Watchmen Movie Trailer Posted on YouTube. Watch it here.

The Watchmen movie trailer has been posted:

If you haven't read Watchmen, go do it now. Back? OK, here's my real-time reaction to said trailer:

"Archie" in action. Doesn't seem too hokey.

Is this Billy Corrigan providing the soundtrack?

The Comedian going through the glass is again a panel-for-shot moment.

There's Rorschach. I was wondering how they'd handle his mask. Seems they went lo-tech.

Dr. Manhattan is CGI.

The Vietnam scene is the Comedian's origin. I wonder how dark they will get with this material.

I really hope they find a way to keep in the Tales of the Black Freighter material--no sign of it here in the trailer. It would be great as intercut cartoon scenes, or even as a lead-in to the feature a la Pixar.

YES! They are:

Courtesy of DC Comics We've had our doubts about Zack Snyder's film of Watchmen, especially in light of the fact that had things worked out right, it could've been Paul Greengrass directing it instead. But we do have to give Snyder kudos for one decision: Snyder will be producing a complete animated version of Tales of the Black Freighter, the pirate-horror comic-within-a-comic that permeates Alan Moore's graphic novel. Gerard Butler (300) confirmed yesterday that he will voice the character of the captain.

"They’re going to do it in the style of a Japanese anime," Butler tells Empire, which we don't love but do grudgingly admit is a bold choice. Reportedly, fragments of the anime might appear in the movie, depending on how well it ends up fitting in, but the entire gruesome short will be included on the eventual Watchmen DVD.

East, across the night seas! East, borne on the naked backs of murdered men!

Ooh, pretty: original Watchmen art ...

Match the Watchmen characters with their Charlton inspirations...

Dick Giordano, who had worked for Charlton Comics, suggested using a cast of old Charlton characters that had recently been acquired by DC. However, the Charlton heroes were being slowly integrated into the normal DC continuity. Because Moore and Gibbons wanted to do a serious storyline in which some of the newly acquired characters would die and the world would be drastically altered by story's end, using the Charlton heroes was not feasible. Giordano then suggested that Moore and Gibbons simply start from scratch and create their own characters. So while certain characters in Watchmen are loosely based upon the Charlton characters (such as Dr. Manhattan, who was inspired by Captain Atom; Rorschach, who was based upon the Question; and Nite Owl, who was loosely based on the Blue Beetle as well as Batman), Moore decided to create characters that ultimately would only casually resemble their Charlton counterparts.