Alan Moore was scarily prescient when talking about how – if you really had to make a film – Dr Manhattan could work on screen.

Alan Moore: Apparently they asked Arnold Schwarzenegger, “Would you be prepared to shave your head and paint yourself blue for a film?” and he said “sure, if it makes sense.” But will anybody believe that Arnold Schwarzenegger can actually understand the theory of relativity?

Dave Gibbons: I think it’s a case where a certain amount of woodenness would actually enhance the performance.

Alan Moore: My suggestion was for Dr Manhattan to be played by a computer graphic—which I think would work.

The Fountain got in the way of Darren Aronofsky’s attempt to make Watchmen a cinematic reality.

Darren Aronofsky: there had been scripts kicking around for years and we were huge fans. David Hayter’s script was great. We finally read a script were someone had been able to take this very complicated premise and boiled it down. Watchmen is something we had great respect for and didn’t want to take it lightly.

Problem is, the studio wanted to make it the summer we shot The Fountain (2005), which means we’d be in pre-production as we were shooting this, which is not something you can rush. It was timing. It meant so much to us, and I hope they realise that too.