11.28.08 FUTURE OF ‘WATCHMEN’ IS UP IN THE AIR

I’m pretty excited for Watchmen (newest trailer), but everyone’s talking about it as if its March release is a sure thing, when that doesn’t seem to be the case.

In our short life, the Am Law Daily has never read two motions for summary judgment as different as those filed by legal teams for Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox in their rights dispute over “Watchmen,”

The two sides filed their motions Tuesday, and the suit will come to a head during a hearing on Dec. 15 — a hearing that could derail the unveiling of a movie that comic book geeks have waited two decades for.

The two sides take very different strategies in their motions filed this week. Warners comes out firing, saying Fox, even if it did once own a right of first refusal, gave it up by not exercising it for more than a decade while three different studios batted around possible “Watchmen” projects. They characterize Fox’s suit as a last-minute attempt to attach itself to a film that looks like it will be a hit. But later in their motion, the studio says it’s willing to accept a partial summary judgment ruling. What that means is unclear; it could mean that Fox will end up with a percentage of distribution rights or that Warners will pay Fox an unknown amount to secure full rights to the movie.

Fox, on the other hand, is going for a home run. They ask for nothing less than the sole right to produce “Watchmen” and distribute it in the U.S. and abroad. [AMLaw]

I’m not a lawyer, but it doesn’t take a lawyer to see that this is an opportunistic suit by Fox.  If you’ve owned the rights to something since the 80s and you haven’t made a movie by now, f-ck off, you lost your chance.  Doesn’t this contract stipulate a “Shit or Get off the Pot” clause?  Not to mention, no one would be fighting over the rights to a Watchmen movie if the retards that run Fox had gotten their hands on it, and three of the superheroes were played by Martin Lawrence in a fat suit.  WB’s lawyer should just stand up in court and say, “Your honor, Fox is the studio that greenlit Meet Dave.  I rest my case.”   And then the people in the crowd would start a slow clap and everyone would realize the error of their ways and the guys from WB would jump up and high five each other and it would freeze frame on a closeup of their hands and then fade to black and white.