Fox Wants to Delay ‘Watchmen’ Release
Warner Bros and 20th-Century Fox attorneys met with U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess on Monday for a conference in the wake of the Christmas Eve ruling saying 20th had rights to The Watchmen after all.
Fox’s lawyer indicated that the studio would seek to delay the schedule March 6 release which has sent fans awaiting the Zack Snyder-directed feature into despair.
Warner’s attorney, Stephen A. Marenberg, made it clear they were ready to go to trial, as scheduled for January 20 and remain defiant of the ruling. "We respectfully but vigorously disagree with the court’s ruling and are exploring all of our appellate options. We continue to believe that Fox’s claims have no merit and that we will ultimately prevail, whether at trial or in the Court of Appeals. We have no plans to move the release date of the film," the studio said according to The Hollywood Reporter. "We continue to believe that Fox’s claims have no merit and that we will ultimately prevail, whether at trial or in the Court of Appeals."
When he steered the argument back to the core issues, Feess said, “I have spent more time than I think you can imagine working on your case at a time when I didn’t expect to be working on it.” As a result, he was looking for remedies not rehashing.
"We are gratified by the recognition of our rights in the Judge’s order, which speaks for itself," Fox said in a statement.
Fox’s contention has been that their agreement with producer Lawrence Gordon required him to offer them first dibs on the feature each time it was reconfigured. They claim the Zack Snyder version, which was ultimately filmed, was never offered to them. Gordon, who has not been named in the lawsuit, did not testify during the hearings to date and Feess said Monday that his silence hurt Warners’ case. “The court takes a dim view of this conduct,” Feess wrote as a footnote to his December 24 ruling, according to The New York Times. “The court will not, during the remainder of this case, receive any evidence from Gordon that attempts to contradict any aspect of this court’s ruling on the copyright issues under discussion.”
Warner has said when they signed with Gordon, he never mentioned his obligation to Fox and if anyone owes the studio money, it should be the producer not Warner Bros.
Fox does not want to delay the release of Watchmen. Nobody makes money if the film does not come out. The wild theory that Fox wants to delay Watchmen until after Wolverine comes out is equally spurious.This will end with the writing of a check, or the signing of anagreement promising Fox money against Watchmen, and maybe even other films. Period. All of this grandstanding is to rile up the fans (mission accomplished) who will beg and plead with WB to do anything in their power to to make sure their precious dreams get fulfilled on 3/6/09.This is a cash grab, nothing more.
I agree that it's a cash grab– but I suspect that the implications are more than just money. The most obvious one: if Fox becomes the new distributor, are they going to insist on a shorter running time for the film, and cut it to the bone?
Boy, Gordon better hope he doesn't have any money – because if he's woth suing, he'll have less than none once Warner gets through with him.
"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.
Tom-Since that's almost verbatim what you posted on the 'Rama, I'm tempted to just repeat my response. In short, such a boycott would and could never succeed, as fans would and could never stay away from Wolverine, and the fannish contongent of the people who watch House and Prison break is negligible.Right now, the only project that could concievably lose as a result of this mishegas is Watchmen itself. If Fox touches a frame of the film, the fans will riot, and those changes will be all the media talks about. The plot will become secondary to the real-life intrigue, much as how the talk about Ed Norton all but walking away from Hulk publicity became a bigger story than the film itself.
Anything and everything's possible in an impossible world.As the verbatim in 'rama, just putting the word out in Comicsmix, CBR, and 'Rama to cover the bases, for those who may only visit one site. ;-)