Fox and Warner "Watchmen" Feud Escalates

September 2, 2008

The legal battle lines have been drawn in the dispute between Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox over the rights to create a screen adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen graphic novel. According to the New York Times, which reviewed papers filed in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday, lawyers for both sides have “laid plans for a frenzied fight.” Fox continues to request an injunction that would prohibit the planned March 6th debut of the Watchmen film directed by Zack Snyder, while Warner Bros. continues to maintain that there is no legal merit to Fox’s suit.

The dispute is centered on that murky corner of developmental hell known as “turnaround” in which a studio basically gives up on a project, but in order to save itself the potential embarrassment of a rejected film becoming a success for another studio, producers who take the project elsewhere have to give the original studio another look at the project anytime “changed elements” (new casting, new director, new script, new budget, etc.) come into play.

According to Warner Bros., Producer Lawrence Gordon offered the project to Fox once again in 2005 right before he took it to Warner Bros. The Times reports that Warners is asking for an April trial date, while Fox has called for a June trial. It appears likely that, if the dispute does go to trial, Universal, Legendary Pictures, and Paramount, who were all involved in the lengthy gestation of the Watchmen movie project, will “be drawn into the fray.”

While there are no signs of a deal yet, there is plenty of incentive to get one done. The slick Watchmen trailer has driven sales of the Watchmen graphic novel through the roof (see “A Million Copies of Watchmen”) and spurred excitement for the movie among a considerable fan base. The Watchmen movie is a potential 300-size Q1 hit for Warners, and irate fans are already considering a boycott of Fox films in retaliation against the studio's Watchmen lawsuit. If Fox does succeed in getting an injunction barring the March 6th debut of the Watchmen movie, it may well prove to be a Pyrrhic victory.