Watchmen Trial Moved Back Two Weeks

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A Los Angeles federal judge has moved the trial for Watchmen back two weeks to Jan. 20 after declining to issue a ruling on whether Fox or Warner Bros. controls the rights to the project, reports Variety.

Judge Gary Allen Feess set the new trial date Monday, noting that he's required to handle a criminal matter on Jan. 6. He also refused to make a pre-trial summary judgment -- as requested by both sides -- because, he said, the contracts between Fox and Watchmen producer Larry Gordon are so open to interpretation that a trial is required.

Fox's suit, filed in February, contends that it retains distribution rights to the graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. It asserts that Gordon's option to acquire Fox's remaining interest in Watchmen was never exercised, thereby leaving Fox with its rights under a 1994 turnaround agreement.

Warner Bros. is still targeting a March 6 release.

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UPDATE, 12/26: Some readers have been confused about this story since it was previously reported that the case would go to trial January 20. But as The New York Times reported yesterday, "At an earlier hearing, the judge said he believed that issues in the case could be settled only at a trial, which was scheduled for late January. On Wednesday, however, Judge Feess said he had reconsidered and concluded that Fox should prevail on crucial issues."

Deadline Hollywood Daily says "the judge himself advised both Fox and Warner Bros to settle 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,' he said. But if WB goes down the appeal road, then Watchmen may not come out until 2011 considering the glacial speed with which the court system moves."

DHD also points out "this interesting footnote" about producer Lawrence Gordon's lack of testimony in the case and what the judge thought of that.