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I Believe That Pop Culture Is Just, Like, So Ready For 'watchmen.' We Tried So Hard To Ride That Wave Between Satire And Reality, And All The Things That Make You Still Care About The Character, But You Don't Miss The Commentary About Them.

-Zack Snyder

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I Believe That Pop

Zack Snyder

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I Believe That Pop Culture Is Just, Like, So Ready For 'watchmen.' We Tried So Hard To Ride That Wave Between Satire And Reality, And All The Things That Make You Still Care About The Character, But You Don't Miss The Commentary About Them.

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I Mean, It's Weird Because People Lately Have Been Coming Up To Me And Going, 'oh, My God. '300' Is Huge.' I'm Like, 'really? It's Not Done Yet!

The Difference Between 'watchmen' And A Normal Comic Book Is This: With 'batman's Gotham City,' You Are Transported To Another World Where That Superhero Makes Sense; 'watchmen' Comes At It In A Different Way, It Almost Superimposes Its Heroes On Your World, Which Then Changes How You View Your World Through Its Prism.

I Always Say, Thank God I Have This Job Or I Don't Know What I'd Be Doing. It'd Be Sad. I've Always Felt Like I Have Been Trying To Brand A World For A Quite A Long Time. You Know What Though, I Feel No Different. I Feel Like I'm Doing The Exact Same Thing I Did In High School. Only I Have More People Helping Me Out Now. And We Have To Take It All The Way.

We Can't Just Go, Like, Oh That'd Be Cool Then Not Do It. So It's One Of Those Weird Things. You Gain All These Things On Your Journey. You Get Smarter. It's Interesting How You Are Who You Are In High School In A Lot Of Ways. When I Look At My Friends, I Feel No Different About Them Than I Did When I Was In High School. I Mean That In A Great Way. They've Taken On A Micro Scale What They Were Doing And Making It Bigger.

I Love The Irony Of Movies. I Really Do. For Whatever Reason, I'm Incredibly Intrigued By The Irony Of Reality In A Motion Picture.

Well, Bradbury's A Genius. Fahrenheit 451 Is One Of My Favorite Books Of All Time, And The Illustrated Man As A Collection Of Short Stories Ranks Up There. When You Read It You Realize How Influential It Is On So Many Other Stories And People.

I Think That, For Me, Superman Just Seemed To Make A Lot Of Sense To Me. After Doing 'watchmen,' It Was - You Know That Thing, You've Got To Know The Rules Before You Can Break Them? There Was Something About That In Making 'watchmen.'

I Think That When You See The Trailer [on Movie "300"] - My Feeling Is Anyway And Maybe I'm Not Objective Because I Live It - But I Think When You See It You Immediately Go, 'okay, This Is Another Sort Of Way Of Doing This.'

There's That Weird And Cool Line That Music Can Cross Where It Still Gives You The Goosebumps And You Think It's Cool But On The Other Hand It's Sort Of Like Also Letting You Off The Hook A Little Bit With The Ironic Aspects Of The Thing. I Think That's The Inexplicable, The Smell Of A Movie. That's The Taste Of The Movie.

You Know It Has All The Kind Of Fun Stuff. It Has The Countermeasures - We Always Talk About The Countermeasures Because People Are Like, "what The Heck Is Countermeasures?" You Know If I Shot A Missile At It, Flares Would Pop Out Of Those Holes And Stop The Missile From Hitting It.

People Have A Very Proprietary Relationship With Superman. It's Important To Respect The Iconography And The Canon, But At The Same Time, You Have To Tell A Story.

I Aim My Movies, As Much As I Can, At Myself. I Think That Those Movies Have An Interesting Quality. They're Very Movieish. They Are Movie Movies. Like I Think Watchmen Is A Very Self-aware Movie. 300. Dawn Of The Dead Definitely. That's Really Where I've Ended Up.

The Challenge With 'watchmen' Is Making Sure That The Ideas That Were In The Book Got Into The Movie. That Was My Biggest Stretch. I Wanted People To Watch The Movie And Get It. It's One Of Those Things Where, Over Time, It Has Happened More.

The Problem Is, When You're Making An Animated Movie, The Studio Has An Illusion In Their Minds - And It's Really Not True - That Because It's A Drawing, It Can Be Changed At Any Time.

[writing Something Original From Scratch], The Initial Process Is Way Different. But Once It Exists And You Start To Actually Work On Making It Real, Then The Approach Is Kind Of The Same, For Me Anyways.

You Can't Teach Anyone. You Can't Tell Anyone. That's The Thing You Have To Sit Down And Experience In Order For It To Mean Anything. You Can't Intellectualize It. It's Like Why Movies Are Cool. It's A Combination Of Pictures And Design And Acting And Music Can Create An Experience That Is Outside Of The Experience That You Can Actually Have In Reality, Which Gets To My Motion Picture Philosophy. People Are Like, 'aren't You Trying To Make The Movies As Real As You Can?'

The Thing About Owls Is That They Do Sort Of Have This Facial Disc, Which Is Unlike Any Other Bird. They Kind Of Have A Face, More Than Like A Dog Or A Giraffe. They Have This Weird, Alien Face That You Can Actually Make Expressive.

You Can't Will Something Into Being. If You Follow That Philosophy All The Way, To Will Something Into Being, That's Animal Style. That's What Man Does. But If You're Looking At The Philosophy Correctly, And I Never Did - I Like To Think I Did Sometimes - You Have To Do It Without Ego, Without The I. You Have To Separate Yourself.

Anytime I've Ever Been Involved In A Non-linear Story, You See It In A Linear Manner First, Just To Make Sure It Makes Sense, And Then You Chop It Up And Move It Around.

When I Make A Live-action Movie, It's A Very Physical Process. It's Like Running A Marathon.

I Guess For Me - In The Tv Commercial World I Was Known For Shooting Locations, Beautiful Landscapes And Things Like That - So, It's Interesting.

It's More Like Christmas, You Know, When You Get A Shot In That Looks Great And It's Exactly What You Want. It's A Great Feeling, And There's Nothing Like It.

Look, If You Have A Problem With Distilling The Battle Of Thermopylae Down To Freedom Versus Tyranny, You Need To Read Herodotus Because He's The One. It's His Fault, Not Modern Culture's Fault. He Did It.' [victor Davis Hanson] References A Lot Of Things Like That Because He Feels Like The Spirit Of The Book And Of The Movie ["300"] Are Very Close To The Spartan Aesthetic. That's Really Kind Of What He Feels."

The Cool Thing About Watchmen Is It Has This Really Complicated Question That It Asks, Which Is: Who Polices The Police Or Who Governs The Government? Who Does God Pray To? Those Are Pretty Deep Questions But Also Pretty Fun Questions. Kind Of Exciting. It Tries To Subvert The Superhero Genre By Giving You These Big Questions, Moral Questions. Why Do You Think You're On A Fun Ride? Suddenly You're Like How Am I Supposed To Feel About That?

I Love Comic Books - Maybe To A Fault Sometimes.

I Write In A Pretty Straightforward Way. I Kind Of Sit Down At Page One And Start Writing.

I Do Like Superman As A Character, And I Have Followed Him Throughout The Years.

In The Sense That Watchmen References Movies, Comic Books, Pop Culture In General. It Knows It's A Movie. I Really Do Like Movies That Ride That Fine Line, The Razor's Edge Between Parody And Supporting The Fake Movie Part Of The Movie.

You Can't Have A Superman That Is Battling Cultural Morality. You Need A Superman That Has Built In Sort Of Values.

The Truth Is These Characters [of Batman Story] Evolve, And There's A Lot Of Hands In The Supporting Of These Characters. It's Great When Everybody Can Know Where Everything Came From. It's Important For The Legacy Of Them.

Music Has That Ability To Be A Magical Thing, And I Was Like, Maybe Music Is The Vehicle That Transports Us To That Other World.

I Felt Like, In The Recent Past, People Have Been Apologizing For Superman, A Little Bit, For His Costume, For His Origins, And For The Way He Fits Into Society.

I've Always Been Influenced By The Human Form. I'm A Big Fan Of That Shakespeare Quote. I Tend To Leave Out The Bad Part Of The Paragon Of Animals Quote, Because I Have This Sort Of Ayn Rand Aesthetic. It Was Always One Of Those Quotes That Inspired Me.

The Thing About 'dark Knight' Is Its Objective Is To Set Batman Into Your World, So That You Can Imagine The Moral Dilemmas He Faces Are Exactly Parallel To Moral Dilemmas That You Would Face In This World, Today, If You Were Out There Fighting Crime Dressed Like A Bat.

People Always Come Up To Me Now And Say, 'watchmen' Is The Best Superhero Movie Ever Made.' I'm Always Saying 'that's Super Cool. That's Nice Of You To Say.' But It Happens Now, More And More And More Than It Did When It First Came Out.

We Can Deny Angels Exist, Convince Ourselves They Can't Be Real. But They Show Up Anyway, At Strange Places And At Strange Times. They Can Speak Through Any Character We Can Imagine. They'll Shout Through Demons If They Have To. Daring Us, Challenging Us To Fight.

I Think I Just Have A Natural Operatic Aesthetic. I Can't Help It.

For Whatever Reason I Was Always Obsessed With The Potential Of Humanity's Physicality. Especially Since We Grew Up With Such A Non-physical Philosophy.

I Think Up To This Point, It's Been Difficult To Suggest A World Where Batman And Superman And Wonder Woman And Others Could Exist In The Same Universe. That Was One Of The Things I Really Wanted To Try And Get At. Not To Mention, The Amazing Opportunity To Bring Those Characters And Have Those Characters Tell An Important Story, Their Own Story, Within The Confines Of A Film.

Probably The Hardest Thing To Do Was The Beginning Of The Movie ["300"], I Think, When We Were In Sparta And All That - Just Getting In The Groove.

I’m So Excited To Begin Working Again With Henry Cavill In The World We Created, And I Can’t Wait To Expand The Dc Universe In This Next Chapter. Let’s Face It, It’s Beyond Mythological To Have Superman And Our New Batman Facing Off, Since They Are The Greatest Super Heroes In The World.

I Believe That Pop Culture Is Just, Like, So Ready For 'watchmen.' We Tried So Hard To Ride That Wave Between Satire And Reality, And All The Things That Make You Still Care About The Character, But You Don't Miss The Commentary About Them.

I Imagine The Film ["300"] As If I Was A Spartan And I Had Never Seen An Immortal Or A Persian, Or An Elephant Or A Rhino For That Matter.

My Mom Always Encouraged Me, It Was Never Weird. She'd Look At 'heavy Metal' And Go 'woo-hoo!'

Our Plans For 'superman?' I Can't Say. This Is The Most Super Secret Thing Ever. It's Like Working For The Government, Like I'm On A Covert Mission.

I've Ended Up As A Filmmaker Who Really Loves The Movie Part Of Movies. That Time In My Life Was A Big Influence On The Kind Of Movies That I Ended Up Making. I Always Think I'm Going To Make A Movie That's Gritty And Real, But Then I Make A Movie That's Like An Opera. I Fight It At First And Then That's Just The Way It Is.

My Aesthetic Is Probably Closer To A 15-year-old's Than My Dad's, But I Get His Conviction.

Of Course It Would Depend On The Project, But I Don't Think I Could Ever Separate Myself From My Aesthetic.

It's Difficult To Find A Movie That Feels True To Itself. You Feel The Hand Of Hollywood, The Moviemaking By Committee, On Everything.

Also I've Got To Say In The Movie ["300"] Gorgo, Who Is The Queen, She Has Also A Part That Is - I Think - I Don't Want To Say, 'oh Look, It's Multi-quadrant,' And All This. I Believe That It Is Because I Think My Dad Can See This Movie And Go, 'f**k Yeah!

There Was This Interesting Quote: Try And Live Your Life Without Fear And Desire. It's This Concept That's Like When You Look At A Painting In A Museum And You Are Held In Aesthetic Arrest. So The I, The Ego, Is Stripped, Is Gone. The Observer And Thing Become One. That's Where Fear And Desire Come In Because You Don't Want To Own It, Possess It, Desire It, And It's Not Moving You To Fear. It's Like You're In This Harmonious State With The Object.

When Reality Is A Prison, Your Mind Can Set You Free.

I Mean, Like, I Can Go In A Room And Say, Look, 'watchmen' Should Be At Least 15 Minutes Longer Than 'batman.' I Mean, That's, Like, Any Geek Will Tell You That.

Origin Stories Are Really Important To Me. I Just Like That Sort Of Stuff And I Feel Like It Makes A Lot Of Sense To The Guys, Who They Are. If You Don't Have That Stuff, It's Kind Of A One Dimensional Version Of It.

I Think Sin City Is A Good Example. Nobody Would Accuse Sin City Of Being Historically Inaccurate Because It Takes Place In Modern Times.

Everyone Has An Angel, A Guardian Who Watches Over Us. We Can't Know What Form They'll Take. One Day Old Man, Next Day Little Girl. But Don't Let Appearances Fool You, They Can Be As Fierce As Any Dragon. Yet They Are Not Here To Fight Are Battles, But To Whisper From A Hearth. Reminding That It's Us... It's Everyone Of Us Who Holds The Power Of The Worlds We Create.

He's This Amazing Ambassador For All Superheroes. What We've Made As A Film Not Only Examines That But Is Also An Amazing Adventure Story. It's Been An Honor To Work On. As A Comic Book Fan, Superman Is Like The Rosetta Stone Of All Superheroes.

The Truth Is The Music Is Really An Incredible Personal Part Of The Movie. When I Was Drawing The Storyboards For Watchmen, I Had Just Gone To My Ipod And Was Grabbing Music. It Took Me About Two Weeks To Really Put My Playlist Together. But Once I Had It, I Kinda Just Put My Headsets On And Drew For Five Months. But That Music's The Music That's In The Movie.

It's Interesting Now That Basically A Cg Set Is The Same Cost As A Real Set. So Like If You're Going To Build A Cg House In The Suburbs, It Costs You $200,000. And If You Were Going To Build It In A Computer, It'll Cost You $200,000. It's The Same... The Relationship Is Exactly The Same.

I'd Say The Purest Experience For The Movie Is Not To Have Read The Book Because I Think When You've Read The Book You're Just Ticking Off Boxes. I Think That After You See The Movie, Reading The Book Is A Cool Thing. I Always Say The Movie's Not Meant To Replace The Book. That's Ridiculous. I'm A Huge Fan Of The Book.

I Understand The Rules Of Superman - Not Necessarily Better Than Anyone Else - But Better Than A Normal Filmmaker Would. After Doing 'watchmen' And Digging That Deep Into The Why Of Superheroes, When Superman Is Presented To You, I Felt Like I Was In A Unique Position To Say 'i Get This Guy. I Know What This Is.

So You Know When You Were Work On Man Of Steel, In 10 Years Somebody Is Going To Do The Music For Man Of Steel, And A Different Director Is Going To Be Doing Man Of Steel. That’s The Reality. So All You Can Do Is To Give It Not Only Your Best, But Your Vision On What This Character Is, When You Become One With That Character.

Yeah, I Mean, I Think I'm Obsessed With Tone In The Movies. Tone Has Always Been The Main Thing That I Go After With A Movie.

I Heard One Time That The Superman Glyph Is The Second Or Third Most Recognizable Symbol On Earth After The Christian Cross.

There's Very Few Dork Movies Made By Dorks.

Don't Mean To Sound Weird But I Get So Immersed In The Source Material When I'm Working On A Movie That I Kind Of Lose The Line Between What I Thought Of And What Was In The Book.

Who Honors Those We Love For The Very Life We Live? Who Sends Monsters To Kill Us...and At The Same Time Sings That We'll Never Die? Who Teaches Us What's Real...and How To Laugh At Lies? Who Decides Why We Live And What We'll Die To Defend? Who Chains Us...and Who Holds The Key That Can Set Us Free? It's You. You Have All The Weapons You Need. Now Fight!

I Always Say, I'm Certain I Changed 'watchmen' Less Than The Coen Brothers Changed 'no Country For Old Men.' I'm Certain Of It. But You Don't Hear The Cormac Mccarthy Fans, Like, Up In Arms About It. They Should Be. It's Like An Amazing Pulitzer Prize-winning Book.

I Want To - We're Working Toward Justice League, And I Really Want To Create The - Part Of The Thing I Really Want To Create Is The Possibility Of A World Where They Could Exist Together.

With Dawn I Was Afraid People Would Just Think It's A B-movie And I Didn't Know What I Was Doing. That's Really What I Was Afraid Of. Like The Subtlety Of The Movie They Would Miss. If The Movie Succeeds, It's That People Understand The Subtlety. That They're Able To See Past The Conventions Of What They Think A Movie Is And Go A Teeny Bit Deeper And Let It Be Both.

Once You Land On Who You Think The Character Is And What His Conflicts Are, You Have To Let That Lead You. You Have To Throw All That Other Stuff Away And Not Be Worried About This Epic Responsibility, Or It Will Just Crush And Paralyze You.

One Of The Things I Think Is Important About 'watchmen' Is That It Have Resonance Within Cinematic Pop Culture As Well As Superhero Culture.

You Know, It's A Hugely Difficult Thing To Take Any Work Of Art Or Drawing And Say 'make That Real.'

In The Making Of Book ["300"] There's A Guy Named Victor Davis Hanson Who Is A A Frickin Genius. He's A Greek Historian And We Showed Him The Movie Because I Wanted Him To Write A Forward To The Making Of Book. I Was A Little Nervous To Be Honest, Because I Wasn't Sure How He'd React.

I Always Say 300 Is A Sci-fi Movie As Much As Anything. It's Like That Could Be Another Planet. It Doesn't Have To Be Earth Necessarily. That's Like When People Get So Wrapped Up In The Politics Of 300 I Always Go, "by The Way, That's A Sci-fi Movie. It's Not Really A Historical Film."

The Eyes Get Lost In 3-d. With 3-d, Your Eyes Are Looking For The Plane Of Focus, Right? And The Problem Is, When You Do Quick Cuts, Your Eyes Can't Find It.

My Personal Success Would Be That People Understand What I Was Trying To Do. It Was The Most Palatable When I Watchmen_7_mdid Dawn. With Watchmen, Too, I Feel The Same Way. The Movie's Ironic And Satirical And It's Funny And Serious And That's Kind Of The Same Way I Felt About Dawn. Like I Really Was Making A Movie That Knows It's A Zombie Movie And Enjoys That And Wants The Audience To Say, Yeah, That's Okay.

I Used To Be A Huge Fan Of Heavy Metal Magazine Growing Up, And I Was Exposed To Cobalt There And Fell In Love With The Character And The World. I've Tried To Track It Down And Pursue It Myself To Make A Movie Out Of It. Also I Felt Like The Thing That's Cool About Cobalt Is It Does Have A Culty Kind Of Underground Quality To It That I Really Like.

We've Tried As Hard As We Can Into Keep The Ideas Intact In The Hail Storm That Is Hollywood, So, Whether He Is Or Not, I'm Personally Proud Of What I've Been Able To Jam Down Their Throats.

Reality's Its Own Thing. And I'm Not Really Into Reality That Much. I'm Into This Cinematic Stylized Reality That Can Comment On Reality. It's Like The Most Beautiful Parts Of Reality And The Saddest Parts, But It's None Of This Middle Ground.

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