The wait is nearly over for Watchmen fans. More than 20 years after Alan Moore's acclaimed graphic novel was published, the movie adaptation is about to hit cinemas the worldwide.
For fans the world over, the idea of their beloved graphic novel up there on the big screen is being greeted with equal measures of frenzied excitement and cautious trepidation.
Created and set in the mid-1980s, Watchmen was an instant classic and DC Comics has been trying to make it into a movie ever since.
Watchmen is set in a gritty dark world of flawed and very human superheroes, only one of whom, Dr Manhattan, actually has any real superpowers.
And while his costumed colleagues aren't as gifted, at least Nightowl has a cool ship.
Last year's The Dark Knight warned audiences the superhero genre was getting more sinister, but are we ready for Watchmen?
"It's a fantastic time for this movie," says actor Patrick Wilson. "Dark Knight is such a great segue into that genre, audiences accept it."
And Wilson's co-stars feel the same way.
"Somebody asked me to describe the film in a sentence, so I said 'it turns out the Dark Knight wasn't so dark after all,'" says actor Jackie Earle Haley.
The film opens globally next week.
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