Who watches the WATCHMEN? Maybe none of us

August 19th, 2008 at 12:08pm Will Pfeifer

There’s trouble in legal-ville involving Warner Bros. much-hyped graphic novel adaptation, WATCHMEN, which is slated to open in theaters next March. At issue is a suit from rival studio 20th Century Fox that it never actually gave away the rights to the property. That lawsuit was upheld, meaning the legal battle can go forward.

Here’s what Variety had to say in Monday’s edition (click link for full story):

“At the heart of Fox’s suit, filed in February, is the contention that it never ceded rights to the property. And according to the federal Judge Gary Allen Feess, Fox retained distribution rights to the graphic novel penned by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons through a 1991 claim. Furthermore, Feess appears to agree that under a 1994 turnaround deal with producer Larry Gordon, Gordon acquired an option to acquire Fox’s remaining interest in “Watchmen,” which was never exercised, thereby leaving Fox with its rights under the 1994 agreement.”

Normally, like most things in Hollywood, this could all be settled by a big pile of money changing hands. Trouble is, in this case (and probably after seeing the stratospheric success of Warner Bros’ last comic book adaptation, THE DARK KNIGHT — second all-time U.S. box office champ) 20th Century Fox doesn’t want money. It wants the release of WATCHMENT to be stopped.

A “source close to the litigation” was quoted in Variety thusly: “When you have copyright infringement, there are some damages you never recover.”

To be continued…. 

Entry Filed under: Movie news