Watchmen was released by DC comics as a 12-part comic book series between 1986 and 1987. In an alternate 1985 America, costumed superheroes are outcasts from society and President Nixon is running his fifth term. After the death of the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) sets out to uncover a plot he believes is to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. Along the way he teams up with his former crime-fighting cohorts; Night Own (Patrick Wilson), Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) and Ozymandias (Matthew Goode).

As the Watchmen blog says, “Their mission is to watch over humanity…but who is watching the watchmen?”

The film is being directed by Zac Snyder (300) and was written by David Hayter (X-Men, X2). It is set to be released March 6, 2009.

Watchmen, written by comic-book legend Alan Moore, is the only graphic novel to win the prestigious Hugo Award or to be named among Time magazine’s “100 Best English Language Novels from 1923 to the Present.”