Props to fellow Watchmen nerd Ethan Hurd (whose animation work you may have seen in such tiny art-house films as Shrek, Toy Story 2, and Bolt) for pointing me to this open letter from one of the film’s producers, taking the moral high ground in the Fox vs. Warner legal battle over the movie.
Maybe Fox does have the legal rights to do what they’re doing, but it’s hard for any fan not to paint them as the villain here. And knowing some of what the project has gone through since I started tracking it and collecting shreds of info in the mid-90s — not long after Ethan introduced me to the novel, actually — I do tend to believe that Fox would simultaneously own the rights and refuse to use them.
All I know is I would like to see this film, and I was working on some Watchmen-related contests for OXM, which went from perfectly timed to “not currently being pursued.” So that’s a personal AND a professional disappointment.
Also, while I understand it will not be admissable as evidence, I hope the judge will have read this before announcing a ruling.
(PS – Next person who calls the movie or novel The Watchmen gets thrown out the window of a very tall apartment building.)