News coming out of San Diego is that director Zack ‘300’ Snyder's interpretation of Alan Moore's classic Watchmen is progressing well.

It has already been confirmed that the aspects of the book’s 1985 period setting will feature heavily in the film and that it’s relying on mostly practical effects, except for the Mars and Antarctica scenes, which will predominantly be CG.

What has also been confirmed is the cast of main actors. Patrick Wilson will be Nite-Owl, the out of shape crime-fighter who uses his engineering wizardry to fight crime (think fat Batman), Jackie Earle Haley will be Walter Kovacs (the insane vigilante Rorschach) and Matthew Goode will be portraying Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias (the ultimate human who is a cross between Captain America and Roman Abramovich). 

Meanwhile, Billy Crudup will be decking either many tins of blue Dulux or a 'gimp suit' for the motion capture for his portrayal of the god-like Dr Manhattan, Jeffrey Dean Morgan will be the woman-beating, cigar-chomping The Comedian, and finally the gorgeous Malin Akerman will play Laurie Juspeczyk/the Silk Spectre,.

The word is that Dr Manhattan will be a fully 3D CG version utilising motion capture, whilst The Comedian character will be seen at various ages - from 19 through until his sixties - all played by Morgan but aged/de-aged through technology.

Snyder also wants to include the Watchmen’s other plot that ran in narrative form in conjunction with the actual Watchmen tale. Entitled Tales of the Black Freighter, this story reflects in its own way the complex story happening in the main book, however Synder has yet to get studio approval to do this plotline, and has also admitted that he doesn't yet know how to work the text heavy (and at times very gruesome) story into a film running time (although a Lord of the Rings style special edition DVD has already been mentioned).

The film team will be using the original artwork from the graphic novel as a basis for the film's action/visuals, and while Dave Gibbons (who illustrated the book) is heavily involved in the film adaptation, Snyder says Moore said a long time ago he wanted his name not to be attached to the film, but it is the writer’s 'deepest hope' that Snyder and co. “didn't f**k up that bad”.

More as we get it…