Just watch...I'm betting this will come down to the wire, then some financial settlement will be announced between Fox and WB so the film can be released. I don't expect this to be done unless it looks like the trial will go against WB, but really, do you think they spent all that time and money promoting and filming just to let it not be released? The only question is what the dollar amount will be. Everything else is likely small potatoes.
Judge rules in favor of Fox in battle over Watchmen
- Thread starter Klaus
- Start date
FOX filed this suit at the time production began, so it's not like this hasn't been building for a while. Really, really stupid handling by WB.
It's like when Universal sued Nintendo because they thought they should be getting a piece of the Donkey Kong arcade game money because of the similarities to King Kong, only to lose because they didn't actually have the rights to King Kong.
You're forgetting the best part of the entire case: MCA / Universal had been sued a decade earlier, for copyright violations, when it was preparing to release its remake of King Kong. It won the case by successfully arguing that King Kong was in the public domain.
There's a great story about this from the Nintendo / Universal lawsuit; when Universal's executives were sitting down with Nintendo's president, Minoru Arakawa, and general counsel Howard Lincoln, who were prepared to settle after the legal department had decided there were no legal grounds to argue the similarities between the properties, Lincoln said, at the start of the meeting, something to the effect of, "We're prepared to offer a fair settlement in this matter. But before we do that, I just need to see some documentation that says you own the rights to King Kong."
Sid Sheinberg, the head of MCA / Universal, supposedly clammed up, stammered, adjusted himself and said, "Of course we have the rights."
Lincoln immediately figured that something was up, whispered to Arakawa, "Don't give them anything. Reschedule this," excused himself and called another Nintendo lawyer, telling him to investigate everything about King Kong's copyright history.
The rest, as they say, is history (as well as a splintered conference table, after Nintendo informed Sid Sheinberg that the company was not, in fact, settling).
Only in your twisted opinion.
I can see why not everyone liked TF, and Spice World is just a bunch of whores who can't sing... ...but Iron Man? Are you serious? Did you have your sense of adventure and fun surgically removed before you saw it?
Alan Moore hates movies in general, so I don't agree that he's a good judge. Plus, he worships some kind of snake-god (no, I'm not making that up).
Or Dukes of Hazzard....
Slightly off topic, but I wasn't even aware that some people (like some in this thread) didn't want a Watchmen movie.
I wouldn't say that about myself. I'm much more in the "meh" category. But that's probably because I haven't read the book.
I'm neutral about it, too. But corporate shenanigans are interesting so that's why I'm reading this.
I'm with the "monet fixes everything" crowd.
I guess Fox could be irrational enough to screw this up for everyone, but that seems a whole lot less likely than that it'll all come down to horse trading.
I have to admit my sympathy for Alan Moore's opinions has somewhat evaporated after he made my home town into the next best thing to Auschwitz just because he didn't enjoy a walk out on the Plain...boo fecking hoo.
Still, saying something is "unfilmable" is only going to make an ambitions filmmaker all the more eager to take on the challenge. After all, I seam to remember a lot of hoo-har about how 'Lord of the Rings' was unfilmable too...
Yeah, Glycon. I always figured that was an ironic move on his part, though; Glycon was sort of the Flying Spaghetti Monster of the Roman Empire, generally seen as an overt fake by most individuals of intelligence. Sort of like those who call themselves Satanists even though they don't believe in any such thing and do it just to annoy the fundies.
EDIT: Out of curiosity, I looked up Glycon on Wiki, and it mentioned Allan Moore, specifying that he "has cheerfully admitted in interviews the absurdity of worshiping a probable fraud". So it's pretty much as I suspected.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
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So, Larkhill? My condolences then.
I cannot wait to see Moore's reaction to the merchandising the Watchmen film is about to spawn.
Action figures. T-shirts. Posters. Playing cards. Rorschach masks. (Okay, I made that one up.) I picked up the January Previews this week, and there's a whole page of Watchmen merch.
I wonder if its mere existence is going to torment him.
Didn't Moore nix a line of DC Direct Watchman figures a few years ago?
He did.
Now DC Direct is doing a line of movie Watchmen figures. And busts. And there's a 12-inch Dr. Manhattan doll, too.
What's interesting about the movie merchandise is that Dave Gibbons is doing new artwork for some of the products (like posters and bookmarks), based on the movie's take on his original artwork.
Note to self: Get the Rorschach lunchbox with drink container. That's going to be Teh Awesome.
Now DC Direct is doing a line of movie Watchmen figures. And busts. And there's a 12-inch Dr. Manhattan doll, too.
What's interesting about the movie merchandise is that Dave Gibbons is doing new artwork for some of the products (like posters and bookmarks), based on the movie's take on his original artwork.
Note to self: Get the Rorschach lunchbox with drink container. That's going to be Teh Awesome.
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Moore's statements fall far short of calling it a crime against nature. And if he didn't want it to be made into a move he shouldn't have signed over the rights.
20th Century Fox just wants a share of whatever Watchmen makes. They won't stop or prolong the release date. If they wanted to do that, they would have begun this process before the project was nearing the end of principal photography.
Or they have a sick sense of humor...let WB waste all that moola filming the movie so they can shut it down riiight before it's to be released for public consumption. That would be really funny, and messed up at the same time. I agree with you though, you can't cut the legs off of your supermegaultracashcow before it even has a chance to walk. WB will have to give FOX a poopa-scoop so they can collect their share of the golden cow chips.
This whole rights fiasco could wind up being beneficial to all of us fans. Mainly in that Fox could decide to let Warners put out Watchmen if Warners allows Fox to release Batman TV series from the 1960s on DVD/Blu-Ray. There may be some cash exchange as well if Watchmen performs well at the box office I would think. But each side has something that the other wants, I am sure a deal will get made. Neither side wants to see that Watchmen box office money evaporate.