That’s if it’s faithful to the novel. They could make a three-hour epic out of it if they decide to add liberally to what McCarthy designed.

@Alan – With the exception of your reference to the cultural mandate (a doctrinal concept I still find unmerited in the scriptural evidence—see comments), you like post-apocalyptic literature for the same reason I do (and indeed, I like science/speculative fiction for this reason too). It’s distilled mis-en-scene, allowing for clarity in exploring the human state and the social/ethical questions that get confused in more heterogeneous circumstances.

Re Watchmen:
While I’m cautiously hopeful that it will be a good film despite the fact that its source is virtually untranslatable to the screen (due its reliance upon the comic book form to make its points), I’m highly doubtful that the film will garner any real box-office success. Watchmen will be rated R and won’t contain any of the action and violence that made 300 popular (and as far as scene design, Frank Miller proves a much more dynamic scenist than Dave Gibbons—who created Watchmen‘s visual flow). There will be sexuality and likely quite a bit of nudity (mostly male), which will eliminate a large number of the youth ticket (parents are much happier with their children seeing R-rated films that aren’t primarily R for their naughty bits).

I have a feeling that Watchmen will only be popular if it significantly departs from the book—the changed ending makes it obvious that they’re trying to alter some of the book’s less popular elements.

@Rich – Have you read Watchmen?

@Adam – Why is it do you think that The Dark Knight should have received an Oscar nomination? I thought it was pretty cool (except for Bale’s inability to enunciate), but it struck me as being pretty far from The Awesome that people are declaring it. Possibly the best superhero film ever. Probably in the top five of comic adaptations. But I fail to see what recommends the film to get top honours for the year. I experience the same disconnect when people talk about WALL-E like this. It was a fine film, but not even in the Top 5 (or probably even 10) of animated films ever (heck, I saw one last week that was better).

The Danes last blog post..20081119.ChurchLies