The Hugo Award winning DC Comics graphic novel, Watchmen, is set to be released as a movie in June 2009. Directed by Zack Snyder of 300 fame, the Warner Brothers/Paramount Pictures/Legendary Pictures production will star: Malin Akerman; Billy Crudup; Matthew Goode; Carla Gugino; Jackie Earle Haley; Stephen McHattie; Jeffrey Dean Morgan; and Patrick Wilson. Not huge names, all of them, but then 300 was cast with some relative newcomers too.

The Watchmen are vigilantes / superheroes who watch over mankind, but a game is afoot to bring them down. Set in a cold-war era, close to nuclear catastrophe, one of the heroes is murdered, which leaves a remaining band who must piece together the reasons before they are all destroyed. The movie’s official homepage promises a dark remake, potentially true to the original novel. There seems to be a growing trend around graphic novel remakes to be gritty and on the darker side (think The Dark Knight), which - for want of a better word - encourages greater realism. The intention of the original comics and graphic novel was to humanise the characters, and be squarely aimed at adults.

Let’s hope they can pull it off. The special effects in the preview suggest that the production is up to scratch, and if it’s anything like 300, it should be worthwhile.