Zack Snyder director of the upcoming film The Watchmen recently gave up some interesting news to the New York Times about his film and its potential DVD surprises. He first told NYT about the current editing of the film saying,

“The main picture is nearing three hours long and I know I have a fight on my hands just with that.”

In addition to this, because the story is so large, they are planning,

"a dozen 22- to 26-minute Webisodes to help make the complex story easier for the uninitiated to digest. Called “The Watchmen Motion Comic,” it will be a panel-by-panel slide show of the graphic novel narrated by an actor."

Then the story gets even more interesting,

"The twist is that Mr. Snyder, known for turning the Spartan comic book series “300” into a global hit movie, is also directing a separate-but-related picture that Warner plans to distribute exclusively on DVD.

The second film, tentatively called “Tales of the Black Freighter,” follows a side “Watchmen” storyline about a shipwreck and will arrive in stores five days after the main movie rolls out in theaters. The DVD will also include a documentary-style film called “Under the Hood” that will delve into the characters’ backstories...The “Watchmen” film, Mr. Synder said, will probably generate at least three DVDs: “Tales of the Black Freighter,” followed about four months later by release of “Watchmen” itself, and then an “ultimate” edition in which the two are edited together into one megamovie."

Does this sound like another case of DVD studios coming up with ways to "double dip" into your wallet to get you to purchase more? Or is Snyder being genuine about wanting to provide fans with as much as possible but being restricted by the film length to tell the story? What do you think?