Kyle Buchanan from Movieline recently spoke with The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus director Terry Gilliam and asked him about Watchmen, a film that Gilliam failed twice to adapt from Alan Moore's graphic novel .

Here's what Gilliam said:

“I felt a lot of it was so good. It got the look of it brilliantly. But it suffered from some of the things I was having problems with when I was trying to write a script. It’s too short. It’s also too long! It’s a very weird thing and they had to make so many compromises and changes. I was always saying it should be a five-part miniseries. I still believe that. But he got the look right, and the Rorshach stuff is really, really great. I think I felt if there was any fault, it was almost too respectful of the original. It needed a kick in the ass, frankly.”

So let me get this right. Gilliam's problem with Watchmen is that it wasn't exactly the length he would have wanted it to be, and that it was too respectful to Alan Moore's work.

I'm not an industry professional so I'll assume Zack Snyder would know what "kick in the ass" means in terms of technical feedback. But I'll interpret it as meaning Gilliam failed twice to bring Watchmen to the big screen and can't handle the fact that Snyder did a better job than he could have.

I think Snyder's Watchmen is the best adaptation of Moore's work that anyone could reasonably hope for. And for the record, if Watchmen had been made as a five-part miniseries the budget would have been way, way smaller. The ability for any director to have adapted Alan Moore's famed graphic novel accurately whilst working from a shoestring budget would have turned out as nothing other than a turd. And let's not forget that one of the reasons Gilliam abandoned Watchmen was because he couldn't raise a budget large enough to do it justice.

Seems to me Gilliam's criticism is simply that it's not his film - sour grapes that he couldn't pull it off. Well, Gilliam had his chance and abandoned it, so I say get over it and show some respect to the guy who actually managed to film the unfilmable film and do it well.

See larger image Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut (DVD) Director: Eric Matthies, Jake Strider Hughes, Zack Snyder Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup Rating: R (Restricted) List Price: $20.98 USD New From: $14.49 In Stock Used from: $16.58 In Stock Release date November 10, 2009.

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