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3RD UPDATE: Lawyers for both Fox and Warner Bros asked federal judge Gary Feess today to delay an upcoming hearing in the Watchmen case because "settlement talks have been productive" and need to continue over the weekend. The special conference had been requested by WB attorneys in order to move up the January 20th date at which Judge Feess hands down his ruling that could change the release date of Watchmen off March 6th. The judge granted the postponement but is sticking, for now, to his January 20th date. According to court documents, Fox and Warner Bros have conducted the settlement talks since last weekend and made concessions. This is surprising since WB lawyers announced they would continue to fight immediately after Feess announced his intention to rule in favor of Fox for copyight infringement and distribution rights.
2ND UPDATE: I can confirm that backchannel talks are finally underway between Fox and Warner Bros. Insiders tell me that this is the first time both sides are trying to hash out a settlement. Of course, Fox has been complaining all along that its approaches to WB have been rebuffed since long before the movie was even made. But I also heard that WB wouldn't even engage after federal judge Gary Feess recently announced his intention to rule in Fox's favor on the copyright infringement and distribution angle. Now, sources tell me, "Warner Bros is finally freaked out."
UPDATE: Fox has officially responded to Watchmen producer Lloyd Levin's open letter about the case against Warner Bros:
"We appreciate Mr. Levin’s passion for this project, but he has neglected basic facts and legal rulings. First, Fox notified Warner Bros of our rights in this project months before production on the film began -- they chose to ignore our rights on this occasion and several times after that and proceeded at their own risk; 2) only after having our rights in the film deliberately ignored by Warner Bros. did we take the action of filing litigation in order to have those rights recognized; and 3) on Judge Feess’ Christmas Eve order, he specifically ruled that WB had been timely notified and that Fox, in fact, had the rights we asserted. There is no question of who is right and who is wrong. That has been decided through the litigation that we had hoped to avoid, and we refer interested parties to the court’s ruling to confirm these statements."
This Watchmen mano a mano just keeps getting better and better. Every day, we're one step closer to a Tom Rothman vs Alan Horn cage match. Now federal judge Gary Feess is supposed to tell Fox and Warner Bros attorneys whether or not he'll move up that January 20th hearing regarding an injunction to prevent Watchmen's release on March 6th. Remember, the judge told us he's already decided that Fox has distribution rights to the pic because of copyright infringement. This week, Warner Bros asked for a quicker January 12th hearing because "time is critical". Like, duh. Oh, and get this: Larry Gordon has finally piped up by firing off a whiny letter to the court. I'm not sure which is more hilarious -- Larry breaking public silence and feigning righteous indignation, or Larry blaming Fox and his former lawyers Bloom Dekom for the past confusion and current mess, or Larry thinking anybody in their right mind would believe anything he says at this late date. Put a fork in Gordon: he's done in Hollywood.
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If WATCHMEN is a smash, or even a hit, Gordon is anything but done. In fact, he’ll be hot all over again.
Bottom line is that WB legal team failed here in allowing this to slip through. Basic title check was screwed up.
How can Gordon be done? He’s had so many hit movies and his most recent movie, Hellboy 2, was a hit. What’s the matter Nikki, did he forget your name at a party or something?
Good. This is being settled as it should be. If I have a wonder piece of land that sits vacent and unused; I’m sure as hell not going to let anyone build a house on it and live in that house. If for some reason this release still gets screwed up then WB failed the fans here on one of their most beloved titles. Shame on you Warners.
I can only hope one day to find myself having produced over fifty films (for fun, try to find another two or three active producers out there – not attached to talent – with that many credits to their name), run a studio, and have a nasty blog proclaim I’m “over in Hollywood”. Maybe you’re just trying to keep it juicy, but if you truly believe Gordon is done for, then you know less about this town than I thought you did. This guy has one of the most impressive careers around. The next time he shops around a property, every buyer in town, including WB and Fox, will be lining up. As long as business affairs does a better job checking chain of title, Gordon will be just fine.
This is getting good. They have to settle. Too much money is at stake. But I’m betting that if they do, then WB will force Snyder to trim the movie to 2hr to fit in more showings so that their share of a dwindling profit pie won’t be as much of a substantial loss, which ironically will weaken the movie as a whole. For those who’ve never read the graphic novel Watchmen is epic. Its not disposable cookie cutter distraction. In order for anyone to enjoy it they have to get the full breadth of the story and unfortunately for some its going to take a long time to get to that endpoint. If FOX wins this ruling and my proposed theory wins out then the audience and fans of Watchmen will lose out and FOX will again have an indirect role of a blockbuster sucking hard. Let’s face it, with the exception of Fox Searchlight and their releases, the output coming out of Rothman’s camp is just jaw droppingly awful — too numerous to list. Ahh well…the beat goes on.
I still can’t believe there are idiots clinging to the “we hate Fox, Fox is so wrong” stupidity. I guess that’s why fanboys are fanboys … they don’t live in a real world.
Nikki: I’d like, if I may, to dedicate the following Uriah Heep tune to the WB, on the occasion of their finally (finally!) being awakened, however belatedly, to the grudging realization that, gee whillikers, IP and distribution laws really, truly do apply to them as well, now that you mention it:
So I stood on a ridge
And shunned religion,
Thinking the world was mine.
I made my break and a big mistake,
STEALIN’ when I shoulda been buyin’.
I was STEALIN’ when I shoulda been buyin’.
I was STEALIN’ when I shoulda been buyin’.
I was STEALIN’ when I shoulda been buyin’.
(repeat, fade)
Heh.
So much rigamarole over a property that at best is going to be a marginal box office success.
So chain of events as of late, WB went from:
1. Ignoring Fox when they tried to settle quietly before production began, w/out taking it to court.
2. “The lawsuit has no merit”
3. “we will not settle, we’re going to appeal” statements issued by their corporate flack
4. “settlement talks are fruitful”
All this just reiterates the fact that WB has conceded that they were in the wrong and either fumbled the ball or stole the rights, regardless of the producers pleas of ethics and and such, legally they were in the wrong. As a Time/Warner shareholder, I’m more than a little upset but as a Watchmen fan I’m overjoyed that we will finally get to see the movie w/out delay.
“Sorry about that little misunderstanding Mr. Rothman, do you prefer cash or check?”
HEY – WHILE YOU’RE ALL BASHING WARNERS & FOX, TAKE A LOOK OVER AT DISNEY’S!
Over a decade ago they bought the rights to one of Michael Crichton’s BEST novels, AIRFRAME. When they figured out that the budget would be a big one, and that the star of the story is a Women, NOT a guy, they stopped the project & BURIED IT. Their thinking: never make a $100 mil film with a female star.
Michael Crichton said for YEARS that he really wanted this book made into a film… he tried to buy the rights back. Disney REFUSED HIM. Other producers who were interested in the novel tried to buy the rights. DISNEY REFUSED AGAIN.
Disney (as many studios do) figured it would be worse for them if they sold the rights to the book to another studio…the movie gets made… and they are EMBARRASSED. So, to protect themselves from this potential embarrassment, they sat on the book and NEVER let anyone else make the picture.
This story is repeated a 1,000 times in our town. So I say, FUCK ALL THE STUDIOS – YOU’RE ALL EQUALLY GUILTY. I HOPE THE STRESS FROM THIS SHORTENS THE LIFE OF EVERY ONE OF YOU FUCKING EXECUTIVES.
There are so many GREAT properties/novels/scripts the studios are withholding from anyone else making… if you knew the list of stuff buried in studio rights’ contract hell, you would get sick.
P.S. Let’s not forget that miserable fucker Harvey Weinstein, who would often buy the distribution rights to an independent film from the filmmaker … just to keep the movie OUT OF RELEASE. If he thought the film was ‘iffy’, he would sometimes buy the picture just to keep it out of his competitor’s hands. Forget the fact that the director & producer worked on it for years, put in their own money, etc.
And after a year of withholding the film, Harvey would let the rights lapse, but by then the film was ‘cold’, having already been shown at Sundance & other film festivals. No one wanted last year’s pic. Yeah, that’s Harvey & Bob. If anyone deserves major misfortune, it’s these two rats.
The real upside to all of this, of course, is that it wholly and explicitly kicks to the proverbial curb each and every last boneheaded thing Harry Knowles has been busy spluttering and gibbering, re: the entire Fox/WB imbroglio, since Day the First.
In the immortal words of a noted devil diva: “… and that’s a GOOD thing!”
That’s all? That was what had in responding to Levin’s claims? I was expecting more, much more in replying, vis a vis to Levin’s remarks of they showing no interest to the project & slept on the project for so long.
Why then now they are showing interest after the movie was made? Fox is a sore loser. No matter what the outcome of this case, Fox has done itself a great dis-service. Hollywood is known to not like friends such as this. Fox, is not going to have a good time after this in Hollywood.
What FOX is ultimately exercising here are what is ultimately known as “squatter’s rights”. In fact, there is legal precedent as it pertains to Web sites and domain names. FOX had no intention of ever making a Watchmen film. That is pretty much a known fact. Just like people used to buy popular domain names and then extort ridiculous fees from movie studios and other business entities even though they had no intent to make any actual use of the domains.
Yes, Fox holds distribution rights. No, they never planned on using them. If they were as concerned as they claimed to be when giving notice before production began, they would have sought an injunction to PREVENT the film from being made. Instead, they waited and watched the tracking.
Only when the tracking on Watchmen became positive did FOX exercise their rights.
The reason why this is convoluted is that FOX ONLY owns distribution rights. The original property rights owner is, you guessed it, Warner Bros. I hear all this noise in these comments about intellectual property, when the fact is, the property that is Watchmen is indeed the legal and intellectual property of TimeWarner, parent company of DC Comics, the publisher of Watchmen.
FOX never had a true chance to get an injunction preventing the film’s release. And honestly, if they won the injunction, FOX would be out legal fees, but they don’t stand to make a dime if this film doesn’t show.
But this does not matter, because a settlement will come out of this, WB will have to pay FOX, but only up to a point.
What I find interesting about Fox’s response to Lloyd Levin’s letter is that they don’t address the central part of his complaint: that Fox had no interest in the script that WB was willing to produce and only after Fox got a whif of success did they jump in with their legal claims. If Lloyd Levin’s account is accurate, regardless of Fox’s legal rights, their behavior is everything that’s wrong with the studio business.
Harry Knowles is a babyman of the worst kind. He refuses to see the world in anything other than his adolescent fantasies.
It’s a pretty simple legal concept – if you buy something, you own it. You can sit on it, you can make a mountain out of things you bought, you can do whatever you like. If someone else tries using one of your things, you lose.
Fox holds the rights to the Batman TV show from the 1960s – I hope if a deal is reached those classic shows can come out on DVD.
Larry will continue to crank out hits as long as he has Lloyd by his side. Lloyd is the wizard behind the curtain.
Eventually, this will be much adieu about nothing. Watchmen is not going to be a blockbuster. It’s a money pit. There is zero awareness of this thing at the moment. It’s a non-entity. It has zero mainstream penetration. The costumes are ridiculous. It needs a major marketing push.
FOX should just take a major upfront payout. There are no major grosses to be found here. Foreign interest will be non-existent as well. Fanboy love is limited to one weekend at best. This film won’t even perform well then.
Perhaps it will do better than The Spirit.
I don’t get it. Didn’t WB PURCHASE the f-ing rights from Universal?
Where was Fox when that happened.
Fox screws everything up INTENTIONALLY, from all their marvel titles to their horrid treatment of its TV shows.
So much rigamarole over a property that at best is going to be a marginal box office success..
Hashim R. Hathaway,
“Yes, Fox holds distribution rights. No, they never planned on using them. If they were as concerned as they claimed to be when giving notice before production began, they would have sought an injunction to PREVENT the film from being made.”
Seriously? Have you bothered to read ANY of the court documents before you made this statement? Both Fox and the judge made it very cleat that Fox went to Warner’s BEFORE production began to tell them they had a claim, whatever it was or may be. Warner’s basically told Fox to piss off and decided early on that they would roll the dice and take their chances in court. It’s not on Fox that Warners decided to go into production on a property that they weren’t 100% sure they had a right to make. Do you really think that if the tables were turned that Warners wouldn’t have done the exact same thing? If Fox decided to make a movie that Warners owned the rights to and had given Fox fair warning and been rebuffed, do you think Warners wouldn’t have let Fox tie the noose and hang themselves? Of course they would. Now that they have essentially lost, they are spinning a bullshit PR campaign trying to convince all the fanboys and people like yourself that Fox waited until after production to say anything. That is factually untrue.
Additionally, Warner’s might ultimately have the original ownership rights to the Watchmen through their ownership of DC but DC sold those rights to Larry Gordon who in turn sold the rights to Fox many years ago. So for you to assert that all Fox has is “distribution rights” to the movie is bogus too. The judge stated that Fox, “at the very least” had distribution rights but that implied they very well might have even more.
As to your squatter’s right analogy, seriously? Back in the day when Fox originally purchased the rights to The Watchmen, how many people on this planet even knew what that was? A handful of comic book readers? It’s not like me buying http://www.madonnna.com knowing full well that I would attempt to exploit that purchase down the road. Fox saw some potential back then but never saw something that they felt comfortable producing. And this all could have been resolved if Gordon and Levin had done their due diligence and taken the project to Fox in it’s current incarnation, been rejected and paid the $ to take it to Warners. They didn’t.
Enough said.
And, meanwhile, back in England, Alan Moore is laughing.
I don’t get it. Didn’t WB PURCHASE the f-ing rights from Universal?
Where was Fox when that happened.
Fox screws everything up INTENTIONALLY, from all their marvel titles to their horrid treatment of its TV shows..
Larry will continue to crank out hits as long as he has Lloyd by his side. Lloyd is the wizard behind the curtain.