Watchmen Lawsuit Update

I tell you, when first heard about 20th Century Fox’s lawsuit against Warner Bros. over the rights to the Watchmen movie, the first thing I said to myself was “I know that, somehow, Adam West is at the center of all this!”

And, as crazy as that might sound, turns out I might’ve been right.

Some Watchmen rights activists have been doing some digging and discovered an interesting fact: while Fox owns the footage from the campy, 1960’s Batman television series, it is in fact Warner Bros. who currently owns all copyright and trademark rights for all DC Comics characters.

What this means is that Fox can’t capitalize on the runaway success of The Dark Knight by releasing a DVD collection of the 60’s Batman series, because it would infringe upon Warner Bros.’ copyright/trademark ownership of Batman, the character. According to Comic Book Movie’s inside source, this dilemma with the Batman TV series is a major reason why Fox launched the injunction against Warner Bros. over Watchmen: if they can put enough pressure on Warner Bros., then Fox can probably put out the Batman series DVD without having to pay Warner Bros. a whopping chunk of change to do so–screwing you, the fanboy, in order to get a few extra dollars.

But kudos to those fanboys who will not be made the puppets of the Hollywood indu$try! We here at Screen Rant already reported on fanboy Wyatt Barlup, who called for a boycott of all Fox films until they rescinded their lawsuit against Watchmen. Now, as you can see in the photos below, “Rorschasch” is keeping lone vigil outside of Fox studios, rallying the support of all those who want to see Watchmen premiere as scheduled, on March 6, 2009.

Good man, “Rorschach.” You keep at it.

In the meantime, mum has been the word on how far along (or not) Fox and Warner Bros. are in reaching a resolution to this, the greatest American crisis since Jack Bauer’s last bad day on 24. We’ll keep you posted.

(Head over to Comic Book Movie if you want to sign a petition and/or join Wyatt Burlap’s fight against Fox!)

Source: Comic Book Movie