Who's watching the watchmen?

A couple of weeks ago, I moved my copy of Watchmen from my bookshelf to my rarely used computer desk, fully intending to, you know, read it. Because that’s what one usually does with books. It’s still sitting on my desk.

I haven’t read it since college, and I’d like to one more time before the film comes out next year. I guess my main “concern” (and I use the term loosely because I’m not much of a movie buff) is that the movie will lose a lot of what’s in the book. Full disclosure: I’ve never seen Dawn of the Dead OR 300, but I know people generally love or hate Zack Snyder’s work. ... And with Watchmen, we're talking about a book that people said could never be turned into a movie.

It boils down to the same problem I see with a Sandman film – or even a series. I love Sandman and the idea of a film is exciting, but practically speaking, I’m just not sure it would work. (Gaiman himself years ago said the project is in "development hell," though last year, he said he thinks its time "is coming soon.") I would like to see who they'd cast for, say, Delirium and Thessaly. No, wait! Who would they cast as Lucien?

Speaking of casting, I’m not super-thrilled with the cast of Watchmen, though I won’t write it off just for that. I just don’t think anyone has enough star power on his or her own to be a big box-office draw. Paul, on the other hand, said that's fitting because the heroes themselves are somewhat out of the spotlight.

Anyway, now that I've taken the first step and pulled the book from the shelf, I’ll probably find a half-dozen reasons to put off reading it, such as Squeenix’s The World Ends With You, though the game is new enough that I'm having trouble finding it in stores. We'll see.