Long before Damon Lindelof and even Zack Snyder got to play with the world of Watchmen, X-Men and X2 screenwriter David Hayter was brought in to write and direct an adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal superhero comic book series when it was set up at Universal Pictures.
While his version never made it to the screen, Hayter has now shared some rather intriguing test footage that he shot back in 2003 and featuring Iain Glen (Game of Thrones) as Nite Owl and Ray Stevenson (Punisher: War Zone) as Rorschach. Watch it here…
Hayter ultimately exited the project after he and producers Lawrence Gordon and Joel Silver encountered creative differences with Universal. Watchmen then moved to Paramount, where Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler) and Paul Greengrass (United 93) were briefly attached to direct Hayter’s script, before another move in 2005 to Warner Bros., with the studio then enlisting Zack Snyder to direct and Alex Tse (Superfly) to rework Hayter’s draft. He did however retain a screenwriting credit on Snyder’s film. which arrived in 2009 – some 23 years after Gordon and Silver first acquired the rights.