The consensus on the casting of the Watchmen movie is that we're all glad that superstar actors weren't cast--- y'know, Jude Law as Ozymandias, George Clooney as Nite Owl, etc. But at one point during Watchmen's decade-long development process, the most famous mustache in Hollywood might have played a role.

"At one time I liked Burt Reynolds as the Comedian," admitted Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons at a panel today in New York. "He could probably play him in the later years, but not in the early years."

Gibbons and the movie's director Zack Snyder joined an audience full of journalists after screening about 30 minutes of footage from the movie, the same footage that screened last week in L.A.. The two still had plenty of talk about, including the downloadable Watchmen video game, the non-possibility of a sequel ( "That's crazy" was all Snyder had to say), and some specific characters and moments that had to be cut out of the film. We'll have the highlights from the half-hour press conference, as well as some thoughts on the footage that screened, later this evening. For now, try to wipe the mental image of Burt Reynolds as the Comedian far, far out of your brain.