WE WILL WATCH THE WATCHMEN!!
A settlement has been reached between Warner Bros. and Fox and the film will be released on March 6th as planned according to Variety. The studios had this to say in a joint statement:
“Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox have resolved their dispute regarding the rights to the upcoming motion picture ‘Watchmen‘ in a confidential settlement. Warner Bros. acknowledges that Fox acted in good faith in bringing its claims, which were asserted prior to the start of principal photography.
Fox acknowledges that Warner Brothers acted in good faith in defending against those claims. Warner Bros. and Fox, like all ‘Watchmen‘ fans, look forward with great anticipation to this film’s March 6 release in theatres.”
Confidential is all relevant though as Variety claims Fox with receive a gross sum equaling between 5% and 8.5% depending on how much the film brings in worldwide. In addition, they will be a “gross player” in any sequels (wouldn’t that be something?) or spinoffs. Fox’s name will not be on the film nor will it co-own the property.
Looking for some sort of compensation, WB is likely to set their sites on producer Larry Gordon for starting this whole mess. In court, Fox claimed it retained the rights to Watchmen by way of their 1994 agreement with Gordon. Variety said, “[The Judge] found in his ruling that Gordon, who’s not a defendant in the case, had never exercised his option to acquire Fox’s remaining interest in ‘Watchmen‘ nor had he honored his agreement since 2005 to offer the project to Fox under the ‘changed elements’ part of the pact.”
I, for one, am very relieved. Besides the fact that I was running out of clever pictures to go along with my reports, they were cutting it pretty close with the release date. For a while there I thought there might be a chance we’d never get to see Watchmen at all. So, do you feel bad for any of the parties involved? Besides the fans who had to nervously await the outcome of course.
You can also view and discuss this article at my blog, TheNerdyBird.com.
