Zack Snyder‘s 2009 “Watchmen” is largely considered to be the most faithful comicbook film adaptations of all time, nearly to a fault. Though virtually identical to the original graphic novel, critics of the time found the source material didn’t translate too well to film.
But one aspect of the film that was completely different from the original was the ending. Snyder’s film changed Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon‘s graphic novel by replacing the giant squid attack on New York City with a plan involving an energy reactor blowing up and then being blamed on Doctor Manhattan.
A decade after the film’s release, “Watchmen” screenwriter David Hayter appeared on the Script Apart podcast (via IndieWire) and talked about the different iterations of “Watchmen” that didn’t make it to theaters. According to Hayter, his original script had even more differences, and culminated with Nite Owl murdering Ozymandias and preventing the attack on New York Cities. Instead, Nite Owl decides to project fake mass attacks around the world, showing Doctor Manhattan destroying major cities.
This draft of the “Watchmen” script was made for Paul Greengrass, who was originally attached to direct the film, and who wanted to set the film in the present day instead of the 1980s like in the graphic novel. “We knew it was going to be very difficult to do the ending of the book, plus 9/11 had happened and I didn’t think we should have images of bodies in Times Square, I felt that was not appropriate,” Hayter said. “So that inspired me to say, people should just be blown to shadows, like the Hiroshima shadows that are painted in the comic book.”
READ MORE: Tim Blake Nelson Expected Another Season Of ‘Watchmen’ [Podcast]
After Greengrass left the project, Darren Aronofsky was briefly attached to the comicbook film. Though Aronofsky wasn’t involved for long due to scheduling conflicts, he did leave one big idea behind that did make it to the film. As Hayter explained, “He sent me a note which said, ‘I have a friend who is a physicist and he had an idea for the movie. What if Doctor Manhattan is the agent of destruction.’ That just clicked into place in my brain.”
You can listen to the rest of the podcast episode below.