What Patrick Wilson Really Thinks About Zack Snyder's Watchmen Adaptation

Despite all of his experiences as an actor under the direction of such esteemed filmmakers as James Wan, Joel Schumacher, and Ridley Scott, it appears that Patrick Wilson's work with Zack Snyder resonates the most.

Wilson starred as Dan Dreiberg, aka Nite Owl, in Snyder's 2009 film adaptation of writer Alan Moore's and artist Dave Gibbons' classic comic book series "Watchmen." Having made his directorial debut in July 2023 with "Insidious: The Red Door," Wilson told ReelBlend that he watched "Watchmen" again as part of his process of stepping behind the camera.

"Watchmen is the only movie of mine that I've watched front to back since a premiere. I wanted to look at it as an older guy, as a filmmaker," Wilson told ReelBlend. "I knew Zack was ahead of the curve, you know, it's weird to say that audiences weren't ready for it, but you need a movie like that. You need movies to go so dark, so then 'Avengers' can go so light. But yeah, I love that movie. I mean, I'd love to do that movie now. I mean, honestly, I think it would be so awesome to just do it now."

Another part of the reason Patrick Wilson wanted to see "Watchmen" again was so he could view the film with his son, the actor told ReelBlend. Of course, that meant that Wilson had to be quick with his remote control because "Watchmen" is not only rated R for its scenes of violence, but because it includes an explicit sex scene between Wilson's Nite Owl and Malin Akerman's Laurie Jupiter, aka Silk Spectre II.

"I wanted to share it with my son — I also wanted to fast-forward to the scene with Malin in the ship," Wilson told ReelBlend with a laugh. "I needed to stay close by."

Regarding his work on both sides of the camera on "Insidious: The Red Door," the real reason Wilson wanted to direct the fifth film in the franchise stemmed from the comfort level he had with the filmmakers and material as an actor in the franchise. "It made sense," Wilson told Looper in an exclusive interview. "Rarely do you get the opportunity for your first one out of the gate to be a film that you could craft to your own personal liking, themes that you wanted to explore, with producers that I know very well, that their track record is amazing in this space — you knew that the film would be taken care of."

Even though fear caused Wilson to initially reject directing "Insidious: The Red Door," it clearly was a good decision to cast his trepidations aside. The film opened at No. 1 at the box office the first weekend of July, grossing more than $33 million in ticket sales.