CARTOON ART MUSEUM BENEFIT SCREENING
Cartoon Art Museum event: THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2009, 7:00pm
at The Metreon, 101 Fourth Street, San Francisco
Tickets: $25-$250

The Cartoon Art Museum presents an advance screening of one of the most anticipated films of 2009, WATCHMEN, in a special benefit fundraiser sponsored by Warner Bros. Pictures. This is your opportunity to avoid the opening night crowds and pledge your support to the Cartoon Art Museum, which will receive 100% of the proceeds from ticket sales to this spectacular advance screening.

General Admission: $25: One ticket to the March 5 advance screening of WATCHMEN at The Metreon, plus one free pass to the Cartoon Art Museum

Silver Level: $50: One ticket to the March 5 advance screening of WATCHMEN at The Metreon, plus an Individual Membership to the Cartoon Art Museum

Gold Level: $100: One ticket to the March 5 advance screening of WATCHMEN at The Metreon, a Family Membership to the Cartoon Art Museum, plus an invitation to the exclusive February 20 WATCHMEN exhibition Preview Night at the Cartoon Art Museum featuring WATCHMENartist and co-creator DAVE GIBBONS

Platinum Level: $250: One ticket to the March 5 advance screening of WATCHMEN at The Metreon, a Family Membership to the Cartoon Art Museum, an invitation to the exclusive February 20 WATCHMEN exhibition Preview Night at the Cartoon Art Museum featuring WATCHMENartist and co-creator DAVE GIBBONS, plus a copy of the WATCHMEN graphic novel signed by Gibbons and VIP seating at the March 5 screening

Call 415-227-8666, ext. 300 to purchase tickets, or visit the Cartoon Art Museum admissions desk during our normal hours of operation. Tickets must be purchased before Thursday, March 5, 2009.

The Metreon is located at 101 Fourth Street, at the corner of Fourth and Mission. The screening will begin at 7:00pm on Thursday, March 5, 2009; doors will open at 6:30pm.

All proceeds from this benefit are tax-deductible and will support public programming and exhibitions at the Cartoon Art Museum.

About the film:

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 – moves closer to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the outlawed 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 disbanded 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?

Watchmen is directed by Zack Snyder (300) and produced by Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin and Deborah Snyder. The screenplay is by David Hayter and Alex Tse, based upon the graphic novel co-created and illustrated by Dave Gibbons and published by DC Comics. Herbert W. Gains and Thomas Tull are the executive producers, with Wesley Coller serving as co-producer.

Playing the film’s core group of “Masks,” the masked adventurers at the center of the story, are Malin Akerman (27 Dresses) as Laurie Juspeczyk Jupiter, aka Silk Spectre II; Billy Crudup (The Good Shepherd) as Jon Osterman, aka Dr. Manhattan; Matthew Goode (Match Point) as Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias; Carla Gugino (Night at the Museum) as Sally Jupiter, aka Silk Spectre; Oscar® nominee Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) as Walter Kovacs, aka Rorschach; Stephen McHattie (Shoot ‘em Up) as Hollis Mason, aka Nite Owl; Jeffrey Dean Morgan (TV’s Grey’s Anatomy) as Edward Blake, aka the Comedian; and Patrick Wilson (Little Children) as Dan Dreiberg, aka Nite Owl II.

Joining Snyder behind the scenes are director of photography Larry Fong (300), production designer Alex McDowell (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), editor William Hoy (300), costume designer Michael Wilkinson (300), and visual effects supervisor John ‘D.J.’ Des Jardin (The Kingdom). The music is by Tyler Bates (300).

Watchmen first appeared as a 12-issue limited comic book series. It was originally published by DC Comics from 1986 to 1987, then republished as the now-legendary graphic novel. It is the only graphic novel to win the prestigious Hugo Award or to appear on Time magazine’s 2005 list of “the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.” It also earned several Kirby and Eisner Awards.

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.”
Warner Bros. Pictures and Paramount Pictures present, in Association with Legendary Pictures, a Lawrence Gordon/Lloyd Levin Production, a Zack Snyder Film, Watchmen based on the award-winning graphic novel.

Watchmen will be released nationwide on March 6, 2009. It will be distributed domestically by Warner Bros. Pictures and internationally by Paramount Pictures. The film has been rated R by the MPAA for “strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language.”