Watchmen Being Watched

Thanks to legal complications, the $150 million-plus budgeted superhero film Watchmen came close to not being released.

In a nutshell, Warner Brothers made a film based on a comic book property owned by subsidiary DC Comics, unaware that 20th Century Fox still controlled the rights from an aborted movie version years ago.

The courts ruled that Fox had cause to demand that the film not be released on March 6.

Though the matter was supposed to be heard again by Judge Gary Feess on January 20, the two studios have decided it's a lose-lose situation for the film to sit on a shelf. They have been negotiating since last week and, reportedly, an agreement is near in which Fox would participate in the revenue.

The film was directed by Zack Snyder, whose last film was the smash 300.