Seven days to Comic-Con in San Diego – and 230 days until Watchmen.

With The Dark Knight in US movie theaters today (another week for us to wait here in the UK – thanks, don’t tell me) it seems about the right time to release a movie trailer for Watchmen, doesn’t it?

Go see it right now in HD over at Apple. (And thank God it isn’t hosted on Yahoo!.)

Then come on back; I’ll be waiting.

Try and tell me that doesn’t look like a faithful adaptation of Watchmen – at least with the right beats, the iconic moments from the original. I could probably go through and count the number of shots in there that look practically lifted from the comic, but instead I might as well share my favourite:

Yes. Those of you who have read Watchmen will know just who that is and just what happens next… and I won’t spoil it for those of you who haven’t. (But dammit people, this just won’t fly! You’ve got 230 days – pick up a copy! It don’t read like War & Peace!)

Snyder very smartly places that image really near the front of the trailer, letting fans like me know that at the very least, he knows how to film a comic book panel – although to be fair, he already did that in 300. What he also does though, even before that, is give us the big reveal. Up until now the best image I’d seen of Doctor Manhattan was an action figure. Right up front, he gives us the real thing:

That’s so eerily close to the comic.

I can see the next shot in my head: “Jon..?”

But there’s the proof. There is the damn proof. I don’t think you could have gotten closer to the comic image unless you were making an animated film. I am officially amazed by that.

It felt pretty weird watching this trailer, overall. I think we’re about to see one of the most faithful comic book adaptations ever – right down to the background details. What’s fascinating is to see Dave Gibbons’ alternate 1985, which was simultaneously grimy and gaudy, come to life. I’m not 100 percent sure it’s right, here, yet… but some of the details are wonderful. (Rorschach’s mask can briefly be seen ‘moving’ in the trailer; as soon as I saw it, it seemed perfect.)

And damn, can Snyder shoot some lovely imagery.

Roll on March 2009….