Filmstalker: Watchmen will be released

Finally Fox have received their money for deciding not to invest in making Watchmen but paying a lawyer the money to sign a document, and Warner have signed over a percentage of the profits from the film to a company who had no involvement in its development, and with that we can rest easy that the film will be released on time.

Well, unless Warner change the release date. However the good news for fans is that the film will be seen.

A meeting is due to take place early morning in the U.S. where the Judge will meet with Warner and Fox lawyers to hear them both present their settlement agreements along with a request that the entire case is dismissed.

Although we know nothing about the deal, The Hollywood Reporter says that a sizable cash payment has been made to Fox and that they are also to receive a percentage of Watchmen’s box office grosses, not too shabby for agreeing not to make the film and passing on it.

The statement from the studios seems very amicable:

"Warner Bros. acknowledges that Fox acted in good faith in bringing its claims, which were asserted prior to the start of principal photography," the statement read. "Fox acknowledges that Warner Bros. acted in good faith defending against those claims."

What’s interesting is that Warners is now looking like an aggrieved party in this and the rumour is that they are now looking to seek Larry Gordon, the producer who came to them with the adaptation in the first place, to recover the cost of the Fox settlement, and that’s going to be a hefty figure.

Although even Gordon is claiming that he had no idea Fox still was a party to the rights on the film, it looks like he’s going to be sought out by the studios now.

That’s not interesting to the media though and that story will go largely unreported as the real interest was whether the benchmark comic book was going to make it to the big screen and become a benchmark adaptation. With the official statement comes the reassuring word that it will: