The “Turnaround” might be the best hope that we might have of Watchmen getting itself released.
ScreenRant has a great article that details the history of who owned the rights to Watchmen and when:
Fox originally acquired the rights to the graphic novel back in 1987 and did intend to produce the film. Their plan was to have the original author, Alan Moore, write the screenplay. Unfortunately at the time they were not aware of Moore’s opinion regarding a film adaptation of his work – which was that he didn’t think it was suitable for a cinematic format.
The article goes on to explain what Turnaround means, and in a nutshell it can be compared to a lease.
If you have a lease on an apartment, you don’t own the apartment, but you are paying for the rights to that apartment. You get to live there, keep your stuff there and even have utilities there in your name. But its still not yours despite how much it looks like it is. If you wanted to move, or let someone else live in “your” apartment, you could sublet it to them. Now the lease is still yours, but you have made another arrangement for someone else to experience a similar illusion and benefit of ownership. This in a nutshell is how a Turnaround works.
Lawrence Gordon (a Fox Exec) was the last person to have the Turnaround Rights to Watchmen. Still an employee of Fox, but still holding the rights FOR Fox (back from a previous turnaround)
It seems that Lawrence Gordon gave Warner Bros. the go-ahead to shoot the film. WB figures he owns the turnaround rights, so they’re golden (of course this doesn’t explain why they didn’t do some due diligence on the situation with a crack team of lawyers).Gordon didn’t cross the t’s and dot the i’s on the Fox side of things, and assigned rights to WB incorrectly or incompletely in regards to his agreement with Fox.
Now I can see how what seemed like common sense to the everyday guy is a big misunderstanding about the rights to the film.
Look at it as the WB buying the turnaround rights back from the very company they sold it to in the first place. Back the truck full of money up and get this movie out for the benefit of both studios.
slushie, oh yeah i forgot about star treck, and harry potter is obvious…but yeah youre right all of those are from this year what the hell…and i wish hancock was just never released.
i hate it how now a days everythings abouf fucking sueing…were this in 1967 i bet be wouldnt be talkign about this wed just be getting our watchmen movie in march
not saying its right to steal and its wrong to sue…just saying you hear it way to much.
Um, it’s happened lots this year. Dragon Ball, Star Trek, Harry Potter. All those movies got majorly pushed back. Even Hancock was supposed to come out a couple years ago originally, if I remember correctly.
im trying to think about this and..
has it EVER happened that a movie was released 8 months later then it was supposed to?
does that not sound insane to anyone else?
ive known about minor delays but for it to be pushed from march to next year is ludacris..
@Don, Just curious.
You hate both of them, but I get you go see lots of movies made by them both.
To me this looks like a classic case of who own what with a hint of overlap. Example If I have a story that belongs in a collective works (Watchmen to DC Comic) and I sale the rights to a company (Fox) that give full permission to make my story and my story alone into a movie, but that company never capitalize on my story. Some time later another company (WB) buys the rights to all stories in the collective works (DC Comics) the same collective works that my story belongs to. Meaning both companies own my story. So when one company (WB) capitalize on my story and makes a movie knowing they have the rights but the other company (Fox) comes out of the wood work and says no you don’t we had them from back in the day. So who really owns rights to make my story into a movie.The real issues is why do we have to argue over money?
I hate both studios.
well if they could have done it 10 years ago then yes- that IS last minute.
they had a long time to do this shit and if they do it withing the year this is done and a couple of months before the first trailer comes out…then i think thats definatedly last minute.
but that also depends on how long theyve been planning to do this movie…
what pisses me off is that the fucking movie is done and now we have to wait 10 months to watch it if it comes out in 2010
Obiwan, if by last minute you mean for the last year and a half sending letters, phone calls and lawyers?
If you read the article, you would see that its been quite a while that Fox has been trying to get WB to own up, and now they are forced to delay it over this conflict.
This is not last minute.
Fox, back in 1987, was actually a competent studio. Now, they suck.
FOX waited until the last moment on purpose. We all know it.
What backlash? Fox doesn’t care what people think of them. You will still buy the tickets and see the movies no matter what you think of them personally.
You think after 20 years of cinematic limbo that if this movie gets delayed that fewwer people will see it when it finally DOES come out? Just because fox delayed it?
I still believe its highly unlikely Fox would want to deal with the harsh backlash from fans by having this film get delayed that long. Warner Bros will eventually feel the pressure and give in, giving Fox some heavy points. Thats what Fox wants and Im sure they will get it!
there’s also the principle in property law that states the owner of a piece of land has to make clear that they own it as well make improvements on that land. otherwise squatters can legally acquire it.
i wish that applied here, as fox just let the “property” go to seed all these years.