For over a year now, there’s been constant speculating and rumor-spreading regarding the big-screen adaptation of Watchmen, based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. We’ve covered some of it, but truthfully, on something like this where there’s a new rumor every week, we just decided to skip it and watch for some official word.

Here’s the latest official news:

• As previously reported, Zack Snyder (300) will direct.
• Warner Bros. has launched the official site for the film, which will now contains the synopsis, casting, and poster. There’s also sections to come for photos and a production blog.
• The poster linked on the official site (see it here at right; click for large view) has was revealed over the weekend at the San Diego Comic-Con and was created by Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons exclusively for the Con.
• Cast so far includes: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Patrick Wilson.
• The film is scheduled to hit theaters on March 6, 2009

Read here after the jump the official synopsis as well as more details regarding the casting.

Casting

Playing the film’s core group of “masks,” the masked adventurers at the center of the story, are …

• Malin Akerman (upcoming The Heartbreak Kid) as Laura Juspeczyk, aka Silk Spectre
• Billy Crudup (The Good Shepherd) as Jon Osterman, aka Dr. Manhattan
• Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias
• Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) as Walter Kovacs, aka Rorschach
• Jeffrey Dean Morgan (TV’s Grey’s Anatomy as Edward Blake, aka the Comedian
• Patrick Wilson (Little Children as Dan Dreiberg, aka Nite Owl

Watchmen will be directed by Zack Snyder (300) and produced by Lawrence Gordon (Die Hard), Lloyd Levin (United 93), and Deborah Snyder (300), with Herbert W. Gains serving as executive producer.

Official Synopsis

A complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, Watchmen is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the “Doomsday Clock” — which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union — is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion — a ragtag group of retired superheroes only one of whom has true powers — Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity … but who is watching the watchmen?

About The Graphic Novel

Watchmen was originally published by DC Comics as a 12-comic book series between 1986 and 1987, before subsequently being collected into a trade paperback. It is the only graphic novel to win the prestigious Hugo Award or to be named among Time magazine’s “100 Best English Language Novels from 1923 to the Present.”