Watchmen Won’t be Watched by Men, if Fox Get Their Way
August 20th, 2008 at 16:00 by Ian Dransfield
Everybody seems to be getting in on the comic book-to-movie adaptation thing, with easily one of the most anticipated being that of Watchmen.
While normally this would be greeted with trepidation and a slight amount of fear, the sheer quality of the source material, combined with the fact that the film is supposed to actually be, y’know - good - has people sweating around the groin, awaiting next year’s release.
That is, unless
Fox have their way and ban the film from ever coming out.
Oh, we’re not kidding here - that’s what they’re trying to do in the latest of legal battles that shows just how the company is actually forged from Satan’s testicles themselves. There’s evil, then there’s
Fox evil.
This is the company that cancelled
Family Guy in its prime - though they did bring it back, they actually ended up becoming more evil by letting the damn thing continue, seeing as it’s turned into utter tripe in recent years. Then there was the cancellation of
Firefly, but we won’t go into that - it’s still too painful. They cancel, they block, they ruin and they devour, and they never seem to stop.
Next on their list is
Zack Snyder, director of
300, and his adaptation of
Watchmen, the classic 80s comic series that ranks amongst the finest books ever written. Apparently. With some nice
spoof adverts.
The film is bankrolled and due for release through
Warner Bros early next year, but some convoluted and complicated legal wrangling has revealed that
Fox are claiming that they own the rights to a film release of the property.
While this came about in February of this year, well before
Watchmen fever had truly got a hold of the internets, it has been decided recently by a judge that
Warner Bros could not have the case thrown out of court as they had asked.
What this means is that
Fox are free to pursue their copyright infringement case against
Warner Bros, and are looking to get back either damages for the trouble - sure to be a few quid at the very least - or, in a worst case scenario, ban the movie from being released indefinitely.
And it looks like
Fox’s band of lawyers, built as we all know from pure evil, are looking to force a worst case scenario - pushing to kill the project altogether rather than take some of its potentially huge box office. A statement released by
Fox read:
“Warner Bros.’ production and anticipated release of ‘The Watchmen’ motion picture violates 20th Century Fox’s long-standing motion picture rights in ‘The Watchmen’ property.”
Which is pretty standard stuff until you realise they seemingly don’t even care enough to get the name of the comic right in the first place. So if they don’t even care about that, do they care about you, the fans - the public? Do they bollocks. It’s idiots in suits playing at running the world again, and it’s getting to be a bit annoying now.
But hey, at least
Fox can clear the way for their own films to come out next year, and there’ll be no risk of them being compared side-by-side with
Watchmen. That could be viewed as a good point. If you were mental.
The case is far from settled, though
Fox are pushing for it to be fast-tracked through the courts. Probably so they can get back to stealing candy from orphanages, or burning down babies or something.
Today’s vitriolic rant brought to you by hunger pains and a lack of coffee. We will resume normal service shortly.