For any fans of this film..Some interesting news has popped up..

From aintitcool

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/39578

WATCHMEN in trouble, Fox wins initial judge ruling over distribution
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. If you've been paying any sort of attention to the WATCHMEN film you know that Fox has been trying to stop its release, claiming they still own distribution rights from when they had the project in the early '90s.

Now it appears that the initial ruling by the judge is that Fox is indeed the owners of distribution, but I'm a little puzzled... I guess I'm a little hazy on my Judicial studies from high school, but the trail is set for January, so I'm not exactly sure how a Judge can make any sort of ruling before the trial even takes place. Maybe one of our more intelligent (at least more than I) talkbackers can illuminate this for me.

Whether they're legally in the right or not Fox has been incredibly shady with this from day one. They allowed Warner Bros to put a ton of money into this property and, if I'm not mistaken, even let them shoot most if not all of it before bringing this up, tying their hands completely and, if Fox wins, gets a free summer tentpole blockbuster while WB is left crying in the corner like I do after my pervy Uncle Fred comes to visit. (I don't really have an Uncle Fred, that was just pretend for laughs, see?)

No matter what, I get a sick feeling that we may see a delay in Watchmen's release and if it gets into Tom Rothman's hands? Well, I shudder to think what he'll do with an R-rated 3+ hour long super hero deconstruction story, even one that is delivered to him as a freebie on a silver platter.

Variety has the story here with the Judge promising a more detailed ruling after the holidays. Not a very Merry Christmas article, but now you know.

A letter from a fan..

Dear Fox,

Eat all the dicks.

Love,

-DOB

PS

(Okay, let me clarify a little bit for anyone who might be reading this letter that isn't either a)obsessed with The Watchmen or b) the head of the Fox Corporation.) Back in the 80s, Fox purchased the rights to a Watchmen movie and celebrated by not making it for 20 years. Now, Warner Brothers respected their decision but, oddly enough, felt that a Watchmen movie would look better if it was actually, you know, made. So, Warner Brothers decided to make it. They announced their plans well over a year ago and Watchmen is now one of the most anticipated movies of the year. If you saw The Dark Knight and, statistically speaking, you probably did, then you already saw the trailer. If you're me and, statistically speaking, you're probably not, then you went back to your apartment and watched the trailer on Youtube over and over again and experienced an odd yet not totally unexpected sense of profound sexual arousal that you could really only describe as spiritual.

If you're Fox, you patiently waited until the excitement over the movie reached a boner-inducing fever pitch, and then you decided to sue Warner Brothers and, according to the New York Times, you won. On Christmas Eve, a judge ruled that Fox has the right to, at the very least, distribute The Watchmen. Will they try to stop the release of the movie? Probably not, (though they certainly could). Will they try to change it? Again, no. Will they make some fat cash off of it? Certainly. Should they eat all the dicks? Without a doubt.

Now, Fox, I know that you didn't technically do anything illegal. In terms of the way the American justice system works, you are completely within your rights to do exactly what you did. You owned the movie rights to The Watchmen, and Warner Brothers made the movie anyway. Without having a real firm grasp on the law, I can certainly understand the concept of someone taking somebody else's thing. Like, if I bought bacon with the intention of cooking it, chopping it up and throwing it into one of my famous omelettes, I'd be real pissed if some jerk showed up, took all my bacon and made their own breakfast with it. Even if that jerk was Warner Brothers, and even if their breakfast looked f***ing awesome.

But here's the thing: You weren't going to make that movie. You had the movie rights to the most important graphic novel of all time, and you just sat on it for a couple of decades while you focused on making other hit movies, (though I can't for some reason think of a single one). The difference is that, when I buy bacon, I cook it almost immediately. I never just sit on it. (That's the worst thing you can do with bacon.) And if you did want to make it, you should've spoken up when the movie was first announced. "Hey, Warner Brothers, don't make that movie. We own it, and we will make it, we're just very slow." That would've been fine. But you decided to wait. You waited for Warner Brothers to buy some cheese, fry up some eggs, toast some English muffins cook its bacon, (I'm assuming here that Warner Brothers is making a bacon egg and cheese sandwich), and just when Warner Brothers was about to take a bite, you jumped out of the shadows and said "Hey, that's mine!" Which is why I've popped out, from even darker shadows, shouting "Hey, eat all the dicks!"

You know what bothers me the most, you stupid, s***ty bastards? You don't want to crush this movie or stop its release. It's not like you're morally opposed to the subject matter, and it's not like you're artistically offended by the vision and interpretation of the source material by Warner Brothers or director Zack Snyder and as a result want to stop the movie from seeing the light of day. It's not like there are a bunch of Fox employees who worked diligently on this movie; they're not being screwed by Warner Brothers' production. And it isn't like you're lashing out because you were going to make the movie and Snyder beat you to it; you had over twenty years and did nothing.

This is about money. You saw the chance to make a ridiculous sum of money, for no reason, and you're going to take it.

And, when the law is on your side, it's easy for you to argue that I don't have a leg to stand on and, at the end of the day, you're right. You're a business, and you made what is perhaps the smartest move a business could make. You struck at the last second, thereby forcing Warner Brothers' hand. They'll have to settle with you, and they'll have to pay whatever exorbitant sums you want, or else they can just refuse to distribute the film, which, given the anticipation, will screw Warner Brothers pretty hard.

But I don't give a s*** about the law right now, (or, hey, while we're at it, ever). When it comes down to it, Zack Snyder worked hard on this movie. All of the actors and all of the crew members worked hard on it. The producers took a risk by giving Snyder complete creative control and a buttload of money. This is a movie that fans have been praying and begging for for decades. We want this movie and, more importantly, we want it done right. We want it to be visually stunning. We want to see the book's complex themes brought to life. We want to see Dr. Manhattan's glorious, blue genitals majestically flopping on the big screen.

A lot of people worked hard to make this movie what the fans want it to be and, based on the trailer, the behind the scenes video clips, most of the early reviews, this is as close as anyone will come.

You, Fox, did not do any of the work to get this movie to where it is, but you're still going to make money off of it. And that's a concept that I don't quite understand, and I never will understand it. I can't imagine that Warner Brothers has money tucked away specifically to pay to you, Fox, so I have to assume that whatever money goes to you was originally intended for someone else, someone who probably actually deserves it. You haven't been able to make a decent hit blockbuster, so you're pulling this crap. And that, Fox, you shameless, opportunistic, greedy, jealous, petty s***-parade, brings me back to my original thesis:

Eat all the dicks. Open your bitter, miserable mouth and eat all the dicks. Stop using that mouth of yours to whine, and get started on all these dicks you need to be eating. Keep eating dicks, even at night, even on weekends. Intuition will tell you that you've had enough dicks, but you will be wrong: You will never have eaten enough dicks. You may complain that what you're doing is perfectly legal, but I'd argue that I've never read a law that specifically prohibits force-feeding a lethal amount of dicks down someone's throat, (though, I'll admit, I'm almost positive there is one). You may say "I don't care what you think, DOB," to which I'd respond, "That's some tough talk for someone with an acre of dicks in their mouth."

And even when you meekly protest that they don't measure dicks in acres, I won't be able to hear you.

Because of all the dicks.


http://www.cracked.com/blog/fox-can-eat-several-dicks/

As long as it actually comes out, and its not delayed, and its not edited, I can't say I really care who makes all the money off it. Sure, Fox are bastards, but thats hardly news, and I'm sure theres just as many bastards at WB.

But if Fox stomp it in the ground or f*** with it, then I'll have to unleash some nerd rage.

That letter was great, many funnies.

I'm prolly the only one that thinks the movie looks average. I don't know the story but after watching the trailer a few times I still don't know what the f*** it's about. I hope I'm wrong though and it turns out to be an awesome movie.

Read the comic Rev, it is pretty fkn awesome

I don't understand how WB can f*** up like this?? Since when does anyone pour massive amounts of money into movies they don't own?

As long as it actually comes out, and its not delayed, and its not edited, I can't say I really care who makes all the money off it. Sure, Fox are bastards, but thats hardly news, and I'm sure theres just as many bastards at WB.

I think a delay is pretty much guaranteed. Legal proceedings between people with a lot of money tend to get drawn out. The only way it wouldn't be delayed is if it was thrown out of court and WB won.

For me it's theft, a movie like this would cost millions and by reading the OP it would seem that Fox allowed WB to spend those millions before making their claim. The fact that it could be legally sanctioned theft just makes me lose all confidence in the US legal system.

You could argue that WB stole the rights to make the film from Fox in the first place, if that is even something that can be stolen, but if that was the case then Fox should have made their case when WB first announced they were making the film.

fox cant make good movies anymore, so they steal good movies from other studios.

I don't know the story but after watching the trailer a few times I still don't know what the f*** it's about. I hope I'm wrong though and it turns out to be an awesome movie.

Which trailer did you watch? First trailer used The Pumpkins for music, second used Muse. Trailer 2 gives a much better idea of what the movie is about.

They need to involve Ari in this

Fox, Microsoft, Telstra .. the axis of lame

If Fox really wanted to stop this they could of a long time ago, when WB first announced that they would be making the movie. Fox let it slide and now that they have seen how good its turning out (i've never heard of it but after seeing trailer 2 just then, it does looks pretty cool) they are thinking

"well s***, we didn't stop them from making it and now WB has another movie that could do potentially as well as The Dark Knight. QUICK, think of some way to f*** them over and elbow our way into the profits"

Legaly WB is kinda in the wrong i'd think but the fact Fox did nothing until the last moment, says to me they didn't care until they saw how good it looks. Now they want money out of it. Any normal competant person should be able to see this including a judge. However this is american law we are talking about... We all know the stories from that wacky place

last edited by DM at 21:18:19 30/Dec/08

Any normal competant person should be able to see this including a judge.

Any normal competent person would have seen fox pulling this s*** from a mile off, and wb deserves to get screwed for failing to make sure it wouldn't happen. (assuming of course fox have a case and wb hasn't done their job with regards to rights etc)

as if be a fan boy of a movie that hasn't even been released. also, don't be expecting a sequel fags.

bah humbug..thought it was new info..

last edited by Damo at 17:45:26 09/Jan/09

Why did you bump this thread just to repost your original post?