Producers behind “Watchmen” call the movie a fresh, expressively intricate adaptation of the superhero film, but they are counting on the production to dominate the box office just like conventional comic book flicks have managed to do.

 

In order to attain such a result, “Watchmen,” which opens across the globe this week, must draw an audience that is unfamiliar with characters such as Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre and who is eager to engage itself in an awe-inspiring ride, box-officers watchers explained.

 

For a very long time, making a movie based on the extensive 1980s “Watchmen” comic books conceived by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons was believed to be an impossible assignment, because the original story introduced numerous characters, brutality, departures from the subject, as well as an abundance of dialogue.

 

“It’s difficult material. You can’t put it on the head of a pin,” producer Larry Gordon informed reporters. However, fellow producer Lloyd Levin explained that audiences are becoming even more difficult.

 

“The movie audience of today has caught up with the comic book audience of the 1980s, and superheroes are the absolute mainstream and I think there is the opportunity to push things a little bit further,” Lloyd Levin said, as quoted by Reuters.

 

“Watchmen,” which cost approximately $120 million to produce and lasts for 2 hours and 43 minutes, is set in 1985 in the midst of the specter of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union.

 

The only superhero that benefits from real powers is a science aficionado going by the name of Dr. Manhattan, who is almost invincible and all-powerful, but flees to Mars due to the fact that he is unable to understand human nature, particularly the attitude of women. Billy Crudup impersonates the frequently naked Dr. Manhattan, who was offered a computer generated blue hue.

 

In the interim, a shrouded vigilante dubbed Rorschach, played by James Earle Haley, is following the murderer of fellow superhero the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). In addition, he is joined by retired superheroes Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) and Night Owl (Patrick Wilson) in his mission to untangle a scheme with very treacherous consequences for mankind.

 

The comic book series on which the entire movie from Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. studio focuses exposes at the same time both its most significant challenge and its utmost force.

 

The comic books have a zealous base of fans out there, while the series benefits from a fictitious pedigree as well, since it was named by Time Magazine one of the best 100 English-language novels since 1923.

 

Moreover, helmer Zack Snyder, whose 2007 film adaptation of comic book series “300” brought in more than $456 million worldwide, tried to guarantee fanatic readers of “Watchmen” that he would be loyal to the original material.