Jan 8, 2009 by Brian Gallagher

Watchmen Trial Settlement Talks Going Well

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.

Watchmen was released March 6th, 2009 and stars Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Matt Frewer. The film is directed by Zack Snyder.


Sources: Associated Press

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Comments (18)

  1. J.A.Ottley.Writer / Director

    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

    3 years agoby @chronicFlag

  2. J.A.Ottley.Writer / Director

    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

    3 years agoby @chronicFlag

  3. -comrade-

    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.

    3 years agoby @taberjohnson18Flag

  4. J.A.Ottley.Writer / Director

    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

    3 years agoby @chronicFlag

  5. -comrade-

    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 sh*t. 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)

    3 years agoby @taberjohnson18Flag

  6. -comrade-

    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

    3 years agoby @taberjohnson18Flag

  7. J.A.Ottley.Writer / Director

    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.

    3 years agoby @chronicFlag

  8. GK

    F FOX!

    3 years agoby @indianajonesFlag

  9. eazye23

    man f*ck fox. leave watchmen the way it is. warner bros. should keep the rights to this movie.

    3 years agoby @eazye23Flag

  10. T.Clark

    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

    3 years agoby @insertusernamehereFlag

  11. R0B062

    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.

    3 years agoby @r0b062Flag

  12. T.Clark

    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

    3 years agoby @insertusernamehereFlag

  13. T.Clark

    Did you just compare Watchmen to Harry f*cking 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

    3 years agoby @insertusernamehereFlag

  14. furyofthefilmfan

    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.

    3 years agoby @furyofthefilmfanFlag

  15. MaViNx

    I hope FOX gets paiiiiiddd!! WB f*ckd up.

    3 years agoby @mavinxFlag

  16. The Narrator: The Better Man

    Hey, Fox are dicks, but I think, and hope, this gets settled soon.

    3 years agoby @narratorFlag

  17. -comrade-

    F*ck FOX.

    3 years agoby @taberjohnson18Flag

  18. Structure (ONSTRA)

    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.

    3 years agoby @gaj1992Flag

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