Check out a couple of set pix from the much-anticipated "Watchmen" production in Canada. They show the backlot set meant to resemble 1985 New York City in an alternate universe. And where else to pretend you're in a bizarro NYC than Vancouver!! Before you start saying stuff like 'that subway station looks nothing like the one at Grand Central Station ... remember, its an alternate universe version of NYC. So go easy on the gaffe-spotting. They're not really mistakes since it’s not 'our' New York.

Director Zack Snyder signed on for this as his follow-up to last March's smash hit "300." Snyder earned big-time points with fanboys after turning Frank Miller's classic graphic novel into such a crowd-pleaser. But the pressure he felt making that movie is nothing to compared to this. Not only is Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons' 12-issue saga one of the great comic book works in history -- Time Magazine even picked it as one of the 100 top novels since 1923 -- but it also has a checkered theatrical past.

Snyder is the fifth director attached to "Watchmen' and the only one to get past preproduction. Over the past 15 years David Hayter, Darren Aronofsky, and Paul Greengrass have been onboard to try adapting the story to screen, only to be undone by developmental problems. Terry Gilliam reportedly went as far as having sets constructed before the rug was pulled out from under him.
The problem with "Watchmen" lies with the scope of the story. This is an ambitious tale to translate to the big screen. Previous efforts to get this movie off the ground have had budget estimates run as high as $200 million.

In case you're not familiar with the story, it is set against a paranoid Cold War backdrop of 1985. The sun has set on the age of superheroes. They've been forced to retire by a heavy-handed government. But after a retired hero turns up dead, his fellow capes reunite and uncover a plot to eliminate ALL the heroes.
"Watchmen" is considered a groundbreaking and visionary piece of comics literature because it helped usher in the Age of Deconstruction in super heroes. The men in tights in this series grappled with and often failed in crises of conscience and ethics. These folks weren't pure hearted do-gooders like Superman or the Fantastic Four. They were 'real' people with real flaws, real problems. And only one of them really had any 'super powers,' BTW.

If anyone can make this comics-to-cinema adaptation work, it’s Snyder. He's proven he gets and respects the source material and he knows how to balance the desires of the core fan base with the practical needs of the story. Much of "Watchmen" is being shot using the same green-screen technology (meaning a lot of the backdrops will be added in postproduction by computers) he used so well in "300" so I'm expecting a movie that looks like a "Watchmen" movie should.
And I'm really hoping Snyder figures out a way to capture the climactic scene in Manhattan, because if it's anywhere close to what we saw in the comics, it will blow people's minds. Seriously.

"Watchmen" starring Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley and Carla Gugino (among others) opens March 6, 2009. Check out the official website here.