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.
January 16th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Thank God they settled this—with money, big surprise.
I think all the parties are at fault on some level. As I’ve said before, while it was pretty stupid of WB and Fox DOES have the rights, something obviously got lost in translation. I’m just glad they settled—even though this is mostly WB’s fault, everyone would have been pissed at Fox if the date had changed … regardless of what they initially wanted to do when trying to resolve the conflict.
January 16th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Well, glad that is settled. Now who is with me for a midnight showing in So Cal?
January 16th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
I may just join you there RJ!
January 16th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Glad it was settled. Feel the same way as Wita, everyone was at fault a bit. Just wish Fox did a bit less grandstanding and started the whole suit earlier.
January 16th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
No So Cal for me.
January 19th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
I’m SO happy that it’s going to be released. Ever since, I’ve seen a plethora of commercials popping up everywhere-it’s like they were holding back everything until a final decision was made, and BAM! Watchmen everyhwere! And I’m definitely not complaining =D