DC Comics unveiled the variant cover to the upcoming Flash: Rebirth #3, and it looks really awesome. I’m not big on variant covers (I too was burned during the 1990s and the Gen13 debacle), but this is one I might actually ask my comic book guy to track down for me.
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 does need to be careful, as Judge Feess is also the same judge who ruled against Warner during the Dukes of Hazard debacle that forced the studio to cough over millions to get the picture released.
Fox, which only stands to gain, even though they are still looking to block the March 9, 2009 release date, is satisfied with the judgement that says 20th Century Fox owns at least the right to distribute if not more.
As I previously mentioned on this site, and which The Hollywood Reporter is repeating in its latest issue, this looks to be a lot of chest thumping and delcarations by both sides before the ultimate big pay-off. Even though Judge Feess ruling was made on Christmas Eve, he still plans on holding the January 20, 2009 trial to see how far Fox’s rights extend, and how much compensation is due to the offended party.
If Fox wins its case, Watchmen could very well never see the light of day, but considering the tons of fan backlash on this site and the rest of the Interweb Nets, I think this is highly unlikely. Considering how hard I’ve been on Warner Bros. and some of its subsidiaries as of late, I’m behind the company on this one. If anything, it went into production of Watchmen on the good faith of Larry Gordon, who claimed he did all the proper paperwork and payments to ensure Warner Bros. had the rights to proceed with this project. If I were Larry Gordon, I’d be on a plane to a small South American country right now, where I could disappear for the next decade.
When Heroic Publishing first began sending me solicitations about its titles availability on WOWIO, I was pretty excited. A free (or nearly free) digital comics distribution system that paid creators because of internal ads/sponsorships is a pretty great idea. I was able to access new content, or in the case of some of my favorite Clockwork Storybook folk (Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, Mark Finn, Chris Roberson) get stuff that is out of print circulation.
When it was announced Platinum Studios was buying WOWIO and “retooling” the entire system, I was a bit hesitant after the debacle with DJ Coffman (search our site, you’ll see DJ’s original praise for Platinum, that has now turned into hate). I let it slide at the time because the WOWIO system appeared to be working fine for everyone, in some cases earning creators upwards of $50,000 a year in royalties – not too shabby. Or should I say, not too shabby for the creators. According to WOWIO/Platinum the model wasn’t making them any money.
Platinum Studios is not a newbie to controversy, especially when it comes to creator rights, burning through captial, and that whole Cowboys vs. Aliens ranking issue that got the ire of many a LCS. So when word started filtering my way that WOWIO, now owned by Platinum Studios, had not been paying creators on time under the new contract, it wasn’t a surprise and has become the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Comic Book Resources has an excellent summary of what is going on with WOWIO, or as I’m calling them now – Wow, Oh No, and how the changes are affecting everyone.
What’s more, the creators say that Platinum’s new Wowio contract leaves something to be desired. Originally, Wowio provided users with free sponsored downloads and compensated their creators with a share of the ad revenue. While this option remains in place, the new deal instituted a pageview function which allows users to view any and all of Wowio’s e-books in their entirety in low resolution on the web, an option for which the books’ creators only see 20% of the generated ad revenue.
In otherwords, “Why download or purchase, when you can read online for free?” Not too shabby for Platinum Studios, who now gets a bigger piece of the pie.
As much as I like the stuff Heroic Publishing keeps sending us, and want the indie publisher to succeed, I think I’m turning my back on covering anything about WOWIO until somebody gets a half a brain and gets the Wow, Oh No house in order.