Pic: Warner Bros (for now)
We should have known something like this would happen. We’ve been pretty excited about the upcoming release of the film adaptation of the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon graphic novel Watchmen since it was announced in 2006. Of course, we didn’t get too excited, because this has all happened before. This time, though, we’ve got a film “in the can” but a judge has issued a ruling that could derail the March release.
Cutting to the most-recent events, a California judge has ruled that 20th Century Fox has a copyright interest in the film. Working backward from there, we find a tangled skein.
Why did we need a ruling? Because Warner Brothers’ Legendary Pictures “made” the movie. They produced and filmed a script produced by Lawrence Gordon (uber producer extraordinaire, much more about whom later) and directed by Zack Snyder (of 300 fame). Gordon has shopped the script around Hollywood since he acquired the rights from the authors around 1986. He worked for Fox at the time.
The film has been in and out of “turnaround” a number of times. Interest has always been high because the novel (originally published as a twelve-issue series but now available in compilation) is widely considered the finest story ever written in the medium. It portrays a Cold War-era United States in which costumed superheroes have been forced underground or into government work. Trust us, it’s a nuanced, thoughtful depiction of a society’s fears.
So Gordon picked up the rights when he was at Fox, but was fired/left shortly thereafter. He worked out a deal that allowed him to bring the Watchmen rights with him to a production house named Largo. When things didn’t work out with Largo, he took the rights to two subsequent studios, both times getting Fox’s permission, subject to certain conditions. Sophos Moros has a detailed history of the Watchmen squabble and puts it in larger Hollywood context.
Fox kept mum over the years as Gordon tried to get the movie made. A number of times he had scripts written and various producers (including Terry Gilliam and Darren Aronofsky) and actors attached. The problem has been that, despite the comic-book medium, it’s a long and richly layered tale that was difficult to condense into a manageable length while retaining its essence.
Silk Spectre
The judge’s surprising self-reversal and more after the jump.
Over the past 2 years, Gordon finally got the movie made. Rumor has it that Fox got wind of a blockbuster in the making. Kevin Smith was one of the lucky early screeners and he said
I saw Watchmen. It’s fucking astounding. The Non-Disclosure Agreement I signed prevents me from saying much, but I can spout the following with complete joygasmic enthusiasm: Snyder and Co. have pulled it off. Remember that feeling of watching Sin City on the big screen and being blown away by what a faithful translation of the source material it was, in terms of both content and visuals? Triple that, and you’ll come close to watching Watchmen. Even Alan Moore might be surprised at how close the movie is to the book. March can’t come soon enough.
Not longer later, Fox started thinking about what its rights might be. It turned up the agreements with Gordon and decided Gordon hadn’t met the conditions to allow him to take the rights – i.e., it hadn’t given Fox notice of new attachments and rights of first refusal as the development progressed. The New York Times reports that Fox was looking for as little as a five percent cut. Angered that the studio wasn’t being taken seriously, Fox sued in February.
Two weeks ago, Judge Gary Feess (C.D. CA, Clinton appointee) (Ohio St. BA ‘70, UCLA JD ‘74) decided there were numerous issues of fact and scheduled trial for January, just six weeks ahead of the release date. Fast forward a few days, and Feess givess Fox a Christmas gift when he overrules himself and decides that “Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the Watchmen motion picture.”
No trial necessary any more.
According to the WSJ Law Blog, Fox and Warner Bros. have been instructed to work out a settlement or start focusing on appeals. The Central District also the site of the other major comic-book litigation this year: another judge gave the Superman copyright back to creator Jerome Siegel’s heirs.
The nominal nods to BigLaw: when Feess denied Warner’s motion for summary judgment, they brought in Steven Marenberg from Irell & Manella. 
Apparently, Marenberg impressed Warner when he kicked their asses in Peter Jackson’s lawsuit against then-Warner-subsidiary New Line Cinema for royalties from the Lord of the Rings films. Alston & Bird is representing Fox.
Gordon has had quite a storied Hollywood career. Most other articles point to his involvement in the Die Hard franchise and Field of Dreams. But our favorite is The Warriors, the 1979 cult hit that recast Xenophon’s Anabasis in a gang-infested New York City. He’s also made a few that weren’t quite as good. Examples 1, 2, 3-A, 3-B and 3-C are 1995’s Waterworld and the similarly named K-PAX, the 2001 Kevin Spacey bomb, and K-9, the 1995 Jim Belushi “comedy,” which we just learned actually had TWO sequels: K-911 in 1999 and K-9: PI in 2002. Anyone seen either of these straight-to-video gems?
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