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Alan Moore’s dark, ethereal superhero comic is finally going to make it to the big screen. The original twelve-issue comic book series, published in 1986 – 87, has survived two decades of development hell, has wrapped principal photography as of February 2008, is in post-production, and will finally be released in March of 2009.

Producer Lawrence Gordon began developing the project at 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers. Initially, Terry Gilliam had signed on to direct the film. Gilliam, the maker of Brazil, gave up in frustration, deeming the dense, complex story un-filmable. Gordon then tried Universal and Paramount. Next up to be attached to the project was Darren Aronofsky, the director of Pi and Requiem for a Dream. He was followed by The Bourne Ultimatum’s Paul Greengrass, but the project was cancelled due to budget disputes.

Finally in 2006, the project returned to Warner, and Zack Snyder was attached to direct. Snyder had already had great success adapting comics to the big screen by adapting Frank Miller’s 300. Filming finally started September 17, 2000, on a backlot in Vancouver built to resemble the nightmare-world New York City of the comic book.

The current cut, as this writing, is three hours long. Will it make it to the theaters in this long form? Releasing an overlong movie is very risky. Long movies repel distributors and theater owners, because longer movies mean fewer screenings, and thus less money. But some films are meant to be long. Can you imagine an hour-and-a-half version of Lawrence of Arabia? I hope not.

But what of the original creators, writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons? Moore doesn’t like the idea of Watchmen as a movie. He intended it as a comic book. “Not a movie, not a novel” as he puts it. He’s had some bad luck with film adaptations though, such as the campy Swamp Thing and the less-than-ordinary League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He parted ways with filmmaking after disagreeing bitterly with the Wachowski Brothers over the adaptation of V for Vendetta. Dave Gibbons had his reservations about making Watchmen a movie, too. But in Snyder’s hands, he’s actually looking forward to it. No doubt he’s not the only one, but we’ll all have to wait until March 6, 2009.