The stars of one of the most eagerly-awaited films of the year posed on a yellow carpet last night at the world premiere of Watchmen.

Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino, Patrick Wilson and director Zack Snyder were among the cast members attending one of the first showings of the big budget adaptation of Alan Moore's acclaimed graphic novel.

Set in 1985, Watchmen tells of a group of retired and banned superheroes reuniting after the death of one of their number, as the world comes perilously close to a cataclysmic war.

Jackie Earle Haley plays the psychopathic vigilante Rorschach, an iconic character of comic book literature and the lynchpin around whom the story revolves.

"I'm beside myself, I'm scared witless and excited beyond belief," the Little Children star said.

"But I think the fans are going to love the film.

"I just hope to God I didn't let them down because I know it's such a beloved character and that's horrible just thinking about it."

Haley revealed he was the only cast member to have read the Watchmen novel before filming and even made his own audition tape for the film.

"I wanted this part so bad, I got the script, made a cheesy Rorschach Halloween outfit, filmed for half a day and cut for half a day and sent it into Zach and it worked," he explained.

Gugino plays Sally Jupiter - or Silk Spectre - whose character ages over 40 years during the film while her daughter Laurie (Akerman, just seven years younger than Gugino) becomes a costumed vigilante.

"It was fascinating, it was really fun, we had the most extraordinary make-up people and prosthetics people on this movie," the Sin City actress said.

"It was really helpful for me to have that in playing the role and it was fun to span 40 years of her life."

She added: "It's exciting to me because I'm always interested in raising the bar and having a good challenge," she added.

"So I love that people are excited about seeing it and want it to be good. The truth of the matter is that it is good and it turned out well."

Watchmen is released in the UK and US on March 6th.


24/02/2009 11:27:16