Can Adam West Save 'Watchmen'?

This Watchmen legal snafu just gets more and more convoluted. To catch you up: Warner Bros. will release Watchmen, the long-stewing film adaptation of the Alan Moore graphic novel, next year. However, in the past six weeks, Fox has begun legal proceedings to stop the release of the film until its ownership can be clarified. Fox claims that it owned the original film rights and still maintains some of those rights based on a 1994 agreement with producer Larry Gordon. Further, Fox claims that they had tried to contact Warner Bros. before and during the production of Watchmen to get this situation squared away. Seems odd that one studio wouldn't return another's calls, but that's the story. So, everybody's going to court January 6th. Warner Bros. and presumably director Zack Snyder hope for a speedy resolution so that the film's March 6th release date stays in place. Fox is hoping for a lucrative resolution, but they may not just be interested in Watchmen money. Somehow, Batman figures into all this. Now, before you go thinking that Fox is spying Dark Knight revenues or is horning in on the next chapter in Christopher Nolan's series, we're talking about a different Batman: Adam West. Comic Book Resources (via IGN) says that TV's Caped Crusader is owned by Fox but Warner Bros. owns those characters and trademarks, because the studio also owns DC Comics. Therefore, Fox can't release the series on DVD, and neither can Warner Bros. Potential millions of dollars are just sitting there doing nothing. The solution? CBR believes it could be a win-win: Fox would get to release the DVDs and Warner Bros. would get to release Watchmen, and Fox would make money off of both. I suppose if Warner and DC wanted to be pesky, they could draw this negotiation out so that they get money from the Batman DVDs just as Fox would deposit huge checks from Watchmen. This new angle hasn't been confirmed by either studio, though if there's validity to the Batman series news, then this makes some sense. I still think Fox smells what a massive hit Watchmen is going to be and wants in on that, however, they could just be using their 20-year-old arrangement to leverage two trips to the bank instead of one.

Comments

[Chris]

Holy DVDs, Colin! This would be a pretty cool result of the Watchmen lawsuit, although there are still plenty of legal hurdles for Fox to cross, as detailed over at TVShowsOnDVD.com.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Batman-Watchmen-Batman-Deal-Reported/10573

[Orinn]

I hate when these legals keep good things from happening. My personal beef being with Farscape and how it seems this great show will never be able to reach DVD box set sales.

[Joe]

You are a freeken moron