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Who Watches the Watchmen? Not You According to Fox

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 1:12 pm by Jami

Watchmen

And now from our Alan Moore may just get his wish department, a judge is allowing 20th Century Fox to sue Warner Brothers over the right to make a Watchmen movie denying WB’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. If the lawsuit is successful, Fox could win rights to any profits made from the film. But they’re not interested in money. No. Fox wants to kill the movie:

Warner Bros.’ production and anticipated release of “The Watchmen” motion picture violates 20th Century Fox’s long-standing motion picture rights in “The Watchmen” property. We will be asking the court to enforce Fox’s copyright interests in “The Watchmen” and enjoin the release of the Warner Bros. film and any related “Watchmen” media that violate our copyright interests in that property.

Ouch!

You might think that being a DC Comics property, Warner Brothers would have every right to make a movie based on Watchmen. At least that’s what I thought. Turns out that Fox held the rights to distribute the Watchmen graphic novel through a 1991 claim. There was an option to buy back Fox’s interest in Watchmen back in 1994, but since it was never exercised the rights remain the property of Fox.

So this is a pretty solid kick in the wang. Fox must have a solid enough case for the judge to the case. I’m guessing production will continue until they’re told to stop. But I’m sure this thing is going to get messy and push the release date back some. Ugh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to sell rights to our shits!

[Via Variety from Occasional Superheroine]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Movies, Sci Fi, Comic Book Flicks, Dumb Ass. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

11 Responses to “Who Watches the Watchmen? Not You According to Fox”

  1. AvatarKevin Bahrt
    Posted: Aug 19th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
    1

    If Fox gets a cut of the comic sales this might make some sense, I’m willing to bet they’re worried about a franchise killer where people just watch the movie then forget the comics. They probably want to kill the movie because Warner Bros can make good comic book adaption movies and they’ve been killing Fox’s movies lately.

  2. AvatarHenry
    Posted: Aug 19th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
    2

    I think this is a case of WB’s lawyers needing to sit down with Fox’s lawyers and ask the crucial question, “How much will it take for you to shut up and go away?”

  3. AvatarJeff
    Posted: Aug 19th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
    3

    Henry-

    100 BIIIIILLLION DOLLARS!!!!

  4. AvatarHenry
    Posted: Aug 19th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
    4

    I was about to laugh. And then I realized that Fox really is that evil.

    No pun intended. =)

  5. Avatarepoch9
    Posted: Aug 19th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
    5

    $999 Billion.

  6. AvatarDaVincisGhost
    Posted: Aug 20th, 2008 at 12:51 am
    6

    What I’m wondering is why the f*** didn’t Warner Bros. check to make sure they had the appropriate copyrights to the Watchmen franchise BEFORE giving the movie the green light? Seems pretty idiotic of them. I bet the evil pricks at Fox will drag the lawsuit out up until the week before the movie comes out and then shut the film down.

    I’m just not sure if I should be more angry with Warner Bros. for not doing their homework or Fox for being a bunch of money grubbing a**holes.

  7. AvatarWayne
    Posted: Aug 20th, 2008 at 8:42 am
    7

    Fox will settle for a piece of the action. They have no money invested in the production, and Warner can’t shelve things now, they’ve got too much money in it and they have to move forward, so anything Fox gets will be pure profit (less lawyer fees).

    Yes, Warner should have made sure the rights were utterly clear and unencumbered. They blew it. But there’s no doubt that Fox is being a bunch of assholes. “We couldn’t make a good movie, so we’re going to hold this axe over your head unless you give us money.” Fox can’t afford to kill the movie because then the fan boys will boycott Fox movies until they’re moldering in the ground.

    This is Hollywood at its truest, most classic, moment.

  8. AvatarTyler
    Posted: Aug 20th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
    8

    much in line with what Wayne said, Fox tried this shit with the Dukes of Hazzard and all that wound up happening was they got a cut of the really really small box office gross for the film. Now Fox would be stupid to try and stop the production of the film that will probably gross a metric crap ton when they can just get a piece of the pie.

  9. Avatarkindless
    Posted: Aug 20th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
    9

    Leave it to Fox to destroy all that is good and pure.

  10. AvatarKensei
    Posted: Aug 21st, 2008 at 5:35 am
    10

    Hmm so Fox has only ‘just’ discovered that WB was making a Watchmen movie??? Sounds like they knew ages ago and just waited for Sony to near post production and and then BAM!!! MONEY TIME!.

    If I were the judge I’d say that Fox had a reasonable amount of time to voice an objection and that it is unreasonable for them to expect WB to shelve the movie. So they need to accept a percentage of the profits instead like my of my esteemed colleagues have already stated ;p

  11. Pingback Pingback:
    Posted: Sep 2nd, 2008 at 10:46 am
    11
    Geek Entertainment News and Commentary - Angry Zen Master

    […] We have an update on the Fox vs. Warner Brothers lawsuit over the Watchmen film. Fox filed their initial complaint back in February. Warner Brothers filed a brief on Friday claiming that Fox “sat silently” while producer Lawrence Gordon shopped Watchmen around to studios with Fox’s knowledge. Warner claims that Gordon actually pitched the project to Fox in 2005, but they passed. In fact, Warner also claims that one of Gordon’s companies paid Fox $320,000 for the rights to the film back in 1991. Fox claims that the 1991 was superseded by a later 1994 buyout deal for a larger sum that was never acted upon. […]

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