Watchmen Heading to Trial

Judge sets Jan. 6 trial date for 20th Century Fox's suit against Warner Bros. over highly anticipated comic book flick

By Josh Grossberg Sep 03, 2008 4:29 PMTags
The WatchmenClay Enos. TM & © DC Comics

Judgment day for Watchmen is nigh.

A federal judge in Los Angeles has set Jan. 6 as the start of the showdown between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. over the movie adaptation of the vaunted graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Gibbons.

Watchmen has devolved from a comic book flick into a courtroom drama in recent months, as Fox came forward with a complicated case claiming it still owns the rights to Watchmen and is seeking to block the release of Warners' anticipated film.

Fox scored a legal victory last month when U.S. District Judge Gary Allen Feess ruled there was enough evidence to go to trial. But on Tuesday, he shot down Fox's request to halt the March 6 release of the Warners movie, helmed by 300's Zach Snyder and starring Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Billy Crudup and Jackie Earle Haley as a group of ostracized former superheroes trying to save the world and themselves.

Instead, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Feess fast-tracked the trial, presumably giving the two studios a chance to reach a settlement in the matter before deciding on potentially harsher measures.