20th Century Fox is trying to kill the Watchmen movie
By JimK
(1 vote)
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1 
Rann wrote:
I mean, the PR problem alone from this would have made a company that was not actively evil stop and consider.
I’m tempted to wonder if maybe the guys at White Wolf are right, and that there are companies created to serve evil gods by bringing extra misery into the world. Considering all that Fox has done to promote horrible happenings to people… canceling Firefly, canceling Futurama, uncanceling Family Guy… it has to make you wonder, just a little.
Did they just honestly think there would never be any backlash to this? “Oh, no one really cares about or has heard about Watchmen, they won’t even notice if we try to squash the project”. If there was anything that could make devoted nerds boycott The Simpsons, it would be fucking with the Watchmen movie.
Muk314 wrote:
Shit, if I owned movie rights to a story, then I’d be upset if somebody else made a movie based on it. I’d probably sue to get an injunction preventing its release - not so much to prevent the release, but as a bargaining chip to get a fair share of the proceeds. This isn’t stupid or evil, it’s just business. The contracts involved are complicated, and it’s not uncommon for them to be poorly written or even self-contradictory. That’s what we have courts for - to sort this shit out.
Seriously, get your little lace panties out of a bunch. Do you really, really think the movies going to go sit in a crate buried in a warehouse for all eternity? Seriously? Fuck, no. It will be released. The legal system just needs to sort out whether or not Warner fucked up their due dilligence or if somebody double-sold the rights or whatever. The only question then is when it will be released - they have several months to sort it out - and whether or not Warner has to cut Fox a check to get it done.
As much as these studios hate and compete with each other, they also have to collaborate in far too many instances for them to start turning verbal altercations (which is what this is) into knife or gun fights (which is what canning a film would be). It doesn’t matter who’s right or wrong, all sides have too much to lose.
And right now I can’t even believe I typed a response to this fucktarded bullshit wanna-be drama (/me rolls eyes at self).
buzzion wrote:
6 Rann wrote:
Wow, a “nerds are fat” joke from a years-old Penny Arcade comic. That sure showed us, Erik. Perhaps next you’d like to dig up a PVP from 1999 wherein it is also implied that many of them live with their mothers, I’m sure that would make your point with extra elegance.
7 
West Virginia Rebel wrote:
It sounds like some lawyer missed something and Fox’s lawyers went after Warner like the rabid wolves they are…
Still I think the movie will get released. There’s too much money involved for Fox to keep it under wraps.
JimK: Seriously. What the hell? Why is Fox such a horrible company? You can’t blame it on Rupert Murdoch…he doesn’t make these kinds of daily decisions to promote that and cancel the other and fund this film and bury that one. And he damn sure didn’t sit down a few days ago and draft a memo detailing how he wanted 20th Century Fox to be the most geek-hated studio in movie history.
And yet here we are, in a place where 20th is legally trying to not just get a slice of the Watchmen pie, but stop it from ever being released in the first place. As much as she bugs me, Nikki Finke has a hell of a writeup on this.
Double-you Tee Eff, Fox. I mean, there’s stupid, poorly run TV and movie studios and then there’s you.
They sat on this thing for many, many years. They wanted to let it go. They do not intend to make the movie, and haven’t intended to do so for decades. Apparently some lawyer at Warner Bros decided that the old quitclaim contracts had been fulfilled, or the guy that owned the rights lied to them, or who the hell knows. What I do know is, it seems entirely unreasonable - nay, downright evil - to try to halt the release altogether. Ask for profit-sharing. Totally acceptable. Ask for back-end points to guarantee no fancy bookkeeping leaving you with no money in the end. Again, acceptable. But to take the movie away and lock it in a vault because your panties got twisted? NOT ACCEPTABLE, 20TH CENTURY FOX.
If you are so inclined, all the relevant docs can be seen here.
Seriously, Fox. WTF? Why do you insist on making me hate you so much?
08/19/2008 2:22 PM
Categories: Movies
Tags: watchmen