Watch test footage from the 2003 Watchmen movie that never happened

In the saga of Watchmen‘s journey from page to screen, there was the 2009 film directed by Man of Steel‘s Zack Snyder and now the HBO series from Lost‘s Damon Lindelof. This week, fans get a glimpse of another project that inevitably never happened, one from David Hayter, a screenwriter on 2000’s X-Men movie, its X2 sequel, and 2002’s The Scorpion King.

In 2003, Hayter shot test footage for a planned Watchmen movie with a score by film composer Joe Kraemer. On Monday night, after all these years, Kraemer took to the web to release the scene, which Hayter directed.

Game of Thrones actor Iain Glen is seen in the role of Nite Owl opposite Dexter‘s Ray Stevenson as Rorschach. The footage involves Rorschach surprising Nite Owl in his home to inform him of the death of the Comedian, a moment that kickstarts the main mystery in Alan Moore‘s original 1986 comic.

Hayter would depart the project over creative differences and, over the course of the movie’s evolution, Snyder would incorporate pieces of what Hayter wrote for his cinematic take on Watchmen. Patrick Wilson played Nite Owl in Snyder’s movie, which also featured Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach. Various leaks and reports from back in 2008 offered us more clues as to other elements that were allegedly part of Hayter’s plan.

With Watchmen now reaching new heights in our pop-culture ethos, thanks to Lindelof’s HBO show, it apparently was time for Kraemer to release the Hayter cut.

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