Watchmen awkwardness with American Businessman Lee Iacocca

by Joey Paur

Ozymandias

I am not sure if you know who Lee Iacocca is or not. He is a very successful American businessman that gained fame and fortune by digging the automotive industry out of a very deep hole back in the 80's the same type of hole the auto industry is in right now. He is the former Chysler CEO and Ford President. The guy is now 83 years old and hardly ever gives interviews to anybody. But according to the new Watchmen Movie Lee Iacocca was brutally murdered in 1985.

In the film Watchmen, Zack Snyder adds some historical figures in his alternate reality of 1985. Most of the people involved have already passed on but you gotta admit it is a little odd seeing a American icon getting killed 24 years ago on screen. I just seems a little strange doesn't it? I think its pretty ballsy. I don't think anything like that has ever happened before... has it?  In the film Iaccocca is meeting with superhero CEO Ozymandias and he gets caught in the crossfire as an assassin try's to kill Ozy. When Snyder was asked about it he said:

"It's nothing against Lee; I think Lee's awesome, but he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."


When Lee Iacocca was told about the details of his on-screen debut he was exactly thrilled. He had never heard of Watchmen until he was told about it, and apparently no one asked him if they could use his name and likeness for the film. When the reporter told Iacocca that he gets shot between the eyes on screen the reporter said:

"the phone went quiet for what felt like forever. The automotive pioneer's office has since attempted to contact the studio to secure a screening, DVD or even an explanation, but as of press time had yet to receive a return phone call."


Zack Snyder goes on to explain:

"I think we got away with it because the movie has a satirical quality to it. And there were so many other famous people [in the film], lookalikes of Nixon, Annie Leibovitz, or [President] Kennedy. These are the people that we need in the movie to try and create this '80s vibe. And so, when we had the scene where Adrian was meeting with the captains of industry, Lee just kinda jumped out as a famous [person]; someone you identify with the '80s, but also with being in the automotive industry."


Lee Iacocca has made it clear he will not comment on this until after he has seen the movie, but when he was shown a publicity photo of the actor that plays him in full make-up and costume Iacocca said "The actor looked good." There is obviously a little dismay over his alternate universe movie murder, but whats done is done. Snyder continues:

"He's fine; I think he's fine, but you shouldn't hang out with Adrian, because it's dangerous."


So what do you think about all this?

Here is an old commercial from the 80's which will give you a good idea of who this man is.



Source: MTV

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