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Watchmen Trial Settlement Talks Going Well

Source:  Associated Press
It seems that a nasty lawsuit that threatened the March 6 release of Watchmen might be settled out of court. According to Associated Press, attorneys on both sides of the Fox/Warner Bros. lawsuit over the upcoming Watchmen film say that settlement talks have been quite productive.

A hearing was scheduled for today, but attorneys for both Fox and Warner Bros. asked U.S. District Judge Gary Allan Feess to delay the hearing so settlement talks could continue over the weekend. Feess agreed, but did indicate that a January 20 hearing is still scheduled to determine if the March 6 release will be blocked or not.

Fox lawyer Lou Karasik said that the delay would be "very very helpful" to the settlement talks, which he said were "productive." Fox originaly brought the lawsuit up in February, claiming that the studio still had rights to the film which Warner Bros. is releasing. Feess agreed last month that Fox still seemed to have the rights to distribute the film.


18 Comments


January 10th, 2009 7:18pm
Copyrights were sub-divided into all different little areas called subsidary rights.

To give an example, lets say your a screenwriter, you create this awesome story, which myself as a producer executive like the idea and deem it as profitable and possible to do on screen.
Then i buy the specific subsidary rights off you (the copyright holder). This substantially means i have the right to turn your idea into whatever kind of subsidary right i bought, weather it was merchandise or movie, but the plus side is that due to you being the copyright holder you still gain profit of what i make
  (Delete)
January 10th, 2009 7:13pm
Ahh see here is the problem here, Warner Bros owned the movie but Fox own the right to distribute it.
So therefore they'll have to split the profits with the revenues
  (Delete)
January 10th, 2009 6:55pm
I'm not saying Fox is completely to blame here, but I would say they definitely possess the lion's share of the fault for what is happening, and possession is nine-tenths of the law. Warner Bros. owns this movie, not Fox.
  (Delete)
January 10th, 2009 6:10pm
Well yeah technically it is both of their faults because Gordon should have realised that he had the full subsidary rights not just part of it and of course it is his lawyers for overlooking that or not realising it.
I agree with you on the FOX thing, they use to be well-respected now it just seems like they are init for the money, but they've been taking to many risks lately.
DBZ & Street Fighter, the watchmen trial, 300 million dollars invested in Avatar.

Also thanks for the correction
  (Delete)
January 10th, 2009 3:29pm
Also, it's technically Larry Gordon's (with an "o") lawyers fault for overlooking some choice contractual ADDITIONS by Fox.
Regardless of guilt in this matter, FOX is still a collective, steaming pile of unscrupulous, stupid, greedy, lying shit. EVERYONE WHO WORKS FOR THEM. I'm sorry if that ends up being you Ottley, but they are the scourge of Hollywood in both film and television (within the last 15 years)
  (Delete)
January 10th, 2009 3:23pm
You may change your mind when you read this:
http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/2008-12-6-motion-captured/posts/2009-1-8-an-open-letter-from-watchmen-producers
  (Delete)
January 10th, 2009 12:29pm
You lot just don't get this it ain't Fox's fault.
It's Lawrence Gordan's

Lawrence owned the subisdary copyright, i think the copyright would be owned by DC and its creators of the comic.
But anyway Lawrence Gordan sold the rights to Fox in the late 80s / early 90s, i believe. But Fox deemed that the film after having the copyright for a while, Fox said the film was impossible to make and despite its fan-base and popularity among comic fans, it would never be done.
So Lawrence Gordan took back the rights but forgot the subsidary rights of distriubition and that was left with Fox.
Warner Bros then picked up the Sunsidary Right afters Fox dropped them, with years in production hell with not only Fox but also WB. They finally found the right man for the job Zack Synder. He did it.

But if Lawrence Gordan made sure he had the full subsidary copyrights all this wouldn't be happening right now.

Also subsidary copyrights are the rights to create other stuff from a copyright, like films, novels, games, merchandise etc etc.
  (Delete)
January 10th, 2009 11:44am
F FOX!
  (Delete)
January 10th, 2009 6:57am
man fuck fox. leave watchmen the way it is. warner bros. should keep the rights to this movie.
  (Delete)
January 10th, 2009 6:40am
It's the principle of the thing. If you read the link I posted you'd understand. Fox AND Warner Brothers were offered the movie and Fox showed no interest. Now that it looks to be a good movie, they want in. WB makes good movie and Fox sucks, so yeah, in this case, it's about who made it
  (Delete)
January 10th, 2009 6:29am
tbh its just comapnies trying to make mor emoneya nd its what they do so weve just gott alive with it :) and its not about who did make it its who has the rightsd and who has the rights to distribute and atm thts not warners.
  (Delete)
January 10th, 2009 5:44am
Comrade just sent this to me. Check it out if you want to know just how big of douches Fox are and how WB is the hero of the story. You should especially read this "furyofthefilmfan."

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/2008-12-6-motion-captured/posts/2009-1-8-an-open-letter-from-watchmen-producers
  (Delete)
January 10th, 2009 5:17am
Did you just compare Watchmen to Harry fucking Potter?

Also, WB delaying a movie is fine because WB actually makes GOOD movies and they didn't sue another studio to get the rights to it...even if they did, it wouldn't be as important as Watchmen
  (Delete)
January 10th, 2009 3:13am
You guys hating on Fox seem to forget it was the WB who delayed Harry Potter for the sole reason to make more money thus screwing over fans.
  (Delete)
January 9th, 2009 11:42pm
I hope FOX gets paiiiiiddd!! WB fuckd up.
  (Delete)
January 9th, 2009 7:03pm
Hey, Fox are dicks, but I think, and hope, this gets settled soon.
  (Delete)
January 9th, 2009 4:17pm
Fuck FOX.
  (Delete)
January 9th, 2009 3:20pm
oh damn. I just wish they will stop this crap and let the movie be released. FOX is really sukish like this. I just wish they will understand that watchmen is still made by WARNER BROS pictures even if FOX had the rights to it. like ,crap, even a donkey would know that.
  (Delete)

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