As any comics fan could tell you -- at high volume, and possibly a few tears -- the bar for comics-to-film adaptations has been set painfully low. Hopes for Zack Snyder's Watchmen are high, however -- and if the latest gossip from CHUD is on target, that optimism could be justified.

According to CHUD's sources, plans are under way to help retain much of the graphic novel's subtext -- if not in the film itself, then through a pair of intriguing spinoff projects. Watchmen readers will no doubt recall Tales of the Black Freighter, the comic-within-a-comic whose installments help provide a sort of indirect running commentary on what's happening in the main story. Given Freighter's tangential relationship to the storyline, it's always been assumed that those segments would be cut from the film.

They're still not in the main film -- but they might be spun off into an animated (possibly "300-style," as Snyder suggested to CHUD) feature that would be released on DVD when Watchmen hits theaters. And that isn't all. Without getting into too much detail, one of the graphic novel's characters (the Golden Age Nite Owl) published a memoir, excerpts from which bookend Watchmen's chapters -- and according to CHUD's sources, the filmmakers are preparing a mock early '60s interview appearance with Nite Owl, also to be released on DVD.

Warner Bros., of course, has no official comment -- but at the very least, these rumors provide a novel approach for anyone trying to stuff a graphic novel into a film. For more on the story, click on the link below!

Source: CHUD