Watchmen' Lawsuit Threatens Movie Release
Studio War Over Alan Moore Comic Book Film Adaptation
Dec 18, 2008
Fresh on the heals of Batman: Dark Knight’s billion-dollar success, the latest comic book movie, Watchmen, is poised for a lucrative spring 2009 release. However, a film 20 years in the making is snared by one last hitch—a lawsuit.
Alan Moore’s Watchmen First Published in 1986
The critically acclaimed 12-part series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons was first published in 1986. Soon after, it was packaged and sold in graphic novel format, and became the first comic book to win the Hugo Award, which is normally reserved for traditional science fiction novels.
Due to its instant following, Fox Studios quickly bought up film rights. What happened since then is the subject Watchmen’s legal trouble.
Watchman Movie, From Fox to Warner Bros.
Producer Lawrence Gordon went through no less than 4 movie studios over the course of Watchmen’s pre-production years. The film went through several directors, countless script revisions, and several entire concept changes. After Fox Studios bought the film rights but failed to put real effort into creating the movie, Gordon took the project to Universal, then to Paramount, finally finding success with Warner Bros.
Fox Studios felt that Gordon didn’t have the right to take the film to other studios and is now filing suit claiming proprietary rights over distribution.
Court Date for Watchman Trial Set for January
Some reports suggest that Fox is planning to block the March 6 release of Watchmen however the most recent reports claim that Fox Studios is not attempting this. Instead the company is allegedly seeking only a distribution and profit rights of what is sure to be one of 2009’s biggest cash cows at the box office.
Warner Bros is arguing that Fox had almost 20 years to stake a claim on the film and failed to do all the way up until the film’s first trailer release. An L.A. Court date is set for January 20, 2009, only 6 weeks before the film’s original release date.
300’s Zack Snyder Directs Watchmen Flick
Zack Snyder, director of 300, steered the ‘unfilmable’ Watchmen graphic novel into a 2 hour 35 minute film. Since the dark story takes place over 20 years with several main characters and multiple supporting plots points, it’s no wonder Watchmen took so long to make it to the silver screen. Snyder’s previous comic book flick 300 was based on the best-selling Frank Miller graphic novel.
Watchmen stars Billy Crudup as central character Dr. Manhattan, Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl II, and Jackie Earle Haley as mysterious Rorschach.
Other Alan Moore Comic Book Movies
Alan Moore, famed comic book writer extraordinaire, is no stranger to Hollywood versions of his work. The original material for V For Vendetta, Constantine, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell were all based on Alan Moore graphic novels.
Moore, however, has infamously disapproved of all screen adaptations of his work and refuses to have his name appear in movie credits, Watchmen included.
