According to Hollywood Reporter:
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“20th Century Fox has initiated a legal battle against Warner Bros. over the rights to develop, produce and distribute a film based on the graphic novel Watchmen.
On Friday, the studio sued Warners, claiming it holds the exclusive copyrights and contract rights to Watchmen.
Warners plans to release next year a big-screen version of the popular comic book written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. The cast includes Jackie Earle Haley, Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino and Malin Akerman. It is the studio’s policy to not comment on pending litigation.
But Fox seeks to enjoin Warners from going forward with the project, saying in the lawsuit that it seeks to ‘restrain (Warner Bros. Pictures) from taking actions that violate Fox’s copyrights and which stand to forever impair Fox’s rights to control the distribution and development of this unique work.’
Fox claims that between 1986 and 1990, it acquired all movie rights to the 12-issue DC Comics series and screenplays by Charles McKeown and Sam Hamm. In 1991, Fox assigned some rights via a quitclaim to Largo International with the understanding that the studio held exclusive rights to distribute the first motion picture based on Watchmen, according to the lawsuit.”
This is could set back a project in the making for over 20 years. But I’m not upset. See, Watchmen is Moore’s love letter to comic readers. The whole miniseries is an allegorical homage to the legacy of DC Comics and other forms of the medium, like Pirate comics and Tijuana Bibles. This will all be lost in a movie translation, obviously, as the plot-details specific to parodying comics will be changed to reach a broader audience. I hope Fox is going to take the project back from Warner Bros. and sit on it because that’s what’s best for Watchmen.
Matt Knicl: My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.
Comments
Matt Knicl (Matt Knicl) says:
(Posted February 13th, 2008 at 2:11 pm)
lol, you’re right!
The early images from the New York set are very promising and look like replicated panels from the comic, especially the newstand, so from that it look like they’re doing a good job.
Pat (Pat) says:
(Posted February 13th, 2008 at 11:42 pm)
You know, as boring as it was on a second viewing, 300 was pretty damn close to the book (if reprehensibly even more right-wing); while I wouldn’t go around complimenting this Zak Snyder guy, it looks like he’s a perfect choice for Watchmen: he seems to have no artistic vision of his own, or at least he’s not interested in letting it get in the way of adapting books.
We’ll lose a lot of what was going on in the book, but it might be an interesting/fun adaptation. The film doesn’t have to replace the book and I think I might enjoy both.
Though I really didn’t like V For Vendetta. Stupid, shallow movie with delusions of relevancy and depth. Watchmen might end up similarly.
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Matt Knicl
My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.
Matt (Matt) says:
(Posted February 13th, 2008 at 1:37 pm)
Let’s reflect on these studio’s track records with the work of Alan Moore: Warner Bros. made V for Vendetta, whereas Fox made League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
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um, yeah, I’m hoping Warner wins this one.