Watching the Watchmen
The entertainment industry has been buzzing this week with stories of Twentieth Century Fox’s lawsuit against Warner Brothers, seeking to stop the March 2009 release of the Watchmen movie. Warner Brothers had asked that the suit be dismissed, but the judge in the case denied the request.
Based on summary information available online, rights to distribute the movie appear to have changed hands multiple times since the creation of the graphic novel, and should it go to trial, I’d bet a a court case could well be painful and protracted for all parties.
Sure, the intellectual property issues are interesting from an academic perspective, but the real question I have here is what happens to the actual production? Because really, it’s all about me, and I want to see the damn movie.
Has a group of fans ever countersued obstructive and litigious motion picture production companies for – oh, I don’t know – alienation of affection? Breach of contract? Wrongful death of a motion picture?
Note: this post has not been reviewed by nor is in any way the responsibility of Smug Puppies in-house counsel.
August 19th, 2008
They’ll settle. Fox timed this so that Warner’s will have to–after all, Fox almost certainly knew they had a claim (whether it would stand up in court or no) last year. One wonders about the due diligence of Warner’s lawyers or Larry Gordon’s candor when he signed the contract with Warner’s–tho’ there’s also a chance there were some backroom discussions about the very issue and Warner decided it was better to do it now and ask forgiveness later (i.e. settle) than to pass up a shot at the property.
Sleaziness on several sides, yes. But business as usual in Tinseltown.
August 19th, 2008
I agree with Eric…this nearly has to have been a problem Warner perceived and decided to assume the risk on. I just hope it doesn’t hold the movie up.
August 19th, 2008
Bryan,
I haven’t followed this at all, but you can strike the word “nearly” from your comment. Every movie, even low budget ones, look for “clearance conflicts”. The major studios, are aware of every possible pitfall. (The clearance report for the movie I’m on includes “Dr. Jake Lever”, we suggest changing to Jay, middle initial R. or similar. Three Jake Levers in Washington D.C. area…one is M.D.)
Yeah, Warner knew.
August 20th, 2008
Yeah, there’s no way they could have not known. I haven’t read the book, tried but couldn’t do it, but the trailer looks spectacular. I know Alan Moore doesn’t want anything to do with it, but I wonder what he’ll say once it comes out, especially if it’s a commercial success.
August 20th, 2008
I suspect Moore will be consistent, tho’ it probably won’t keep him from cashing checks.
Moore’s been pretty consistently burned to date: so far, movie adaptations from his work have been notoriously faithless and/or unsuccessful. Indeed, the history of Moore adaptations has been so spotty one wonders if they’ve damaged his reputation any–I never got around to seeing League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but the reviews and word-of-mouth were so terrible it’s not hard to imagine people passing on the comic because they think it’s based on a movie they heard was a stinker.
(It’s kinda like the regrets I have that it took me so long to discover that Steve Gerber’s Howard The Duck comics from the ’70s were made of 100% Awesome. It’s only this year, in fact, after I read obituaries of Gerber that raved about the original Howard, that I bought a collection and discovered that Howard The Duck, the viciously satirical, skeptically self-aware, and ahead of it’s time by twenty years comic book had absolutely nothing to do with Howard The Duck the atrociously bad and ridiculously incompetent movie, aside from the fact both have a duck.)
V For Vendetta was a box office success, and Moore refused to have his name on the credits. What will make him happy, I suspect, is if the film turns out to be a faithful adaptation–tho’ at this point “faithful” for Moore might mean the movie has to track the book line-for-line and frame-for-panel, which is pretty much impossible.
Either way, he’d be a dumbass not to cash the checks. Most comics writers practically starve.
August 20th, 2008
If there is a class action suit by fans, I’ll jump on that bandwagon. I’ve been waiting for this movie for far too long…