SAN DIEGO — These days, “300″ director Zack Snyder is hard at work perfecting the impossible. As you read this, he is undoubtedly in some dark edit bay, unshaven and chugging a Starbucks, doing his very best to transform “Watchmen” from an unfilmable comic book into the next smash superhero movie.

So far, what we’ve seen of his efforts has been nothing short of perfection, from the trailer to the fan-pleasing in-jokes to the decision to have My Chemical Romance cover a Bob Dylan song for the end credits.

But how does he deal with the issue of Dr. Manhattan’s crotch? What does he do when the script demands that he cut secondary characters like Hooded Justice? And why won’t the creator of the graphic novel stop trashing Snyder when he hasn’t even seen the movie? In a candid chat with MTV, the director of the March 2009 flick gave us a rundown of the landmines he’s tiptoeing around while crafting a cinematic event worthy of the “Watchmen” name.

MTV: When “Watchmen” was first published in 1986-87, it was a shock to readers who’d become accustomed to clear-cut, antiseptic superheroes. After all the men-in-tights movies we’ve seen in the last few years, are moviegoers similarly ripe for a film that tears apart the mythologies of a Batman type, a Superman type and others?

Zack Snyder: Well, that’s the hope. The hope is that people see their icons in this movie, and they see them deconstructed. That creates a conversation that is transcendent of a superhero movie. It’s not just “Oh, that was fun, let’s get a beer,” but “That was great! Let’s talk about it!” or “What does that mean?”

MTV: “Watchmen” creator Alan Moore recently gave an interview to Entertainment Weekly in which he reinforced his hatred toward any movie version of his book. Moore said he “would rather not know” what you do with your movie and that “There are things that we did with ‘Watchmen’ that could only work in a comic.” How do you feel about his comments?

Snyder: I think it’s consistent with his stance, and I respect that. Like I say, the point of the movie is not to replace the graphic novel. Look, after the trailer came out, “Watchmen” went to #2 on Amazon and suddenly hundreds of thousands of copies of the graphic novel are selling. That’s all I can ask for. If the movie is successful, that’s great. But in the end, I want people to read [Moore’s] book.

MTV: It’s no secret that Nite Owl is based somewhat on Batman. With the success of Christopher Nolan’s films, did you try to ramp up such comparisons?

Snyder: Well, Nite Owl’s still a character who is a rich guy. He decided to become a crime-fighter. He lives in a brownstone. Under his brownstone is an