were the biggest hit at the event, and some people weren't exactly doing backflips for The Spirit. Good thing for us, our intrepid reporter, Hotchy Kiene, was particularly interested in Watchmen. Here's his report on what he saw:

"Yo man, I saw some of the postings you did about Comic Con. All the stuff you mentioned was very cool, I saw that Tron trailer and it looks cool. But what looks really cool... THE WATCHMEN footage. Zack Snyder came out at the panel, introduced the whole cast & Dave Gibbons and then said we brought some clips from the film for you guys. The crowd went BALLISTIC! So the lights go out and we were treated to a dialog free 5-10 minute montage from the film. He had put this great classical music score to it. In it you see scenes from the book like Nite Owl kissing Silk Specter while the nuclear bomb goes off, Dr. Manhattan making Viet Cong soldiers blow up, a lot of Rorschach's mask (which looks amazing) a glimpse of Nixon, Nite Owl looking fat, old, and distraught, the old picture scene right before the Comedian rapes the Silk Specter and the last scene was the comedian getting thrown out the window with the button following him, the whole scene slowing down and taking a once second pause on the button with the blood which is a scene straight out of the comic.

"During the panel Snyder said that they were very faithful to the book in timeframe and that while he was pressured to modernize the film it just wouldn't have worked right. All the actors were really cool, Billy Crudup joked about being blue and naked thru half the film, Jackie Earle Haley was thankful for the opportunity to get inside of Rorschach's head and the guy that plays the comedian said that he was able to really get into character when he put a cigar in.

"At the end of the panel the guy that plays Ozymandius (Matthew Goode) said, 'That was the first time we ever saw the clips, so can we see it again?' So the whole cast moved to watch the clips and they played it again! It was very very cool!

"They had a full size Owl Ship on the floor. it was one of two they built for the movie and had working screens and little hidden things like a picture of Nite Owl I and II together.

"Finally I was sitting outside of the Hard Rock Hotel on Friday and Zack Snyder walked out. I asked to get a picture and said thanks for being faithful to the book. He said that if he wasn't he would have had a lot of fans to answer to. I also commented on the comedian murder scene and told him how much I loved the look and he said he was very glad to hear that, and that he wanted to make sure people at the panel understood he felt a connection to the book and that was a good way to show it."

Thanks, Hotchy. We're certainly due for more Watchmen stuff between now and next March. There will be a new behind-the-scenes video journal released in about ten days, and there are some brand new posters, all of which debuted at Comic Con. Here's a couple of them, and you can spy the rest over at First Showing.