While we nerds are freaking out about GiantSquidGate, there's still that pesky lawsuit between Warner Bros. and Fox that needs settling if we're ever going to watch the damn movie and see if Snyder's new ending is blasphemy or a decent replacement. AmLaw Daily--an online law news site--recently wrote up the Watchmen case, and while there's not a lot of new news, it's interesting to see the case viewed from a non-nerdy standpoint:
In one corner, we have Warners, the studio producing the $100 million-plus movie. Originally represented by Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs & Shapiro, the studio was confident in its claim that Fox gave up all rights to the film in a convoluted series of deals with an independent producer, Lawrence Gordon, in the early 1990s. They were confident, that is, until August, when a federal judge ruled that Fox may have a claim and refused to grant Warners' motion to dismiss the Fox suit.The hearing is still set for December 15th, not too far off from now.The fact that Fox hasn't budged from its "all or nothing" position does not bode well, but since Warner Bros. hired the lawyer who kicked their own asses during their suit with Peter Jackson, you can't count them out yet. We shall see. And many of us will bitch either way.
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Perhaps taken aback, Warners reached out to a big Hollywood gun: Irell & Manella's Steven Marenberg. Marenberg most recently guided "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson to a $40 million settlement with New Line Cinema over payouts from the blockbuster "Lord" trilogy (an Am Law Daily favorite). New Line at that point was a Warner subsidiary; apparently they liked what they saw across the table in Marenberg.
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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.
11 comments
Comments
Friginator said:
I wish this legal nonsense would end. I want this nightmare to be over.
cKHAVIKk said:
word...
Juancho said:
Fuck Fox. I better be sitting in a theatre March 6 watching the Watchmen.
Tanath said:
equity aids the diligent, not those who slumber on their rights.
equity abhors a forfeiture.
someone at fox should have heard this before.
Frito said:
As a law student/nerd its good to see all this "law" stuff has some actual value.
Im proposing we make the squid a requirement of the settlement. Fox save us.
NeoXorn said:
Fuck You, Fox!
You asslickers are money WHORES!
Screw you and your Daredevil movie!
justin from vegas said:
Fellow nerds, if jeebus forbid, FOX gets Watchmen destroyed a full and instant boycot of all things FOX must begin imediately.
We need to orginize public burnings of DVDs, pickets outside FOX movie and TV studios and anywhere showing FOX films, destroying them anywhere like IMDB or Rotten Tomatos on ratings, prank calls to FOX news, closing MySPace accounts, whatever it takes.
If FOX succeeds their victory shall be short lived and they will fall as a movie house and a company.
NeoXorn said:
@justin from vegas
Good idea. We should all organize and make the burning of ALL Fox related items in front of their offices or studio or wherever.
Dont forget to bring all you SW: Episode 1 DVDs, Daredevil & X3 DVDs.
Those motherfuckin shit eaters must know our wrath!
Take care, everyone. ; )
Friginator said:
@NeoXorn
I liked Daredevil...
don't burn him...
JB said:
frito...fox save us? Does anyone really think fox can do any better? All fox does is shit all over everything they have. This article here is a perfect example of how Fox treats movies.
http://www.lost-coast-designs.com/gardenofeden1.jpg
If fox treats all their movies like that, and I have no reason to believe that they don't, that is reason right there to not have anything to do with their films.
JB said:
Ignore that link...THIS is the article...I hate cut and paste sometimes...
http://blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scanner/2008/08/babylon-ad-mathieu-kassovitz.php
