Watchmen: Fox vs. logic= Fox wins... Fans lose (possibly)

Judge Says Fox Owns Rights to a Warner Movie

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By MICHAEL CIEPLY
Published: December 24, 2008

LOS ANGELES — In a surprise ruling, a federal judge in Los Angeles said he intended to grant 20th Century Fox’s claim that it owns a copyright interest in the “Watchmen,” a movie shot by Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures and set for release in March.

The decision was disclosed in a five-page written order issued on Wednesday. Gary A. Feess, a judge in the United States District Court for Central California, said he would provide a more detailed order soon.

Fox has been seeking to prevent Warner from releasing the film. The superhero adventure, based on the “Watchmen” graphic novel, is being directed by Zack Snyder (who also directed “300”) and has shaped up as one of most eagerly anticipated releases for next year.

A Warner spokesman, Scott Rowe, declined to comment on the ruling and the studio’s plans.

At an earlier hearing, the judge said he believed that issues in the case could be settled only at a trial, which was scheduled for late January. On Wednesday, however, Judge Feess said he had reconsidered and concluded that Fox should prevail on crucial issues.

“Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the ‘Watchmen’ motion picture,” the ruling said.

Fox acquired rights to the “Watchmen” graphic novel in the late 1980s for the producer Lawrence Gordon, but eventually dropped its own plan to make a movie from its story, about the underside of life for superbeings.

Mr. Gordon later pursued the project with Universal Pictures, and then with Paramount Pictures, before shooting it with Warner and Legendary under an arrangement that allows Paramount to distribute the film abroad.

In ruling on Wednesday, Judge Feess advised both Fox and Warner to look toward a settlement or an appeal.

“The parties may wish to turn their efforts from preparing for trial to negotiating a resolution of this dispute or positioning the case for review,” he said.


Now I call shenanigans. If I create something and sell the rights to a company to make a movie from it, but after 20 years, (let me repeat for emphasis, ahem... 20 YEARS) I should be able to bring it elsewhere to make a movie. Sure they should be reimbursed for what they spent to buy and maintain the copyright (though I believe they paid once and never paid any sort of additional fees) and then they are excluded from any further money generated by hard work done by someone else. I mean it is like asking for a job to be assigned to you. Rather than completing it you let the job sit undone, so long in fact that the person assigning said job assigns it to someone else. This guy (that takes it over) does a great job; he does so well he gets a bonus. Then you slide in and say 'hey I was assigned that job earlier but I didn't do it, but since I asked for it I deserve something.'


Argh. Shame on you Fox. Your version would have been a dreadful travesty anyways.

Bold characters, bold story, bold artwork. Intensify and simplify

I have been having dreams of Rorchasch tests for a few days now. Not the entirety of the dreams mind you, but they are appearing frequently, in the background. City street? Here, have a huge stenciled ink blot.Need a tattoo on a girls leg? Pow! Blotter test patterns. Usually they are on something relatively innocuous like a political poster or an ad on the side of a bus, but sometimes it is like they serve a purpose. I may include them in the backgrounds of my new comic, I am starting. (Homage to Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons intended.)
This will be a restart of the graphic novel I intended to finish when I was bedridden. Some of you may remember the original cast of characters but, there has been a shake up and I am purging nearly all of the main characters and using the remainder of the cast to tell the story, with a few major additions.
Synchronicity is my foe, and many of the plot points and details of origins and powers are far too similar to those now found in "Heroes". Frustratedly I am learning a valuable lesson: Procrastination sometimes shows you your ideas are valid, if you had just followed through with them. The main themes had been worked out in a apartment back in '92 during my senior year of High school. I was positive (and I still am) that the artwork would have not been something I would have been pleased with. So in some ways it is good that I have to restart. many of those ideas are now stale and used.
I am looking at this graphic novel in a different manner than I originally had. I am going to try my hand telling a modernized version of a 'Silver/Bronze age'* style story. Heroes with real world troubles. (Like the stories I grew up on The Chris Clairemont X-men of the eighties and early nineties. Before all the normal troubles they had became the secret plots of as of unheard-of-villians) Some of these themes may include but are not limited to: drug abuse/alcoholism, political fanaticism, rage/anger, slacker attitude and at least one of these characters is not only are unsure whether or not to be hero- but is adamant about living a normal life and ignoring these new powers. These are the sorts of characters I could get behind. These are characters I can relate to in some way. These are characters I can tell a story about. Even my first cast I feel was weak now looking back. Too many similar characters, too many plots. Too much in general going on. I am really looking back to Watchmen, as Moore and Gibbons really told an old fashioned story with a twist, bringing it up to date (at the time) and because of this, the sotry is still relavant. Maybe they have little or no powers but gadgets and their wits/ courage are what gets them by. I am also looking to a more pared down graphical style much like this:

* During the Silver Age, the character makeup of superheroes evolved. Science fiction and aliens replaced gods and magic.^[4] DC Comics sparked the superhero's revival with its publications from 1955–1960. Marvel Comics then capitalized on the revived interest in superhero storytelling with an innovative and successful naturalism.^[5] The legacy of these innovations is a literary form in which character development and personal conflict have been as important as plot mechanics and epic escapism.
The Bronze Age retained many of the conventions of the Silver Age comics, with brightly colored superhero titles remaining the mainstay of the industry. However darker plot elements and more mature storylines featuring real-world issues, such as drug use, began to appear during the period, prefiguring the later Modern Age of Comic Books.