Synopsis:

As we approach the 15th anniversary in March 2024, I'm immensely excited to release this new version of the 2009 Watchmen movie. At first, it sounded simple. Just add the squid back in. But I decided it was really an opportunity to expand the movie beyond that. Using voice cloning and footage from the 2019 sequel miniseries, I was able to add back in major plot points from the comic. And by inserting nearly the entire Under the Hood feature as an in-world 60 Minutes type interview, I've expanded the world and story significantly. I’ll go through both broad strokes and in intricate detail in other sections.

Intentions:

@gleem suggested that someone take footage from the Watchmen (2019) TV show and use it to make the ending of the movie comic accurate. He knew I had already made an edit of the miniseries (The Bass Reeves Cut - a Hooded Justice origin movie) that did not use the 1985 flashback footage. So, I took the challenge and ran with it, increasing the scope as I went along.

Change List:

Major notes on the project: -The edit uses Watchmen - The Director's Cut as a starting point. -Ending is now true to the graphic novel. Using sequences from the 2019 Watchmen miniseries, I’ve added two scenes surrounding Veidt’s plan. The footage has had film grain overlayed to closer match the rest of the overall look. -Voice cloned Matthew Goode (Adrian Veidt) and Billy Crudup (Dr. Manhattan) for lines surrounding the end of the film (as well as a single line from Seymour and a couple for Hooded Justice). -Shortened several action sequences, primarily to cut moments of superhuman strength from any character that isn’t Dr. Manhattan or Adrien Veidt. -Implemented almost all the Under the Hood featurette as an in-universe 60 minutes type interview show. Kept most segments between 1 and 2 minutes, with only a couple coming in around 3 minutes. -Added open matte shots to certain scenes. While not shot in IMAX, Watchmen was an early action movie presented in theaters with “IMAX” sequences. Over half the movie seems to have open matte footage available, however the director’s cut was not given the same treatment. Since the Under the Hood footage and Watchmen (2019) miniseries have different aspect ratios (4:3 and 16:9, respectively), I’ve opted to edit in open matte footage to embrace the shifting screen formats. The corners of many of these shots are blurred with neighboring footage, as the wide presentation and open matte footage don’t fully line up. The alternatives (cropping the sides or leaving the corners black) were less appealing. Finally, some notes on music: -I really think most choices in the movie are top notch. Many are referenced in the graphic novel or act as short hands for the time period depicted. As a rule, I decided I was only going to use music from pre-November 1985 and preferably that’s referenced in the graphic novel. -As I’ve created two new scenes for the movie (using voice cloning mentioned above), I needed some additional music. For the first Veidt scene I used the song Sanities by John Cale, which is referenced in the graphic novel. -For the second scene, I opted for period and thematically appropriate. I used Call of Ktulu by Metallica (without ever quite letting it go full metal). A fun foreshadowing to go along with the big reveal monologue. -While some of the music from the Watchmen miniseries worked for this edit, some did not. For the squid scene itself, I added A Saucerful of Secrets by Pink Floyd for its spaced-out sense of insanity. -As for music originally in the movie, I only replaced two tracks. And they probably won’t surprise many. First, I removed Hallelujah from the infamous sex scene. In its place, I found a track that’s indirectly referenced in the graphic novel and uniquely ties together Laurie and Dan while adding a goofy tone to the scene (much needed in my opinion). Satisfaction was covered by Devo on their first album. That album is mentioned by Laurie’s in the comic to demonstrate the age gap between her and Dan. But the song Satisfaction would be well known to Dan as he would have been in his 20s when it was originally released by the Rolling Stones. A band Laurie loves playing a song from Dan’s era. -The second song I replaced was the My Chemical Romance cover of Desolation Row. The lyrics themselves are referenced in the graphic novel. The band’s singer, Gerard Way, is a huge fan of Watchmen and an accomplished comic writer. But I ultimately wanted something more period appropriate. I replaced it with Neighborhood Threat by Iggy Pop, a different track referenced in the comic. Cuts and Additions: Detailed change list (all timestamps are within 15 seconds): 00:00 – Added FE intro and project title card 02:30 – Established Under the Hood interviews on TV before Eddie Blake attack 04:00 – Trimmed attack sequence and added open matte shots 11:30 – Open matte shots added to cops and Rorschach investigating 16:30 – Cut Rorschach “shh” to KOed cop and dodging (absorbing?!) bullets 16:30 – Removed “cops” from Hollis Mason saying the original vigilantes were “a few of us cops” 19:00 – Under the Hood segment added 30:00 – Under the Hood segment added 32:00 – Open matte shots added to Rorschach breaking into Dr. Manhattan lab 35:00 – Open matte shot added for Laurie’s vision 40:00 – Under the Hood segment added 50:30 – Voice cloned Hooded Justice from Watchmen 2019 for his two lines to align with my Hooded Justice origin story fan edit: https://youtu.be/Piw-FxiPMvs 55:30 – Under the Hood segment added 1:00:00 – Open matte shots added for police strike sequence 1:03:30 – Under the Hood segment added 1:11:30 – Under the Hood segment added 1:19:00 – Under the Hood segment added 1:24:00 – Trimmed parts of alleyway fight 1:28:30 – Under the Hood segment added 1:42:00 – Under the Hood segment added 1:49:30 – Under the Hood segment added 1:55:00 – Open matte shots added to Veidt Tower attack 2:00:30 – Open matte shots added to Rorschach capture 2:11:30 – Under the Hood segment added 2:21:30 – Under the Hood segment added 2:25:30 – Open matte shot of Laurie suited up 2:27:00 – Open matte shots added to fire rescue 2:28:30 – Graphic novel referenced music substituted for Dan and Laurie sex scene; open matte shots added at beginning; whole sequence trimmed by ~30 seconds 2:34:00 – Open matte shots added for prison fight 2:40:00 – Under the Hood segment added 2:51:30 – Under the Hood segment added 2:56:00 – Incorporated footage from Watchmen (2019) using voice cloning to add Veidt speech to future president Robert Redford; graphic novel referenced music used as background 2:57:00 – Open matte establishing shot of Karnak 2:59:00 – Watchmen (2019) scene added 3:02:00 – Open matte shots of Laurie’s vision 3:06:30 – Open matte shots of Antarctica arrival and entering Karnak 3:09:00 – Watchmen (2019) scene added 3:11:00 – Open matte shots of Karnak fight 3:13:00 – Open matte shots of Karnak fight round two (trimmed slightly short) 3:13:30 – Graphic novel dialog voice cloned for Veidt over footage from Watchmen (2019) and period / thematically appropriate music 3:14:00 – Voice cloned Veidt to say 3 million instead of 15, for comic accuracy 3:17:30 – Shortened 2009 segments of climax that didn’t fit new narrative; added brief 'day for night' color correction to match time with TV footage 3:18:30 – Watchmen (2019) scene leading to “big reveal” with music to fit the tone 3:21:00 – Cut any references from here and onward to the original film ending 3:21:30 – Cut wide shot of crater (that doesn't match TV footage) 3:23:00 – Open matte shots of bullet catch 3:30:30 – Cut Nite Owl attacking Ozymandias (to closer characterize him with the comic) 3:31:00 – Voice cloned famous Veidt & Dr. Manhattan exchange from graphic novel “nothing ever ends” 3:31:30 – Final Under the Hood segment 3:35:00 – Cut Laurie quoting Dr. Manhattan “nothing ever ends” and ended scene on her kiss with Dan 3:35:30 – Used voice cloning to have Seymour say Robert Redford is running for president in 1988 3:36:30 – Replaced first credits song with period appropriate track referenced in graphic novel

Additional Notes:

I’ve chosen not to include the Tales of the Black Freighter animated short. While it works in the context of the comic, I don’t feel it adds enough to the movie version to be worth the additional 25-minute runtime and jarring switches to animation. A note about versions - I encoded in h264 at 1080p (8gb) and h265 at 4k (32gb). All source files are 1080p and I was intending to simply release at that resolution. However, there’s a surprising amount of film grain throughout the movie (likely to help blend the digital FX) and that makes compression difficult. I can’t in good conscience make a near 4-hour movie smaller than above – there’s already artifacts from compressing the film grain. My preferred version is the 4k – despite being considered inferior with film grain, h265 combined with the upscaled resolution really preserved things quite well. Both have the same 5.1 audio.

Other Sources:

Watchmen (2019) miniseries Under the Hood special featurette Songs: Devo - (I Can’t Get Me No) Satisfaction John Cale - Sanities Metallica - Call of Ktulu Pink Floyd - A Saucerful of Secrets Iggy Pop - Neighborhood Threat

Special Thanks:

@ArtisDead for the amazing poster art @gleem for suggesting this edit based on my project Watchmen (2019) The Bass Reeves Cut