Fox Wins Ruling in 'Watchmen' Case
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Yikes -- Warner Bros. obviously landed on Santa's naughty list this year. The New York Times reports that the judge has ruled in favor of Fox Studios. Sayeth the Honorable Judge Feess "Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the Watchmen motion picture."This comes as quite a surprise since last we heard, the judge didn't have enough information to make a ruling, and was moving the trial to January 20th. Judge Feess indicated he would make a more detailed ruling soon.
Warner Bros. has declined to comment, and as of now, has not backed off the film's planned release date of March 6. I can hear you all crying (and I hope it's in your very best Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer voice) "There goes Watchmen, and there goes Christmas!" But it's highly doubtful Watchmen will lose its release date. There's no need to panic. Feess advised Fox and Warner Bros to look towards a settlement or appeal. "The parties may wish to turn their efforts from preparing for trial to negotiating a resolution of this dispute or positioning the case for review." So, expect a major payoff from Warner Bros. (and maybe those rumored Batman television show rights) to Fox in order that we'll still be at that March 6th show. And you thought a lump of coal was bad.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-25-2008 @ 2:42PM
morphs said...
This news completely sucks.
I just got an $80 gift card for the IMAX for Christmas and now the reason I asked for it might not even come out. What sucks even more that it was going to be a birthday present to myself because it's three days before my birthday. :(
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12-25-2008 @ 3:16PM
Ian said...
What worries me is that once Fox gets their grubby little hands on the movie, they will cut it down to a PG-13, and they will chop off 30 minutes of the running time to make it "commercially friendly."
I guarantee you. If Fox was making this movie from the getgo, before WB got involved, it would be PG-13 from the start. It would be 90 minutes long, and it would be directed by Brett Ratner.
Fox is the absolute WORST studio that could possibly distribute a movie like this. I bet they want to turn "Watchmen" into another "Fantastic Four."
I hope there is a Fox boycott. They need to learn a lesson. When "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" has an opening weekend of $15M, maybe then they will stop fooling around and ruining good films.
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12-26-2008 @ 1:57AM
maestro610 said...
I think Fox will find that it is unable to change any aspect of the film. This thing has been seen by too many people and been given the benefit of the doubt in the online community even with the now confirmed change in ending. I think that WB will have to pay them at least half as much as what the film cost to get it out there.
I think the issue that is most worrysome (and this from someone that is only moderately a fan of Watchmen) is that they will exploit this property. I can imagine a prequel, sequel, animated series and much more should the movie do large numbers. Those other films will likely fit into the Fox comic movie frame... PG-13 and extremely glossy.
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12-26-2008 @ 11:31AM
Walter said...
fox just wants a cut of the cash, they could of took them to court during production, this way they didn't put any money into production and just get profit minus court cost
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