Fox Television is close to giving the DC Comic series Human Target the television treatment as it begins to announce the pilots for the new television season. Based on the cult DC Comics book and written by “Jericho” co-creator Jonathan Steinberg, it centers on a mysterious security expert who goes undercover to protect clients in danger. Will admit I’ve never read the comic, but the premise doesn’t sound any worse than other shows Fox has greenlit. Prison Break anyone? via THR
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Details are beginning to emerge on the settlement between Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox over the Watchmen movie. The film will still open on March 6 Warner Bros. will pay between $5 million and $10 million in the $1.4 development fees Fox claims it invested in the movie when it had the rights. The rest of that load will cover the legal fees. Fox gets a percentage of gross sales – somewhere between 5% and 8.5%. Fox also gets a percentage of gross for any sequels or spinoffs. I don’t know if that includes video game revenu or not.…
Yes, it does involve a great deal of money. Yes, Fox now does get a sizable chunk of the box office receipts in addition to a big pile of rolling around in cash. No, Fox does not own any portion of Watchmen going forward. Yes, Producer Larry Gordon is in a heap of deep at the moment, as it looks like Warner Bros. will be targeting him for reimbursement for the company’s payout to Fox. The official announcement will be made on Friday.
The crux of 20th Century Fox’s suit against Warner Bros. to halt the release of Watchmen is that producer Larry Gordon failed in his turnaround agreement with Fox that allowed the company to distribute the film if Gordon was able to sell the concept to another studio. This has lead to many citing Gordon as the one who is the big villain in this movie fiasco. Finally frustrated with all the criticism, Gordon fired off a lengthy letter Federal Judge Gary Frees stating his position in an attempt to clean up his reputation. Gordon had remained silent since then but…
One of my favorite moments of 2008 was all the viral marketing that sprang up around the various movies and major events in comics. Even though the Watchmen movie is in turmoil at the moment, that hasn’t stopped the viral machine from launching The New Frontiersman website to hype the movie. The New Frontiersman is Rorschach’s newspaper of choice, so why not have a website dedicated to this bit player in the movie? The website is only a dummy page at the moment, but it may spring to life as the release date (whenever that might be) draws near. I’m…
Last year’s writer’s strike played havoc on our television viewing. Heroes got chopped at the knees and probably ruined the series for all time. Nearly everything but reality shows took a hit. The movie industry was not excluded from this really fun time, as studios scrambled to get scripts finished before the strike began. Those films are scheduled to arrive in theaters this year, and io9.com has a fascinating look at upcoming movies, and what movie goers will likely encounter when these flicks hit theaters. On X-Men Origins: Wolverine What’s the damage? We know the script was bad enough that…
Here’s the latest image from the upcoming 20th Century Fox movie, Wolverine. This one features Hugh Jackman getting out of the tub and being startled by the camera and crew standing around watching. Wolverine is scheduled to kick off the summer movie season, and will hopefully do well providing the legion of comic book fans don’t boycott because of that Watchmen lawsuit. There is a much larger, wallpaper worthy image over at Ain’t It Cool News
Warner Bros. isn’t taking the early ruling by Judge Gary Feess lightly, when it came out yesterday with a comment about the court case. “We respectfully but vigorously disagree with the court’s ruling and are exploring all of our appellate options,” the studio said. “We continue to believe that Fox’s claims have no merit and that we will ultimately prevail, whether at trial or in the Court of Appeals.” While Warner Bros. is coming out strong on this one – and why wouldn’t they, this movie is shaping up to the be big blockbuster of the year – the studio…
This might be one more reason not to see the 20th Century Fox Wolvering movie when it arrives. In a ruling by Los Angeles federal judge Gary Allen, his honor saw fit to release an intial ruling that says Fox owns a copyright interest in Warner Bros. Watchmen movie. “Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the ‘Watchmen’ motion picture,†the ruling said. Yikes. Considering that Fox’s original motion was set up to keep Watchmen from being released on March 6, this puts a big damper on the film. While I agree…
The judge in the Warner Bros./Fox Watchmen trial has bumped the start date back to January 20, 2009, citing that the contracts signed by Larry Gordon are so complex, it requires a trial to sort it all out. Fox’s suit, filed in February, contends that it retains distribution rights to the graphic novel penned by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. It asserts that Gordon’s option to acquire Fox’s remaining interest in “Watchmen” was never exercised, thereby leaving Fox with its rights under a 1994 turnaround agreement. Warner Bros. is still sticking with its March 6 release date. Here’s…
As much as I love Charisma Carpenter, you’d never find me following her around, peeking in her windows, or other stalker activities (or at least none that would get me caught), but now, with the announcement of 20th Century Fox and The Multiverse Networks Buffy the Vampire Slayer Massively Multiplayer Online game, stalking Your Favorite Buffy Fem just got easier. The ground-breaking MMOG will offer a new experience for gamers, allowing them to play it either as a fully immersive 3D environment or as a Flash-based 2D game, where both types of players can interact. The game will be launched …
While 20th Century Fox wanted to screw Warner Bros on the release date of the Watchmen movie, hoping for a mid-2009 court date, U.S. District Judge Gary Allen Feess set January 6, 2009 as the day for opening comments. This still give Warner Bros. time to meet the March release date. Feess indicated Tuesday that the case was not suitable for preliminary injunction and that the issues were too complex to be resolved on an interim basis. The judge had already indicated that he wants the case to move quickly, asking the two parties previously for expedited discovery. With a…
The lawsuit Warner Bros. wishes would go away, just got a little more teeth yesterday when a federal judge refused to dismiss the case in which 20th Century Fox still claims to owns the rights to the film. At the heart of Fox’s suit, filed in February, is the contention that it never ceded rights to the property. And according to the federal Judge Gary Allen Feess, Fox retained distribution rights to the graphic novel penned by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons through a 1991 claim. Furthermore, Feess appears to agree that under a 1994 turnaround deal with…
Who watches the Watchmen? No one if Fox has its way. The writer’s strike cost Hollywood an estimated 2 billion dollars, and it looks like movie company is trying to recoup some of that lost revenue by suing Warner Bros. over the film rights to the Watchmen movie. According to an article in the Hollywood Reporter, 20th Century Fox holds the exclusive copyrights and contract rights to the Alan Moore inspired film. Fox claims that between 1986 and 1990, it acquired all movie rights to the 12-issue DC Comics series and screenplays by Charles McKeown and Sam Hamm. In 1991,…