Watchmen is moving towards movie screens again, and Warner Bros. is eyeballing a new director for the comic to movie translation.

AICN says Dawn of the Dead remake director Zak Snyder is currently in negotiations with Warner Brothers to take the helm of the Watchmen adaptation. Dawn of the Dead was Snyder's first film, and he's currently working on his second one, a period war movie based on another comic by Sin City's Frank Miller.

So what the heck is Watchmen and why is everyone making such a big deal out of it? It's only the best comic series ever written, that's what. It was penned by Alan Moore, the wild haired, crazy-eyed guy who wrote V for Vendetta. Originally written in 1986, "Watchmen" is the story of a world in which super heroes were a reality… and have now become outdated and retired. It's a lot like a much more serious, adult, heavy version of The Incredibles. Mix in a lot of doomsday plot, a detective story, and some incredibly relevant social commentary and you've got the most complex, amazing story ever put to paper with pictures. It really is that good. Pigeonholing it as a "Superhero Comic" doesn't even come close to covering it.

For decades now, Hollywood has been trying to find a way to get Watchmen to screen. As recently as a year ago, a Watchmen movie was in development over at Paramount, to be directed by Bourne's Paul Greengrass. Paramount went through some restructuring, and in the process Greengrass's version got killed. Warner Bros. bought the property from them, and now they're pushing ahead, looking for a new director.

WB is also making some tweaks to the film's script. Greengrass was planning to use a screenplay written by X2 writer David Hayter. AICN says Hayter's script is still in play over at WB, but they are making revisions to fine tune it as much as possible.

Well they should. This one of the most important, potential loaded movie properties currently in production. This is the Lord of the Rings of comic book adaptations. Done right, it'll be a fantastic movie. Done wrong, it'll be a mind boggling disaster. Tune it, tweak it, take the time to get it absolutely right.

What about Snyder? Is he up to the task of directing such a huge, monumentally important film? Hard to say. Dawn of the Dead made a lot of money, and wasn't exactly hated. Snyder did a competent job with his remake. But that's not much to judge him on. Hopefully we'll get a better feel for him once he releases 300 in 2007.