Caped Fears

Take two potential comic-book movies — one that would seem to be a sure thing, at least in terms of plot, the other a long shot worth holding out hope for. First, there's the news that one of the most interesting protagonists Marvel Comics has ever yielded, the Black Panther, might be coming to the big screen. The way comics writer Christopher Priest has turned this saga of the Panther — his true identity: the African prince T'Challa — into a swashbuckling political thriller makes it ripe for a great superhero movie featuring black actors in the leads. Wesley Snipes, who pulled off a mean Blade, has been attached to a Black Panther movie, and best o' luck to him.

The other comics-fan dream is a movie of Watchmen, the landmark 1986 DC Comics 12-issue miniseries created by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons. An epic alternate universe teeming with non-established original heroes that worked as a rousing tale and, as Mike Richardson, publisher of Dark Horse Comics, puts it, a ''deconstruction of the superhero genre,'' Watchmen — first optioned by Joel Silver (The Matrix) — now lies dormant with producer Lawrence Gordon (Mystery Men).

More then 10 years ago, it was a different story. ''Everyone was talking about Terry Gilliam! Terry Gilliam!'' says Watchmen fan and Dogma director Kevin Smith. In the late '80s, after Gilliam, the visionary director of Brazil, had been tapped by Silver to adapt the comic, the plug was pulled. Budget was one big factor. ''The joke going around was that it was $1 million a page,'' says Batman screenwriter Sam Hamm, who wrote the first Watchmen draft. ''That was back when $120 million meant something.''

There was also the mission impossible of distilling Watchmen's sprawling and intricate narrative into a two-hour flick. Says Hamm: ''We felt constantly crestfallen about what we couldn't get in.''

Both Gordon and Gilliam declined to comment on Watchmen's past or future, but Gibbons thinks that its time may have passed: ''It was most likely to happen when Batman was a big success, but then that window was lost. If this new X-Men movie is a big hit, maybe that will open up another window. But to be honest, I'm not holding my breath.''

And in the end, perhaps it is best left on paper. As Smith points out, ''It reminds me how everyone wishes Catcher in the Rye would be made into a movie — but at the same time, they're glad nobody has, since you know no one would ever be able to nail it.''