20th Century Fox Wins Watchmen Legal Battle! What Now?

John Campea 72 Comments

Fox-Wins-Watchmen.jpgThis is pretty huge. As some of you may know, Warner Bros has been planning to release “their” new movie, “Watchmen” on March 6th, but Fox had launched a lawsuit against them contesting that the rights to the Watchmen property belonged to them. Well now things just got a whole lot more interesting because it looks like Fox has won the case! CBC news gives us this:

A U.S. federal judge has ruled that 20th Century Fox owns a copyright interest in Watchmen, which may jeopardize Warner Bros.’s plan to release the superhero movie in March.

Judge Gary Allen Feess issued the surprise ruling on Wednesday, Variety reported.

“Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the Watchmen motion picture,” the ruling said.

Judge Feess advised both Fox and Warner to consider either a settlement or an appeal.

Fox acquired rights to the Watchmen graphic adventure novel in the late 1980s for producer Lawrence Gordon. After spending more than $1 million US developing the project, it eventually dropped its plan to make a movie based on the work written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons.

Gordon later carried out the project with Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures. The movie, about the underside of life for superbeings, was directed by Zack Snyder and stars Patrick Wilson and Jackie Earle Haley. Its release is scheduled for March 6, 2009.

In February, Fox filed a suit to prevent Watchmen from being released. It argued that Gordon’s option to acquire Fox’s remaining interest in Watchmen was never exercised.

Warner spokesman Scott Rowe has declined to comment on the ruling.

The Wall Street Journal says the ruling in favour of Fox comes as a surprise, “given that the studio appeared to have dropped the project more than a decade ago and was not involved in producing the film.”

Well holy crap! What does this do to the March 6th release date?

I have a feeling that even though they may not like it, WB will make a deal with Fox… but don’t be surprised if that March 6th release date gets pushed back… maybe A LOT, because until WB and Fox make a deal, this movie ain’t gonna see the theaters.

Thanks to Movie BLog reader Daniel for the heads up.

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72 thoughts on “20th Century Fox Wins Watchmen Legal Battle! What Now?”

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  2. oh if if you were in the right kriptonite than so many film would be made by the studios and the hard working writers would not see any money they already make shit for how hard they work.

  4. Hey Kriyptonite

    I 100% completely disagree with your idea.

    When something is your property, it’s yours to do with as you please. Period. You can use it, put it in a box, play with it, destroy it, hide it, display it… do whatever you want with it. It’s YOURS.

    If someone wants to sell their rights to something under the condition that they want it made into a movie within a certain period of time, then they can sell an option without selling all the rights completely. If they sell all the rights completely, then it belongs to whoever bought it.

    Sorry, but if Fox did indeed own the rights as the court has decided, then Fox if totally in the right here.

  5. Bottom line: if the judge’s ruling is correct according to the law (and I’m sure it is), then the law needs to be changed. If a project sees absolutely NO movement after a decade or more, then the intellectual property rights (for the film) should be up for grabs. Exceptions would have to be made for properties that have already been produced in one film already (i.e., there have already been Star Wars movies, so the Star Wars property should never be up for grabs.) Other studios should be able to petition the courts to terminate the property rights of the first film rights holder (Fox in this case) so other studios may re-bid to buy the property from the original copyright holder (DC Comics), and should be granted if they can prove that the current film rights holder has made no significant effort towards moving the property into production. An alternative would be the court simply forcing the current film rights holder to sell the property to the petitioner for a price equalling the original purchase price plus all development costs already accrued. This would motivate film makers to only purchase properties they were serious about making, keeping people like Fox from simply sitting on their hands because they aren’t competent enough to produce a particular film, yet claiming ownership when another company succeeds where they failed.

  6. stupid question alert:

    does this mean that we can one day have an avengers movie (sequel) with reserve avangers and…..spiderman? even though hes sony? liek can they “rent” him? or pay sony half? because i want an avengers movie sequel (which im sure will happen, avengers will be a SMASHING success) with spiderman and other reserve avengers in it

  7. Thats funny you quote Stewie cause family guy is part of fox. oh and just cause they won the rights to the film doesnt mean wb cant sew them for waiting. oh and fox might have brought this up two years ago and was not able to court date set till now so we should not jump on wb r foxs side cause we dont know the real story.

  9. This is probably very good news for us. A long legal battle would surely delay the release. A quick judgment, even against WB, gives time for a deal to be made and get it released.

  13. WB should offer Fox 50% of the movie’s gross for 50% of the production budget plus marketing, as well as the rights reversion for a sequel or sequels and merchandising. If Fox turns it down, then no case.

    Either way WB gets to keep the other 50% plus, home video rights, pay per view and such.

    This is a way of placating Fox. They would get to make the inevitable sequel and keep the likeness rights.

    There’s absolutely NO WAY that Fox should get part of this movie without paying for it. You can’t just buy properties to keep other people from making them. They sat on the property for YEARS. That is NOT legal, see cybersquatting.

  16. i feel bad for the fans that read the book when it first came out, like 20 years ago? when did the watchmen comix first come out?
    and colected the comix and now after years they see an awsome watchmen movie coming and these dumbasses are ruining it

    im with reel advice though ditto what he said

  18. @diskjokk… Fox attempted to stop them from making this movie 2 years ago. Multiple attempts to discuss terms were made in the mean time. Its not like they waited til it was done to say “oh, by the way…”

    They had to wait until a release date was announced so they could seek an injunction to stop it from releasing (apparently their deal still has valid distribution considerations that the WB ignored) so we are hearing this after the facts.

    Still sucks. I imagine a settlement will be put in place or WB will can it and it will be pirated like crazy.

  19. Gosh, I hate Fox. Ok, I understand the fact that Fox has some ownership in this properly. But WHY oh WHY, would the studio wait some two years for the project to be completed and then see all the buzz around it, before they decide to put a stop to the release of this film?

    That’s just Greed. Fox realized that a rival studio had a hit on their hands and now it wants a piece of the action and/or to stop it all together.

    I know life isn’t fair but this is really messed up and I hate Fox for this. This was the studio that could do NOTHING with this project and decided to dump it years ago. Now Fox wants to argue that the Watchmen property is partially owned by them? Go to hell Fox. See if I purchase any of your DVD’s all this year should Watchmen not get released because of your Greed. Fuckers!

  20. I just hope WB takes the ruling and cuts a deal with Fox. If they appeal that wiil definately push the release.This poses a big question…why was this not planned ( by WB) as a summer 2009 movie? It seems to be a summer movie, with all the hype and great trailers.

  21. honestly this is a good move for the movie itself, i mean i all this news and court room bull is great advertisment for the movie. i now can say i cant wait to see the watchmen.

  29. I agree with Rodney. I can see both sides of this. If FOX is in the legal right, then Warner Bros. should have been a little more careful before investing a nine digit number. But on the other hand, I hope this ends with Warner Bros. paying FOX a flat settlement fee as they leave the courtroom, not shaking over a percentage of the movie’s earnings. That wouldn’t be fair to all of the WB folks who worked on the movie for the last two years.

  33. Why do I have the feeling that Tom Rothman is sat in his office with a fat cigar laughing maniacally somewhere at all this. My opinion of the man continues to fall, sad news indeed……

  41. and this film could very well suck i mean they are using a really bad ass song to help build the emotion and dark feel and there is not much dialogue. though trailers usually dont.

  42. Aaron i am going to have to disagree on if the trailers is good the movies is good in the last two years I have watched alot of trailers and most good trailers ended up being really bad for example i saw a cool hitman trailer and max payne trailer but they sucked oh the Quantum of Solace trailer was way better than Casino Royale’s but the movies were the other way around.

    And I want to see this film do well and fox is not all that bad they did let Lucas make Star Wars when every other studio turned him down.

  43. LOL if the director leaks it behind the studio’s back do you think that they would release a cam version, besides I have a 52 in HDTV, and enough know how and software to stream whatever I download to my TV I’ve been streaming AVI’s to my HDTV for over a year now. anyway iit was one of those hypothetical what if’s there is no way Snyder would ever do anything like that.

  44. I am on the fence here.

    I agree its suckass for the fans (myself included) and therein lies my basis for lashing out.

    I want to hate FOX for wanting to get their money grubbing fingers on this now that the risk has been taken by someone else, and the project is done.

    But legally after all the details have been reviewed a judge figures that Fox has some rights still… well I have to wonder exactly how it went down. I want to hope that there is some faith in the justice system and that this wasn’t some flippant whim of a judge to decide in favour of Fox.

    Anyways, I would love to see someone get the rights to this story and make a movie of it.

  45. This whole situation is ludicrous on all sides. Why did Fox wait so long to bring up the “infringement” issue? Why didn’t Warner Brothers take the necessary steps to ensure that Fox had no claim to the film? Both parties have their heads up their asses (Fox especially – Fox said at one point that it would rather see the film killed than to collect a percentage of the profits) and the fans are the ones who are going to get screwed out of seeing what looks to be a fantastic film. Way to go, studios, big round of applause.

  47. HDPUNK, lol, but it looks really good.
    if you have an extremely good trailer, the movie is usually good. The trailer i enjoyed about 0.1 precent (lol)more then the Dark Knight trailer, howeevr, the dark knight was so good, it’d be hard to top it

  48. JESUS!! That’s so fuckin gay. As if FOX needed the money that bad. so they saw that the movie was lookin like it was gonna make some serious cash and THEN decided to get the project back. FAGS.

  54. no i want to see it in the movie theater, i hate watching movies online, takes everything away from it

    do yourselves a favor and wait till the release date, dont watch it online and ruin the experience for yourselves

    i want to watch it in a crowded theater with my popcorn and a pepsi and dibs with my cell phone turned off and my girlfriend next to me

    not in my dark room in front of my computer with horrible resolution and a horrible camera holder
    and its ilegal
    and it may result in viruses

    oh no but if you still feel like ruining the movie for yourself please, go ahead and go to a bootleg movie website and do it

    =]

  56. If the date is pushed back, it will be a few weeks to a few months–if that. My assessment is that the film will be released on or about its targeted date. Then after the film has had its run, it will be decided on who gets what money, and/or if any sequels are on the menu the sequel(s) have to be at Fox or a coproduction thereof.

    Oh, but man what a slippery slope this is!
    Could this ruling pave a way for a studio to have a script, put said script or project into a turnaround, and when the next studio in line gets that project they have to make damn sure the previous studio won’t bite them in the ass *after* the secure the talent *after* the film is greenlit, “after* prep is done, *after* prin. photography begins, *after* post, *after* ads are made, promos ready to roll…

    ” Well, we dropped the ball, but your film looks like it could be a winner. *We” didn’t ask to share the risk, as some studios sometimes do, but the project was once at our doorstep but after years of development hell, we pulled the plug and it died here it survived at your studio, where it spent a few more years in development… so *we* are entitled.

    Well, damn- that does not cover almost every other movie ever made? Studios turn down possible films for all sorts of reasons. Budget, not getting the subject matter, too many cooks in the kitchen, who knows for sure? But it happens all the time. Now there is “buzz” on the picture that got away. It doesn’t matter if said film was canned at the previous studio under a previous regime (and possibly a victim of the outgoing CEO’s projects?)

    Hopefully I’m not reading into this too much. But It would not surprise me if this opened a bad can of spinach. Because of this ruling, RIGHT NOW, ASAP Fox should be allowed to throw in some money towards Watchmen’s promotion; early Watchmen posters are hereby collectors items because reprints now have to suggest a limited partership with Fox and WB (which should have been done in the first place)

    It would be a shame if a chunk of the budget went to court dates.
    Would make an interesting doc-bonus feature though.

  57. If an author is a alive and well and says that he really, really, really doesn’t want anybody to adapt his work, then don’t adapt his work. To do so shows a total lack of respect, no matter what way anybody tries to spin it.

    Warner and Snyder deserves this for going ahead and blowing Moore off. I hope Fox can overcome their own personal greed and bury this thing; totally burn every copy. If that’s not possible, I hope Fox rips it to shreds, or at the very least, makes sure Warner Bros. doesn’t make a penny from it.

    I’m tired seeing all these people who claim to be Watchmen fans, to give a crap about Moore’s suckling the teet of a corporate abomination that shouldn’t exist in the first place.

  59. I was just reading on the IMDB boards that some users were posting that this is bad karma for Warner studios for screwing over the Harry Potter fans, haha, guess they are sorta right lol.

  60. I had a strong feeling this would happen, so I wasn’t allowing myself to believe a March release date would happen. My only prayer right now is that Fox isn’t allowed to touch the film and give approval the final cut.

    Warner Bros – pay them off! Sorry you’re going to loose money, but you should have been 100% positive on holding the rights before you continued on.

  61. Ugh, fucking Fox! I want to see this movie as soon as possible!!
    But isn’t Warner also to blame? Why couldn’t they have secured the rights legally and safely before doing the whole movie?

  62. This is why Marvel made it’s own studio to release movies. Too much studio vs. studio bullshit. Look how long Spiderman sat in limbo before anything was ever done about it’s lawsuit.

    My personal opinion is this is just dirty pool being played on Fox’ part, they pretty much waited until the movie was done shooting before they started this mumbo jumbo and now it’s the fans who will pay because there is so much good hype behind this movie.

  64. Snider should pull one over on both studio’s and release it via a torrent on the internet, that would show those money hungry assholes. Any means necessary to get his works out and if the studio’s can’t make up their minds the fans still get it. kind of like what NIN did with songs off their Year zero album, the leaked them via USB sticks in the bathroom at their live shows…

  68. Fox is just on big FUCK-UP, theres been many times directors producers etc.. say working for fox was a horrible experience, and then on top of that they screw up MOVIES big time. So no suprise if fox pushes this movie back.

  71. Hey John, off topic I know…but I had to share with you that “The Spirit” got a 3/4 star review from the critic in the Miami Herald where I live. I still hear nothing but awful things about it from everyone though hahaha.

  72. FUCK!
    in my mind i was thinkign that if fox won…we wont see the movie at all or it will get pushed back and if WB won, wed see it in march

    um…
    so will we see it?
    im confused

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