Christopher Nolan Says Zack Snyder's WATCHMEN "Was Ahead of Its Time"
Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Watchmen changed the way that we looked at what superhero movies could be. I’m a big fan of that movie and even watching it after all these years, it still stands the test of time. You can definitely see the influence that it’s had on the superhero genre.
Christopher Nolan, who was instrumental in recruiting director Zack Snyder to helm Man of Steel, briefly commented on the 2009 movie in a recent THR article that focused on Snyder’s career. Nolan said of the film:
"I've always believed Watchmen was ahead of its time. The idea of a superhero team, which it so brilliantly subverts, wasn't yet a thing in movies. It would have been fascinating to see it released post-Avengers."
Patrick Wilson, who played Dan Dreiberg, aka Nite Owl II, in the film, also previously talked about the movie, saying that Zack Snyder was ahead of the curve with it. He said:
“Watchmen is the only movie of mine that I’ve watched front-to-back since a premiere. That movie’s awesome. I wanted to share it with my son — I also probably wanted to fast-forward through the scene with me and Malin [Åkerman] in the ship. [Laugh]. I needed to stay close by.
“No, I wanted to look at it as an older guy, as a filmmaker. I knew that Zack [Snyder] was ahead of the curve, you know? It’s weird to say that audiences weren’t ready for it, but you need a movie like that. You need movies to go so dark that then Avengers can go so light. I do believe in that. But yeah, I love that movie.”
It wasn’t an easy task for Snyder to adapt one of the best comic books ever created as a film, but he managed to pull it off and make a great movie. Yeah, he made some big changes that were debated by fans for years, but in the end, Watchmen is a great film that audiences and fans enjoyed.
You also have to remember that before Snyder got ahold of it, for decades Hollywood attempted to adapt the story with filmmakers such as Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass, and those attempts would have stayed from the graphic novel even more. Watchmen was considered to be "unfilmable," until Snyder came along and made a visually stunning movie that more closely adapted the source material than any of the previous attempts.