Billy Crudup Cast in Zack Synder's Watchmen

It seems actor Billy Crudup has joined Director Zack Snyder's adaptation of the award winning comic book, Watchmen.

Billy Crudup is known for his roles in Almost Famous and Mission Impossible 3. He is also the voice of the MasterCard commercials.

According to Coming Soon, Crudup will be playing Dr. Manhattan. In the Watchmen universe, Dr. Manhattan is the only super powered character. He's a scientist who accidentally gets annihilated on an atomic level and reconstructs himself into a big, naked, blue, floating demigod.

Impressed with his work on 300, Warner Brothers hired Zack Synder to direct the film. Alex Tse (Sucker free City) is re-writing the script originally written by David Hayter (X-men).

Tyler Bates (Rob Zombie's Halloween) is being set as the music composer with Gerald Butler (300) being rumored to be part of the cast.

Watchmen is a twelve-issue comic book limited series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. Originally published by DC Comics as a monthly limited series from 1986 to 1987,[1] it was later republished as a trade paperback.[2] It was one of the first superhero comics to present itself as serious literature, and it also popularized the "graphic novel" format. To date, Watchmen remains the only graphic novel to win a Hugo Award and is also the only graphic novel to appear on Time Magazine's 2005 list of "the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.

Watchmen is set in 1985, in an alternative history United States where costumed adventurers are real and the country is edging closer to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union (the Doomsday Clock is at five minutes to midnight). It tells the story of a group of past and present superheroes and the events surrounding the mysterious murder of one of their own. Watchmen depicts superheroes as real people who must confront ethical and personal issues, who struggle with neuroses and failings, and who - with one notable exception - lack anything recognizable as super powers. Watchmen's deconstruction of the conventional superhero archetype, combined with its innovative adaptation of cinematic techniques and heavy use of symbolism, multi-layered dialogue, and metafiction, has influenced both comics and film.

The film will have a budget of around $150 million and filming is to start in September with a 2008 release date.

Keep a look out for updates in the future.

Sources-Coming Soon (http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=21815)