Featuring a few extra scenes shuffled amongst the ones from the previous trailer, this new preview certainly helps cement my faith that the finished product will be a definite step up from previous translations of Alan Moore’s work to the big screen. Sure, the tank scene looks like it might have been sponsered by Airfix but the new footage featuring Rorschach is excellent. You actually get to see his mask close enough to notice it changing patterns, something I hoped they wouldn’t mess up. And they haven’t.

So roll on March 2009, as I for one can’t wait to be watching the Watchmen.

The ‘official’ version? Not a fan. I’m a bit old school when it comes to Bond tunes. They need to be big, brassy and if possible, mention the name of the film at least every other sentence. I don’t care how difficult it is to crowbar that mother in there, you do it! This Alicia Keys and Jack White track (“Another Way To Die”) is just a bit too vacant and generic for my tastes and suggests less a big Bond event and more a Saturday afternoon chart run-down on the radio. Sure, it’ll go over great guns as a mere pop song but it’s not a Bond theme song.

Which brings us to Joe Cornish’s masterful offering. Joe, one half of the classic ‘Adam and Joe Show‘, a writer, presenter, director, radio personality, oh heck, he does everything and he’s a damn sight funnier than any one person deserves to be… has created what surely is the definitive Quantum Of Solace theme song. It’ll probably be what I’m humming to myself, fingers in ears, when I sit down to the opening credits of QoS.

You can find the vastly superior Joe Cornish submission (courtesy of Youtube), here. Enjoy.

Update : Oh booo! Seems like the video has been taken down. Still, if you want to at least hear the track, someone else has replaced the official song in the opening credit sequence with Joe’s version and you can find that here. Also, there’s a nice snippet from Adam & Joe’s radio show where they talk about the popularity (and some of the nutters that crawled out of the woodwork too), because of the Youtube video. That can be found here.

Update Update : While going through the site, replacing images I noticed that someone else had put another copy of Joe’s song on Youtube so I’ve fixed the original link in the article. Tsch, eh?

So how does it look? Well, I’ve very, very hopeful after seeing the trailer. Whenever something you’ve loved in another medium crosses over to film, you tend to get wary – and often, justifiably so. The people responsible talk a good game. They’ll harp on about sticking true to the source material and capturing it’s essence but then they just go off and produce their own bullshit take on the story, ignoring what you loved about the original, throwing out key elements due to budget, pacing or sheer-fucking-stupidity and drowning it in crowd-pleasing filler.

But it seems like we’re in for a treat this time round. The set shots have been true to Dave Gibbons‘ artwork, with the same muted colour scheme and design throughout. Dr. Manhattan looks the business and the scene from the trailer with three of him just captures the character’s expressions from the comic book perfectly. There’s even rumours abound that the comic book’s original ending might survive. For those in the know, that should be interesting.

So pop along to FirstShowing.net (a site you really ought to bookmark if you haven’t already) to check out the trailer.

The new trailer really, really isn’t making that wait go any faster, I can tell you. The gang is back (joined by ex-pop imp, Luke Goss – who was also great in Blade II with Ron & Guillermo), and from the trailer, the action and the special effects have certainly been taken up a notch. The film is set to open (over here in the UK) at the end of August and I can’t wait.

It’s certainly going to be a good year for comic book heroes in the movies. The other big film I’m itching to see is Iron Man. The trailers have looked excellent and generally, Robert Downey Jr. can do no wrong for me. I’m actually looking forward to those two films a touch more than the new Batman flick, The Dark Knight. I thoroughly enjoyed the first film of the reboot but I dunno, this one just isn’t sparking for me as much. I think it lost a little shine when they were pimping out the Bat-bike (sorry, I mean ‘Bat Pod‘). Yeah, yeah, people perked up and took notice when you unveiled the new Batmobile but don’t make the vehicle ‘the thing’. Motorbike + Cape, not good.

Anyhoo, if you haven’t discovered the link to the trailer amidst the ‘link-arrhea’ of this post, you can get to it here. Enjoy!

Personally, I have to say I’m quite happy with the casting and costumes. I will admit Matthew Goode / Ozymandias looks a little odd in his photo – a touch weedy but I’m willing to put it down to bad lighting, camera position, make-up or a rather naff photoshop tweak job on the image until I get into the cinema and see the character in action. The rest of them are top notch (that Silk Spectre outfit is waaaay distracting) so fingers crossed that the suits don’t ruin this adaptation like they ruined Daredevil – a film only weirdos like (naming no names, they know who they are).