The Official MovieSet Blog
“Watchmen” in legal limbo
Monday, August 18, 2008
20th Century Fox has been claiming ownership of the rights to the comic book adaptation of Watchmen for some time now. Warner Bros., the movie studio making the picture, had asked a federal court judge to dismiss Fox’s claims of creative rights ownership that stem from contracts done up between producer Lawrence Gordon and Fox in the early 1990s. Now that same judge has dismissed Warners plea, leaving the door open for Fox to gain some measure of ownership or a share of profits derived from the Watchmen movie.
Already film industry bloggers like Nikki Finke have begun wild speculation over what this will mean. Realistically, I can’t see it mattering to a hill of beans for any of us. Watchmen the movie will get released on March 6, 2009 regardless of the Fox lawsuit. The wheels in motion now for the movie’s publicity and hype machine cannot be stopped now and Fox knows it. The best that they can hope for is for Warners’ lawyers to try and buy out their interest in the movie, essentially go away money. That’s what I’m guessing will happen. Fox may hum and haw over the dollar figure but in the end the hype machine is also working against them too. Can you imagine the backlash that Fox would face from fanboys if the release of Watchmen were delayed due to their legal claims (which haven’t as yet been determined)?If Fox thought that it was having a lousy summer with bombs like X-Files 2 and Meet Dave, let’s see how they fare when a legion of Watchmen fans get upset and decide to take it out online.
Mark my words: some money will change hands but in the end it will be Warners that stands to reap the success of Watchmen.
Posted at 11:36PM by admin
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