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Who watches the Watchmen? Me, on March 6^th at midnight, that’s who. I have been eagerly anticipating this film since I first read Watchmen a few years ago (I am new to this whole graphic novel thing, so sue me). It’s no secret that Alan Moore has publicly spoken out against Watchmen ever making its way to the big screen. Maybe he would rather do Lost Girls? I don’t know. But Watchmen’s illustrator Dave Gibbons has nothing but praise for Snyder’s production.

Daniel Barna, over at JoBlo.com, got the chance to listen to Gibbons gush when he recently stopped by the Apple Store in SoHo to talk about the movie and show some clips (which turned out to simply be the featurettes on the film’s website). Sounds like it was a good time, and Gibbons sure dropped a few nuggets that I was certainly unaware of. Did you all know that one of the original producers, back when the talks about a film first started following the graphic novel’s publishing, wanted Arnold Schwarzenegger as Dr. Manhattan?

Yikes.

Though honestly, I can’t say I’m not mildly intrigued at the idea of California perhaps electing a governor that had flopped his neon blue twig and berries around for two hours on-screen. Now that’s an image I needed this early in the morning. In addition to this interesting opinion on casting, Gibbons also mentioned the well-documented coming-and-going of directors like Paul Greengrass and Terry Gilliam (whom he hit with a burn! Oh no he di’int!). And at the end of the visit, Gibbons pulled a Bob Ross and produced an artistic masterpiece (a picture of Rorschach) for all to see, and take home autographed!

Gibbons sounds like a cool guy, and though he was sure to mention that he was only minimally involved in the film, he did say that he had drawn a few new pages for Snyder to use as a storyboard for some completely original scenes in the film. Awesome. He also said that he has seen the film several times, and guess what? He’s a damn fan. If you were hesitant about this film, I really think that’s all the endorsement you need. Well, that and the super-fucking-cool pictures and footage we’ve seen.