LONDON , England ( CNN ) -- A yellow smiley-face badge , smeared with blood , has become the trademark for `` Watchmen , '' the most critically revered of all comic books -- but it could also represent its troubled journey from page to big screen . `` Watchmen '' opens with the unexplained murder of The Comedian ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan ) . Note smiley badge . The subject of fervent debate in the geekosphere for more than two decades , `` Watchmen '' finally rolls out in the U.S. and other territories from the first week of March onward . But it 's not as well known to wider audiences , who may puzzle at all this heat about a superhero movie with no A-list star attached . Instead , they may simply ask : `` Watch-what ? '' `` Watchmen , '' created by the UK comic-book team of writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons , surfaced in 1986 as a monthly 12-issue series published by DC Comics ( part of Time Warner , which owns CNN parent company Turner Broadcasting ) . Are you looking forward to `` Watchmen ? '' Or think it 's just hype ? It was a defining year for the medium : aside from `` Watchmen , '' '86 also saw Pulitzer-prize winning holocaust drama `` Maus , '' from The New Yorker contributor Art Spielgeman ; and Frank Miller 's hyperviolent Batman reworking `` The Dark Knight Returns . '' `` Watchmen , '' which takes place in 1985 , is set in a parallel world where America never lost Vietnam , Russia is about to invade Afghanistan and Richard Nixon still holds power ( Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were murdered ) . Meanwhile a superhero team -- only one of whom has special powers -- reforms after a fellow operative is mysteriously slain . But what lifts `` Watchmen '' above its superhero peers is a complex , multi-layered narrative and depth of characterization that ensured it was the only comic book to make Time 's 100 best novels since 1923 . A dark , downbeat work with a heady 11th-hour twist , it puts as much store on subsidiary characters like a newspaper seller as its does blue-skinned man-god Dr. Manhattan . Its influence can be traced to current small-screen favorites like `` Heroes '' and `` Lost . '' Watch `` Watchmen '' trailer . » . Perfect fodder , one might think , for the multiplex -- but `` Watchmen '' has been lodged in Development Hell for the best part of two decades . At various times Arnold Schwarzenegger and Vin Diesel were mooted to play Manhattan ; Mickey Rourke and Ed Norton were suggested for right-wing vigilante Rorschach . Directors set to shoot have included Terry Gilliam , Darren Aronofsky , Paul Greengrass and David Hayter ( whose script has been retained for much of the final film ) . Several planned shoots failed to materialize due to studio fears about the budget ( locations include Antarctica and Mars as well as New York ) and how the ending might be perceived in a post-9/11 world . But film-makers such as Gilliam and Guillermo del Toro also believed that the complex material would be better treated as a TV mini-series . As the latter , the `` Pan 's Labyrinth '' filmmaker , told IGN : `` I just could n't get my head around 'Watchmen ' being two or three hours long . '' Whoever made `` Watchmen '' would also do so without Moore 's blessing . Still resident in his hometown of Northampton , central England , Moore cuts an imposing figure . At least six-and-a-half feet tall , with chest-length beard and hair , talon-like rings on his fingers and the skull of a centuries-old Buddhist monk in his study , he resembles Doctor Who as reimagined by Edgar Allan Poe . ( In person he 's gracious and affable , as this writer will attest from a few years back . ) Moore has had a mixed relationship with both the mainstream comic-book industry ( which he accuses of over-commercialization and exploiting creators ' rights ) and Hollywood . The comic-book series `` From Hell , '' in which Moore uses the Jack the Ripper killings as a precursor to 20th-century violence , runs to about 500 pages , including 40-plus pages of footnotes . On film it became a melodramatic pad around Victorian London , gamely carried by a pre- '' Pirates '' Johnny Depp . Two other Moore adaptations also failed to translate . Stephen Norrington 's `` The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen '' ( 2003 ) was widely derided and the subject of a court case into which Moore was dragged ; by the time of James McTeigue 's better judged `` V For Vendetta '' ( 2005 ) , Moore had asked his name be taken off any movie adaptations and refused to take royalties . Enter Zack Snyder . In 2004 , Snyder came to the attention of mainstream cinemagoers with his well-regarded remake of George A. Romero 's zombie flick `` Dawn of The Dead . '' Following the $ 450m-plus taken worldwide by Snyder 's `` 300 '' ( 2006 ) -- a hyper-stylized take on Frank Miller 's ancient Greek suicide-mission -- it was announced that `` Watchmen '' would be his next project with Warner Bros. Paramount , which abandoned plans for the movie in 2005 , took international rights . The $ 150-million feature went into production in Vancouver in mid-2007 , wrapping in early 2008 , and with a cast including Billy Crudup and Jackie Earle Haley . Snyder has retained `` Watchmen 's '' 1980s setting and also recruited original artist Gibbons -- who still retains friendship with Moore -- to advise on production design . Mindful that a narrative so complex could never work as a movie , Snyder has jettisoned several parallel subplots , which will surface as DVD extras and in director 's cuts . Word is that the ending has also been changed . But wary of over-tweaking , Snyder told Entertainment Weekly last year : `` You ca n't make it into something else , you really ca n't . It 's not 'Fantastic Four , ' it 's got to be hard R [ cinema rating ] , it 's got to challenge everyone 's ideas . '' Meanwhile Moore , who sometimes mentions that he worships a Roman snake-god , hinted in the LA Times that he had cursed the feature . `` I can tell you that I will also be spitting venom all over it for months to come , '' he added . So was it Moore who saw `` Watchmen '' end up in the courts for a case that risked scuppering its release ? Last year Twentieth Century Fox claimed it still retained rights through an earlier deal with producer Lawrence Gordon in the 1980s ; Warners Bros. disagreed but a judge decided there was a case to answer . A settlement was eventually thrashed out last month , only weeks ahead of release . And so `` Watchmen '' ticks toward early March and a rollout in spring , the now-traditional season for edgier comic-book adaptations like `` 300 '' and `` Sin City . '' Trailers and early footage have drawn praise , with several scenes playing like detailed frames from the original artwork . But key will be whether Snyder can match `` Watchmen 's '' dramatic beats against its green-screen chicanery for more than two hours ( the Internet Movie Database lists the running time at 163 minutes ) . After all , successfully mixing pyrotechnics and narrative is how the most satisfying genre features of recent years -- such as Peter Jackson 's `` Lord Of The Rings '' trilogy and Christopher Nolan 's `` The Dark Knight '' -- have found artistic , as well as commercial , favor . Should Snyder pull it off then will he earn the gratitude of fan boys everywhere , as well as no small thanks from a fair few movie executives . What Alan Moore might think is another issue . 'Watchmen ' is released in the UK on 6 March .
Comic - book Source , directed by Zack Snyder , took two decades to reach cinemas . Director Terry Gilliam , Darren Aronofsky , Paul Greengrass , previously attached . Source is regarded by many as the best comic - book ever written . Co - creator Alan Moore has objected to the idea of story being made into movie .