Will anyone be *able* to watch the Watchmen?
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Track:The Money-go-Round
20th Century Fox is claiming that It still holds the rights to "Watchmen" and that Warners' film is in violation of those rights. According to Nikki Finke's DEADLINE: Hollywood column in Daily Variety:
SAVE US! Warner's 'Watchmen' In Legal Peril After Judge Won't Dismiss Fox Suit
EXCLUSIVE: A federal judge has denied a Warner Bros motion to dismiss 20th Century Fox's legal battle over the rights to develop, produce and distribute a film based on the graphic novel Watchmen. This is huge Hollywood news because Warner Bros plans to release on March 2009 its highly anticipated big-screen version of the popular comic book written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons.Fox was seeking to enjoin Warner Bros from going forward with the project, and U.S. District Court Judge Gary Allen Feess on Friday refused to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Fox on February 12th of this year.
"In essence, the Judge appears to conclude that Fox retained distribution rights in Watchmen through the 1991 Largo quitclaim, and he concludes that, under the 1994 turnaround, producer Larry Gordon acquired an option to acquire Fox's remaining interest in Watchmen that was never exercised, thereby leaving Fox with its rights under the 1994 agreement," a 20th Century Fox source just told me.
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20th Century Fox made this statement: "Warner Brothers' production and anticipated release of The Watchmen motion picture violates Twentieth 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 Brothers film and any related Watchmen media that violate our copyright interests in that property."
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In the lawsuit, 20th Century Fox contends that it owns the distribution rights to any motion picture based on Watchmen and argues that it has held these rights for almost two decades based on agreements with producer Larry Gordon and his related business entities. Fox asserts claims against Warner Bros and its affiliates for copyright infringement and interference with Fox's contract rights under a 1991 agreement with Gordon's affiliate.
Warner Bros moved to dismiss the copyright and interference with contract claims, arguing that it has obtained all rights to produce and distribute the movie from Gordon or one of his companies, and that its acquisition of these rights can be traced through documents. So Warner Bros asked the Court on the basis of those agreements to dismiss Fox's claims.
Warner Bros also asserts that Fox abandoned any interest it had in Watchmen in 1991 when it purportedly quitclaimed its distribution rights to Gordon according to what the court acknowledged was "a very complex, convoluted series of negotiations and agreements". (Welcome to Hollywood, folks...)
Click here for the full text of the "Deadline: Hollywood" post (which includes a capsule history of the "Largo quitclaim" referred to above).
ComicMix, from whence i came to the D:H story, concludes its post:
The really bad news, according to Variety, is that Fox has no interest in settling and would rather kill the movie outright. Quote: "When you have copyright infringement, there are some damages you never recover," said a source close to the litigation. (No one's asked Alan Moore about copyright violation here, strangely, either here or with Fox's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.) This makes great sense to Fox, who spent more than $1 million developing Watchmen and can now force competitors Warner Bros and Paramount to eat tens of millions in sunken costs of making the movie and cripple their spring.
This could get nasty.
Comments (10)
What a shame. The 'movie that could never be made' apparently will never be made.
I am on pin and needles waiting for this gem.
Actually, it may just never be released.
Which is even sadder.
True.
When I first joined MOG the other name I was considering was Rorschach.
I think I will get on that name just in case things resolve itself.
What a cluster-fuck. The film is done, for all intents and purposes. This stuff just shows the hubris rampant in Hollywood. Dot the "i"s and cross the "t"s before proceeding, pinheads. BTW, there is also an ongoing problem between Fox and WB over the rights to the old campy "Batman" TV show. Gee, I wonder whether that could have contributed to all the legal posturing/maneuvering/friction.
Actually, as ComicMix says, Fox could have gone ahead with this from the minute Warners announced they were going to make the film. This actually looks rather like a deliberate attempt to screw Warners in some way or another.
The history of the Largo Quitclaim (from DEADLINE: Hollywood) - this is rather complicated:
I have faith that copies will leak if it comes to that. It will be the first underground blockbuster.
I Am - I see an insect applauding with hands and feet. Applauding what, I don't know.
Coincidentally, I was in the library today and my attention was briefly drawn to a book about Art Buchwald's Hollywood lawsuit, which Buchwald first won regarding whether some Eddie Murphy blockbuster had stolen its plot from one of his stories, and then had to win again after the studio in question claimed to have turned no profit on the $350 million film.
Mike - is everything an excuse for you to post a Kinks song? Well, I'm all in favor of that. Also it's twice in the last few days that you've reminded me of The Dirtbombs' song Leopardman At C&A (the lyrics were by Alan Moore for his buddies in Bauhaus but they never used them so Mick Collins wrote his own music for it - and I'm sure Mr. Moore took his title from the Specials' absolutely fantastic nuclear attack song, Man At C&A.)
Like the man said, kill all the lawyers. (Oh, except the ones like Buchwald's, who did a number on oldschool Hollywood accounting practices. Baseball teams traditionally have done something that I'm guessing is not too dissimilar - they write off all their players' salaries because the players are depreciating products. At least that's how they used to do it, don't know if they ever got nailed for that.)
Everything is an excuse to post *some* song - and since the Kinks and Fairport are my two longest-running interests, it's often a Kinks or FC song that come to mind.
I also thought of Celluloid Heros or Powerman - two other songs that could be said to bear on the situation.
I referenced Bob Calvert's Aerospaceage Inferno regarding something the other day. (Arrgh! Can't remember what!)
If i was posting about sexual politics (particularly gender issues) i'd likely hook to 2 Nice Girls' I Spent my Last $10 (on Birth Control & Beer).
Something about the way Nashville treats musicians: Old Dogs with (Nashville) Is Rough on the Living (but Surely Speaks Well of the Dead) or Jason & the Scorchers Greetings from Nashville.
I did a couple of Batman-related posts and used the Ventures' Batman Theme and Joker's Wild...
I probably ought to start looking for different songs to reference...
(I've been thinking about a post about Red River Valley and a 1930s [or so] Hank Thompson song that used the same tune...)
Desperadoes Waiting For A Train opens with a reference to Red River Valley and near as I can tell you can't go wrong with Guy Clark.
Someone mentioned that 2 Nice Girls song somewhere because I have a vague memory of doing a glib post about the title.
And I'm all in favor of Jason & The Scorchers, especially their cover of John Denver's Take Me Home Country Roads.
The Ventures - well, you probably could go wrong with them due to the sheer number of their releases, but if it's your choice there's a helluva lotta good songs there. Also other good versions of the Batman theme to choose from, but I wouldn't argue that one.
And I never object to the Kinks songs - I own most of them, but that's because I like them, and I think one of your posts a year or so ago put me on a Face To Face binge, for which I am thankful, always nice to rediscover an old love.
Okay - this may result in a double post, and if it does, i'll kill one:
Here's the 2 Nice Girls song - it's great, but their best ever is their mashup of Sweet Jane and Love and Affection...