Comic Book Resources

I’m sure Fox will be reasonable, for barrel loads of cash! Oh, and also lots of residuals.

“I’m not sure if anyone has read about this…”

What one needs to read should be here in the cbr archives, as this has been in comics news for some time now. And Bill is right; these things are usually easily settled for boats of money. The current controversy is that Warners want the judge to decide how much, as they rightly believe that Fox will be unreasonable.

Well, David, there was JUST recently a big development in the case, so I’d say that is newsworthy.

When Alan Moore says “a pox upon your film,” he means it. Go, Glycon, go!

Poor, poor Zack Snyder.

He and his crew, and the cast of Watchmen worked so hard on this film to get it made.

“Poor little dominoes, your empire took so long to build …”
“And now, with a snap of history’s fingers: …. down it goes” (excerpt from V for Vendetta).

Damn you Fox! I was looking forward to bitching about how this movie is a complete travesty.

Can Fox really afford not to release a film? Out of spite? After the year the studio has had?

After releasing Meet Dave? And Meet the Spartans? And Nim’s Island? And The Happening? And Space Chimps? And…?

Fox is in the business of making money. Watchmen has a ton of buzz. It will make money. Why not release it? Shit, Warner Bros. already did all the heavy lifting. Sit back and count your money, Rothman, et al.

It’s funny, I was re-reading some DC comics from the late 80′s the other day and came across one of Jeanette Kahn’s editorials where she talked bout the progress being made in the Joel Silver-produced Watchmen movie over at 20th Century Fox and how soon WE would be watching the Watchmen. That comic was dated June 1988.

We should just all face it at this point. The movie is cursed.

Deep down I’m really hoping to hear that the big squiddley thing is under contract with Fox and that they’ve shot a faithful ending, that they will insist upon before agreeing to the release.

I call “sour grapes” on Fox.
Surely, there must be some kind of statute of limitations that can apply here.
They had the rights and didn’t bother to do anything. The legal copyright holders decided to go ahead and make the damn movie. Or, to use an American football analogy…Fox dropped the ball, the WB picked up the fumble, and brought it in for the touchdown. Fox chose to “get off the pot” and don’t deserve to whine about it.
I could continue on with multitudes of cliched sayings (e.g. eating cake), but I won’t.
Fox…you lost out. Suck it up. No matter what you do, the WB will win and you will still only come out looking like a sore loser. The only side that’s going to lose due to all this nonsense are the fans who want to see this movie and don’t really care who made it…as long as it’s good.

What the thousands of online whiners don’t realize is that there is no chance that this movie will not come out. It’s not like Fox wants this film shelved so it can produce its own version — otherwise Fox would have taken legal action before Day 1 of filming started. What matters is how much of a cut 20th Century Fox gets, since the bean counters have the impression that Watchmen will do strong business.

Fox isn’t exactly a bad guy here. It believes it holds the rights to the film and apparently it has the documentation to back up that position. Fox is just doing what companies are supposed to do — protect its assets. As a result, I can’t quite understand the online backlash against Fox.

You know, I figured Fox would just negotiate for a percentage but now…

Who would have guessed that Alan Moore’s black magic powers actually work? If only he had thought to turn them against The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie…

No matter what you do, the WB will win and you will still only come out looking like a sore loser.

Most companies could care less about “looking like a sore loser.” Do you honestly think a considerable amount of people will stop seeing Fox movies or watching Fox-produced television programs because of this?

The people who are pissed off enough about this to complain are the same people who watch 24 and/or Family Guy and/or anticipating 2009 Fox movies like Avatar. Fox has absolutely NOTHING to lose here except the fees paid to lawyers.

McK you’re speaking too much sense!

Now lets all get our pitchforks and go Fox-hunting!

Fox would be stupid to not allow this film to be released, if it’s not, then fox is as inept as their news network. Just settle for resids and let Snyder and Co’s work hit the big screen.

I’m no expert at copyright law, but I believe you lose a copyright if you fail to use it. Normally, litigation of this issue would take much longer than a January 20 trial date (as provided by the link’s story). That story doesn’t give much details as to what happened–was there an injunction? was it simply a scheduling conference?

The reason Fox is in such good shape is because this is strictly a contract issue – they had a contract for the rights to do a film version of Watchmen. WB felt that they forfeited said right by inaction. So far, judges have disagreed.

Trademark you lose if you don’t use it. Copyright is retained as part of the creation. In this case, the copyright is still owned by Warners but was, according to Fox, licensed to them and they still hold it….

I’m with the majority opinion that things will be settled for some ungodly sum of money and both parties will come out way ahead.

As a result, I can’t quite understand the online backlash against Fox.

Because this is what always happens when the idea that something might be blocked that fans want to see gets traction. It doesn’t matter who has the legal high ground or whose rights might be getting ignored. It’s about the threat of the supply being cut off. (This is why so many people made such asses of themselves being vitriolic about the Siegel & Shuster heirs: none of them cared about anything except their panic that they might not get their Superman on time every month.)

It’s never pretty, but it shouldn’t come as a SURPRISE.

This isn’t supposed to happen. It’s Watchmen, not Miracleman.

I agree with Mad Monkey and with Sanagi.

Personally, I think FOX overplayed their hand way too soon.
They should have waited until after the Watchmen have been shown, and if it became a “blockbuster” in the level of “The Dark Knight”: then demand whatever slice of the pie from the box office profits.

Doing it this soon well before the movie comes out, is like counting your chickens before they’re hatched.

On the other hand, with all this publicity (negative or positive) would feed to the public’s curiousity and get them interested in seeing the movie (if only to see what’s the fuss is all about).

It’s a huge gamble either way by FOX. They could suffer greatly from the backlash over their actions toward Warner Bros. or even the movie. There’s alot of comic fans that may or may not be rooting for the movie but will support the movie anyway. It’s because of those same comic fans, that FOX will need to support the Wolverine: Origins movie. FOX cannot afford to lose that portion of the public.

Just an opinion.

I wonder if fox gets this movie would they edit it to a pg-13 “family” film like daredevil. They did it before they will do it again. Got to sell them action figures. Can’t do that with an “R” rated movie thats 2 hours long.

“I wonder if fox gets this movie would they edit it to a pg-13 “family” film like daredevil. They did it before they will do it again. Got to sell them action figures. Can’t do that with an “R” rated movie thats 2 hours long.”

WB owns the copyright to the film that they created, so Fox can’t touch it. So, no editing of the existing print that WB financed. The only thing they could possibly do is block the release of the film.

Oh great, so the squiddley thing gets screwed AGAIN….

“We have recently received a pre-trial appearance request from attorney office. Please see log # xx for trial appearance info. ”

Tom – I think you nailed it on the head. The cynical part of me wonders if Fox and WB are in on it together to drum up non-fanboy viewers.

It’s never pretty, but it shouldn’t come as a SURPRISE.

Good point, Greg. This situation is very comparable to the Siegel situation, and many comic fans (and movie fans!) are extremely self-centered. I guess it bothers me on that criteria, because there is nothing wrong with Fox exercising its rights, but people get mad because it VIOLATES MY RIGHT TO SEE WATCHMEN, DAMMIT!

Personally, I think FOX overplayed their hand way too soon.
They should have waited until after the Watchmen have been shown, and if it became a “blockbuster” in the level of “The Dark Knight”: then demand whatever slice of the pie from the box office profits.

Probably would weaken Fox’s case, though. A judge could then rule that Fox then did not care about the rights situation until the movie turned massive profits, and WB would have another leg to squiddley-leg to stand on. Signs point to Watchmen being a hot flick, so strike now.

Not sure why anyone would be saddened by the film not getting out, as it looks like a shiny, steaming turd.

From what I’ve read, there might be a secondary motivation here. It regards the DVD rights to the 60′s Batman series. Fox owns the rights to the series, but DC/Warner own the characters. Fox can’t release the series on video without Warner’s approval, and apparently they’ve been unwilling to do so.

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction” -one of Newton’s three laws of gravity.

If FOX gets their way, and the Watchmen movie is delayed, all fans and non-fans should unite against FOX’s stepping on the people’s right to see a movie by: eschewing (or foregoing) all FOX’s tv and movie medias such as House, Prison Break, 24, Bones, Wolverine: Origins, etc.

FOX would lose more revenues than they would gain by preventing the Watchmen release.

Just a suggestion.

From everything I’ve read, the judge ruled pretty much the only way he could. It appears that the producer neglected to offer Fox a chance to produce or distribute the movie, and (contrary to what some have reported) Fox objected right when production started, and Warners blew them off.

“If FOX gets their way, and the Watchmen movie is delayed, all fans and non-fans should unite against FOX’s stepping on the people’s right to see a movie by: eschewing (or foregoing) all FOX’s tv and movie medias such as House, Prison Break, 24, Bones, Wolverine: Origins, etc.”

I plan on seeing Wolverine twice, maybe three times, and I plan on watching a lot of Fox produced shows.
It’s my anti-boycott.

“FOX would lose more revenues than they would gain by preventing the Watchmen release.”

Only if the members of the angry geek boycott were also Nielson families. And how many of them are already boycotting Fox because they canceled Firefly?

Even if Fox didn’t have the high moral ground here (and really this is the entire purpose of contract law) the entire kerfuffle is completely off the radar of 99.9% of the population. And for the tiny fraction of studio employees and comic fans that make up that .1% the majority of them aren’t going to care enough to lash out at Fox.

Fox has absolutely nothing to lose in this fight and everything to gain. They have the ability to say, “Screw it! Nobody gets Watchmen!” if Warners doesn’t agree with their terms. I’d guess that they want the film to get released so they can get their percentage and whatever other concessions go along with it, but I wouldn’t be shocked if negotiations completely break down. They seem to be breaking down a lot in Hollywood these days…

If FOX gets their way, and the Watchmen movie is delayed, all fans and non-fans should unite against FOX’s stepping on the people’s right to see a movie by: eschewing (or foregoing) all FOX’s tv and movie medias such as House, Prison Break, 24, Bones, Wolverine: Origins, etc.

FOX would lose more revenues than they would gain by preventing the Watchmen release.

Yes, because the 100.3 million that Wolverine will make in its opening weekend due to the fan boycott will be devastating compared to the 100.31 million it would make without the boycott.

Nobody will boycott anything, Watchmen will come out on schedule, Alan Moore will hate it, and Fox will get a few percentage points of the box office receipts. The End.

What happen to all the people that didn’t even want the movie to be made?

Of course it’s going to (unfortunately) come out. Don’t be fucking stupid.

If Fox can somehow prevent the release of Zack Snyder’s ‘Watchmen’, they’ll be my heroes, and I’ll go see ‘Wolverine’ as many times as they damn well want me to.