Watchmen in legal tussle
by Doc on Aug.20, 2008, under Movies
The upcoming Warner Brothers release of Watchmen, scheduled for March 6th, could face a delay – not due to production, however, but due to the courts. Fox is asserting that it still has rights to the film from a 1991 quit claim between the distributor and producer Larry Gordon of Largo Entertainment. In 1994 Gordon negotiated a buyout formula with Fox, but claims Fox did not follow the agreement. Speed up to 2006, when Warner Brothers acquired the distribution rights. Fox claims it still as the rights as Gordon didn’t but them out. A judge has denied Warner’s motion to dismiss, so it looks like this will end up in the courts, and I’m sure the first volley will be to file an injunction on the movie’s release.
August 20th, 2008 on 11:00 pm
Why so late?
Fox couldn’t have mentioned this earlier , like when the film was announced?
August 20th, 2008 on 11:17 pm
Re:Why so late?
Light may be the fastest thing in the universe. The slowest thing is a lawyer.
Ironically, I just saw the trailer for this for the first time this past weekend…
August 21st, 2008 on 10:21 am
Leverage
It would be cheap (read not-profitable) to tell them early on, now they have significant leverage, which means a higher payout (what’s 5 million more on a $xxx million-dollar movie?), which is more money for less work – yup, sounds like F*x.