Is Fox trying to shelf ‘Watchmen’ out of spite?
Is it possible Zack Snyder’s much anticipated $100 million adaptation of a comic book Watchmen that Kevin Smith and others have been raving over will never be seen by the public? Earlier this year, Twentieth Century Fox filed a lawsuit (Watchmen lawsuit original documents) against Warner Bros. seeking to stop Watchmen’s release (scheduled for March 6, 2009), claiming that it, not Warner Bros., held the distribution rights to any motion picture made from the material. Fox said it would rather see the film killed instead of collecting a percentage of the box office (Variety: Fox’s ‘Watchmen’ lawsuit heats up). Upon hearing Fox may shelf the film out of spite comic book fans are now threating to boycott Fox’s upcoming “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (EW.com: The ‘Watchmen’ war: Fanboys furious with Fox). In the end this may just all be about money, but never underestimate a studios ego and it’s ability to piss off fans and fuel illegal downloading by creating Pirate Bay’s version of Citizen Kane.
From: Attack Of The Show
If Fox has its way, you may never see Warner Bros.’ ‘Watchmen’ movie. The studio is alleging that Warner never had the rights to shoot the movie in the first place and is suing to prevent the comic epic from hitting theaters. Will the Watchmen ever grace the big screen? Kevin will talk to Adam Vary, Staff Writer for ‘Entertainment Weekly’ for answers.
Why would Fox want to tick off the fan boys, I’m surprised at such hardball tactics, but Fox can play harder than the rest of the studios, they are the most successful distribution company around so maybe they distribute it and give Warner Bros a share. Who knows, but the interest on the money used to make the movie is rising rapidly, I am sure there are a few lawyers with bid headaches dealing with this
You’d think with the money going around – some sort of deal could be reached where everybody will be making good money…