Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...

It wouldn’t surprise me. Paramount is a studio in transition right now, and any time you’re making an expensive film with lots of special effects that doesn’t have a buttload of toy possibilities and sequel potential, it’s got to be check-your-balls time.

So, Paramount, check your balls. Are they big enough to let Paul Greengrass make a movie that could very well turn out to be great? Are you bold enough to pick the best draft of the script, the one closest to the source material, and really make this film? Because if the answer to either question is “no,” then do us all a favor. Don’t make it. Don’t make the wrong WATCHMEN. Not when you’re so close to getting it right. Don’t overdevelop the material so that it’s not WATCHMEN anymore. Don’t force Greengrass to make a more action-audience-friendly movie or to make sure he gets a PG-13. Don’t micromanage this one to death. You’ve got some great material in the pipeline at your studio for the first time in a LONG time, so do audiences the favor right now of asking yourselves this... do you want to redefine the studio and turn it into something it hasn’t been in a while (cutting edge), or do you just want to play it safe and keep turning out middle-of-the-road fare that won’t redefine anything. Clock’s ticking, ladies and gentlemen. I double-dog-dare you to be great.

Paramount getting cold feet over Watchmen??

Hey guys,

Never emailed in before but a LONG time reader.

I wouldn’t have emailed the AICN hierarchy, if I didn’t think you guys could help. As we know, Watchmen is in pre-production in London at the moment for Paramount. Paul Greengrass is set to direct.

A couple of days ago the LA Times ran a piece about some internal struggles at Paramount. He’s the line at the end of the piece…

In the interim, DeLine's possible departure could endanger some high-profile projects at Paramount. Last week, he was in London to urge the director and producers of the studio's superhero action thriller "The Watchmen" to cut back the film's $100-million-plus budget so it could get the greenlight for production, sources said. As those negotiations continue, it is unclear now which Paramount executive will be doing the talking.

Normally, I wouldn’t be too concerned. But the chaps over at Chud (Nick & Dev) have been a tad concerned in they’re recent posts at the chud forums about how this may effect things…

They’re saying to go the official Watchmen message boards (which are here) & to raise awareness on this issue.

I thought you guys may be able to dig a little to find out what’s up.

I think we’d ALL want to see the best Watchmen movie ever… We may need FAN POWER on this one.

Thanks for your time guys.

Simon.

Vocal? Fans? Never. Perish the thought. Comic book fans need to learn to speak up and say what they... oh, wait, comic book fans never SHUT UP about what they want. That’s right. And that’s a good thing, because it really did force the industry to start treating the material better. Now we’re dealing with one of the most respected books of all time. I’ll bet you everyone at Paramount will be watching the box-office performance of SIN CITY with intense fascination this coming weekend. Look at how faithful that film is to the source. Even if Greengrass isn’t going to do something that exact, the Hayter script I reviewed comes close to getting the spirit of the piece dead on. Fingers crossed... fingers crossed...