ROTTEN TOMATOES: Malin Akerman Says Watchmen Light On Green Screen

Malin Akerman Says Watchmen Light On Green Screen

The lone Watch-woman talks emotion and psychology

by Fred Topel | October 03, 2007

Watchmen has begun filming but Malin Akerman is still on the press rounds for The Heartbreak Kid. She provided a preview of her role as The Silk Spectre before she joins the rest of the cast on the set.

"This is a really cool role," Akerman said. "She's sort of the psychology of the film because she's the only woman in the Watchmen aside from the previous Watchmen. She is a femme fatale. She is a kick ass fighter."

The film should be action packed, but Akerman will get to inject the conflicts with some heart. "I think she sort of carries the emotion of the film because she is the only woman amongst all of these men. They're going through sort of not being the Watchmen anymore and dealing with that as well as trying to figure out who is trying to kill them off."

Unlike director Zack Snyder's previous 300, most of Watchmen will be practical location shooting. "There's not that much green screen because it's very real. We're not superheroes or anything like that. We just fight. We fight crime. There's only one scene on Mars that I think will be a green screen. I'm excited. I'm looking forward to trying new things."

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Movie:	300
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Celeb:	Zack Snyder
	Malin Akerman

(1-20 of 20 posts) | Reply

Ender7406 writes:
on Oct 03 2007 04:13 PM

This film is basically the reason I choose to keep on living.

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oddjob323 writes:
on Oct 03 2007 04:50 PM

No offense, but the Malin Akerman and Fred Topel don't really know what they are talking about. Akerman says that they are "going through sort of not being the Watchmen", so I hope that she doesn't think there was ever a superhero group named the Watchmen or she doesn't know the source material very well. And Fred Topel, who wrote the article, says "the film should be action packed", but if the movie is even close to the graphic novel, there will be hardly any action, per se, at all.

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Jen Yamato writes:
on Oct 03 2007 04:54 PM

In reply to this comment (#1167227)
I think Fred's point was that Akerman's role will provide an emotional counterpoint to the action that there will be.

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taran72 writes:
on Oct 03 2007 04:58 PM

In reply to this comment (#1166982)
Be prepared to get out the razor blades when this movie sucks.

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twinsfan2715 writes:
on Oct 03 2007 05:59 PM

all i know is i loved the graphic novel, so i hope and pray this is good

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ManofStee1 writes:
on Oct 03 2007 06:30 PM

Only one scene on Mars? Doesn't like half of Dr. Manhattan's story take place there?

Oh well. I'll probably jump off a bridge if Snyder somehow screws this up.

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Segkee writes:
on Oct 03 2007 09:25 PM

They should of let Gilliam do his mini series. That would've been awesome.

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Young Turk writes:
on Oct 03 2007 10:03 PM

Ff all the actresses in hollywood why did they pick her? She is not hot...at all!!

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Weicher writes:
on Oct 04 2007 01:39 AM

I don't like this...

Silk Spectre is a very complex character, and the actress who plays her must know perfectly what her background is. I don't think that Ms Ackerman has done this at all.

"Femme fatale?" "Kick *** fighter?"

WHAT THE FRACK?????

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jacog writes:
on Oct 04 2007 01:44 AM

Young Turk: Why is that the only criteria?? If she's hot?? FFS man, should her ability to act and carry a role not be the number one factor?

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Elixor writes:
on Oct 04 2007 05:28 AM

I'd love this movie to work, but I give this movie less than %5 chance of being done correctly. That graphic novel is a bit complex and doesn't project to movie format well IMO. If it wasn't for Sin City being pulled off so well, I'd give this movie no chance at all.

Hats off to Zach Snyder if he pulls it off.

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krawchi writes:
on Oct 04 2007 05:40 AM

I love the novel but I am skeptical of a movie version. I almost don't even want them to make it, and Malin Akerman's comments aren't helping. At least she's not directing.

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Baccus83 writes:
on Oct 04 2007 07:23 AM

Well what do you expect? They're not going to waste all that money filming five Mars scenes when one will do. It's film, guys, certain things have to be streamlined.

And as for the actress playing Silk Spectre, I don't know - she seems to be grasping at straws here. I really hope she can bring some kind of emotional heft to the film without reducing it to a series of contrivances. I mean, she has to STRUGGLE with having that femme fatale image thrust upon her.

We'll see.

Although I'm glad it's going to be light on greenscreen, apparently. As much as I admired "300" for it's painterly compisition and CG work, there was an odd sense of detachment that just didn't sit right. It still didn't feel like the actors were inhabiting the space.

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blank blank writes:
on Oct 04 2007 08:05 AM

even though im pretty happy with the no name cast, the one question mark was malin akerman (even though she is pretty hot). maybe she can actually act, who knows, but im skeptical until she proves me wrong. the heartbreak kid and a role in harold and kumar isnt exactly a great resume. we'll see.

as for the movie, i think snyder is in a no win situation. he's going to have to cut out something (although he's keeping in the black freighter stuff, which surprised me, i thought that would have been the first thing to go), and whatever he takes out, there's going to be some person who is going to whine about it. i can live with omitting some material to keep the flow going and keep the running time reasonable (i'd go with a 2 40 running time).

what i cant live with is making drastic changes to the source material. if they change the name minutemen to watchmen, thats tolerable and understandable. if they change the ending in any way, or change the characters' motivations in any way, as they have in some of the earlier alex tse and david hayter scripts floating around online, its not. the fact that snyder resisted updating the comic to the war on terror, and that he wants to include the black freighter storyline, signal to me that snyder wants to preserve as much as he can from the book. also, at comic con he was wearing a t-shirt with an obscure watchmen reference on it (the logo of the bar next to moloch's house), its the little things like that that give me hope that snyder might be able to pull off a good watchmen movie.

that being said, there's alot of different ways to make a good watchmen movie, and if done exactly right, watchmen could be the citizen kane of all comic book movies. but there are even more ways to mess it up. we'll just have to wait and see.

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walkingdead09 writes:
on Oct 04 2007 09:14 AM

I think every movie they make from an Alan Moore graphic novel is bad and they shouldn't even attempt this one based on past efforts, besides this was written in 1987 and the whole book is really based on nuclear war and it's just past now. Try to re-read it, the magic just isn't there.

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blank blank writes:
on Oct 04 2007 11:38 AM

walkingdead,

while i acknowledge that all of the movies based on moore's comics are complete crap (except for v for vendetta, even though its not a direct translation of the source material, i thought it was pretty good, although it had its cheesy moments), look at who directed them. the hughes brothers directed From Hell, Steven Norrington directed LXG, and some guy called francis lawrence directed constantine. now i dont know about you, but i had never heard of these hacks before, and nothing they've done since impresses me.

granted, zach snyder is no scorsese, but lets not prematurely judge him or the movie (or discredit moore's masterpiece) just because some hacks couldnt cut it with moore's previous works.

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sunshinethewerewolf writes:
on Oct 04 2007 11:41 AM

walkingdead09 is kinda right. I still dont understand why Warner Bros thinks this is a good idea, considering how ridiculously hard its goign to be.

they have to adapt an incredibly complex graphic novel thats dense and outdated. i dont know about you but im really interested to see how this turns out.

i dont know about Akerman as Silk Spectre II, but Matthew Goode as Ozymandias and Carla Gugino as Spectre I are great for their roles, and probably a lot cheaper for the studio than Tom Cruise and Demi Moore

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blank blank writes:
on Oct 04 2007 12:09 PM

having relative unknowns works for the movie. the last thing i want to see is tom cruise as tom cruise wearing ozymandias' robes. plus it worked for 300. i saw gerard butler as leonidas, unlike say, brad pitt in troy, who was brad pitt dressed like achillies.

plus, who the hell cares how warner brothers is going to market it? i'd rather have a great movie thats true to the source material that doesnt make much money, than a bastardized version of the comic book where the changes are made to make the movie "sexier" and more marketable...

as for it being outdated... i dont think thats necessarily true. not to go all political sciencey, but even though the book is set during the cold war, what kind of war it is isnt the point, the point is the fear of destruction and the hopelessness the people in the book feel, and in the post 9/11 america, i think thats something everyone can relate to. you could argue that with 9/11, the ending of the book is even more poignant then when the book came out.

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Alex138 writes:
on Oct 05 2007 08:52 AM

In reply to this comment (#1167227)
Alex Tse's script has renamed both The Minutemen and The Crimebusters to the 'Watchmen' so maybe she doesn't know the source material or not- but she is probably referring to the script she is using in the movie.

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Alex138 writes:
on Oct 05 2007 08:55 AM

I have read Alex Tse's script...it is VERY faithful to the source material with very minimal changes- along with what I said above, basically everything is sped up. I know that there have been a number of rewrites so what I probably read won't be exact- but it is still the basis for how the script is currently. The only thing I have beef with is the omission of Rorschach's psychiatric analysis- a pivotal look at the character.

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