Watchmen is not going to end 2008 on a high note. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a lawyer for 20th Century Fox has said that the studio will seek an order delaying the release of the film. Ever since Fox first filed its suit, Watchmen fans have been panicked that the film's legal woes would delay its March 6 release. Seriously, Fox, don't you just want some money? A nice chunk of money? Don't kick the Watchmen when they're down.
Though the judge ruled in favor of Fox on Christmas, agreeing that Fox retained copyright on the film, he now plans to hold the trial as planned on January 20th. Warner Bros finally spoke out about the messy situation, via their lawyer, and said that he didn't know if the studio would appeal, but that trial was necessary, and a settlement was "unlikely."
So, despite that the scales of justice are tipped in Fox's favor, Warner Bros refuses to blink and agree to a payoff. Considering that Paramount already has the international distribution rights, they don't want to lose any more of the box office pie than they have to. Cue the theme to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and we'll keep you updated as this case drags into 2009.
Question: At what point do nerdy fanboys begin bombarding 20th Century Fox with nasty hate mail?
The BBCs adaptation of the classic Charlotte Bronte novel Jane Eyre was such good television that I just had to purchase the DVD and watch it again and again. I have not been that absorbed in a programme since the BBC’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in the mid 90s. Jane Eyre is set in Victorian times and tells the story of a young woman named Jane (Ruth Wilson). Jane has not been treated kindly by life. Her parents died when she was a child and she was sent to live with her cruel aunt, Mrs Reed (Tara Fitzgerald), who possessed no kind feelings for her and sent her to live at Lowood school for girls. (more…)
How does the son of a couple rock stars spend the Christmas holiday? Learning to roller skate!
Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale took their eldest son Kingston, 2, to Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale on Dec. 23 for an afternoon on wheels.
“It looked like it was Kingston’s first time roller skating, and the little guy looked so [...]
Don’t believe the holiday engagement rumors swirling around supermodel Gisele Bündchen and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
Brady’s father, Tom Brady Sr., told The Boston Globe on Friday that reports of his son’s engagement were “rumor, rumor, rumor … We don’t know a thing about it. Nobody told me. We talked to him and there’s [...]
The Motion Picture Association of America does a few other things too, but its most visible impact on movie-going is its ratings system. G, PG, PG-13, R, or NC-17, you gotta have a rating for your movie if you want most theater chains to show it, and the MPAA's secretive clan of breast-counters and violence-ignorers decides which label its gets.
An overwhelming majority of films get the rating they deserve -- or, at the very least, a rating that's consistent with how the MPAA has rated other films with similar content. But some MPAA decisions are baffling, illogical, or just plain outrageous. Here are the ones that perplexed us the most this year. The Worst MPAA Ratings of 2008
1. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (rated PG for "epic battle action and violence"). The MPAA says, "The ratings are intended to provide parents with advance information so they can decide for themselves which films are appropriate for viewing by their own children." It's all about parents looking out for their kids. So how in the name of C.S. Lewis did this film -- rife with stabbing, throat-slitting, decapitating, and large-scale slaughter, much of it perpetrated by teenage characters -- get a PG? Does the fact that most of the violence is bloodless (and therefore not realistic) somehow make it family-friendly? Had there been even one sexual reference, it would have gotten a PG-13. Thank goodness Disney only packed the film with killing instead!
Best known as the writer of The Usual Suspects, Christopher McQuarrie has an impressive number of films on his resume (including his criminally overlooked directorial debut, The Way of the Gun), but Valkyrie -- opening nationwide this week -- saw him also serve as a producer alongside director Bryan Singer and star Tom Cruise. A thriller about the 1944 plot inside the German military to try and assassinate Adolph Hitler, Valkyrie turns one of history's nightmares into a taut modern thriller -- a tricky balancing act that the film pulls off: "What we tried to do was to always maintain the focus that this was a movie about an event, that this was a movie about the events of July 20th (1944), and remain focused on that. We weren't making a bio-pic, we weren't making a film about the Holocaust -- all of those things were happening ... (but) this movie is about this incredible event that happened. ... And at the same time, maintaining a sense of responsibility."
McQuarrie spoke with Cinematical from New York about working alongside the German government, how producing a mega-million war film was like "drinking from a firehose," forgoing German accents, his possible future take on superheroic franchise The Champions and much more. You can listen to the podcast here at Cinematical by clicking below:
You can also download the interview in full right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
Yikes -- Warner Bros. obviously landed on Santa's naughty list this year. The New York Times reports that the judge has ruled in favor of Fox Studios. Sayeth the Honorable Judge Feess "Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the Watchmen motion picture."
This comes as quite a surprise since last we heard, the judge didn't have enough information to make a ruling, and was moving the trial to January 20th. Judge Feess indicated he would make a more detailed ruling soon.
Warner Bros. has declined to comment, and as of now, has not backed off the film's planned release date of March 6. I can hear you all crying (and I hope it's in your very best Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer voice) "There goes Watchmen, and there goes Christmas!" But it's highly doubtful Watchmen will lose its release date. There's no need to panic. Feess advised Fox and Warner Bros to look towards a settlement or appeal. "The parties may wish to turn their efforts from preparing for trial to negotiating a resolution of this dispute or positioning the case for review." So, expect a major payoff from Warner Bros. (and maybe those rumored Batman television show rights) to Fox in order that we'll still be at that March 6th show. And you thought a lump of coal was bad.
Watchmen is not going to end 2008 on a high note. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a lawyer for 20th Century Fox has said that the studio will seek an order delaying the release of the film. Ever since Fox first filed its suit, Watchmen fans have been panicked that the film's legal woes would delay its March 6 release. Seriously, Fox, don't you just want some money? A nice chunk of money? Don't kick the Watchmen when they're down.
The BBCs adaptation of the classic Charlotte Bronte novel Jane Eyre was such good television that I just had to purchase the DVD and watch it again and again. I have not been that absorbed in a programme since the BBC’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in the mid 90s. Jane Eyre is set in Victorian times and tells the story of a young woman named Jane (Ruth Wilson). Jane has not been treated kindly by life. Her parents died when she was a child and she was sent to live with her cruel aunt, Mrs Reed (Tara Fitzgerald), who possessed no kind feelings for her and sent her to live at Lowood school for girls. 
