One of the most often asked fan questions about Fox’s Watchmen lawsuit is: Why didn’t the studio file the lawsuit before principal photography began and before millions and millions of dollars had been spent. Fans believed that Fox waited to “blindside” Warner Bros with this copyright suit after it was too late. Not so.
According to Entertainment Weekly’s Fox source, “studio lawyers contacted Warner Bros. about the distribution rights issue several times prior to the start of production but were rebuffed.”  If this is the case, then Warner Bros is the only one to blame for this whole mess. On the other hand, WB clearly saw this whole thing coming, which [...]

Earlier this year, 20th Century Fox filed a copy infringement and breach of contract lawsuit against Warner Bros over the big screen rights of the upcoming comic book adaptation Watchmen. Fox alleged that it had the “exclusive copyright and contract rights” to “produce and develop the picture and to distribute the work throughout the world.” When the story was first reported, many wrote it off as baseless. Even I assumed that it would be thrown out of court or quickly settled for a small amount of cash. WRONG.
Not only did Judge Gary Feess of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California deny a motion by Warner Bros [...]

At the Entertainment Weekly Visionaries panel at Comic Con, writer/director Kevin Smith was raving hard about the Watchmen footage which had premiered at the Con. After that I had a feeling that Zack Snyder, who was also on the panel, was going to show the film to Smith. And I was right. Kevin Smith has seen Watchmen. And while he couldn’t give the film a full review due to a NDA, he did have a couple things to say about the film:
“I saw Watchmen. It’s fucking astounding. The Non-Disclosure Agreement I signed prevents me from saying much, but I can spout the following with complete joygasmic enthusiasm: Snyder and Co. [...]

Warner Bros has released a new Watchmen video journal on Yahoo. Director Zack Snyder takes us through the making of the Owlship. I also recommend you head on over to AICN and check out some of designer Alex McDowell’s production photos, one of which can be seen above. We got a chance to get up close and personal with the Owlship at Comic Con, and I must admit, it’s incredibly cool.
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Remember, a new Watchmen video journal hits on the 6th of every [...]

Warner Bros has just released high resolution versions of the Watchmen Comic Con character posters. Click on the posters to enlarge.

Also, Empire Magazine has four new photos from the film. Check out the new photos below, and head on over to Empire for the full high resolution versions of the photos.

Watchmen / Heroes Mash-up by DrewbolX
The Pitch: DrewbolX created this mash-up which uses footage from Heroes cut to the music and tonal moments of Zack Snyder’s Watchmen teaser. Wow, who knew Heroes could look so incredibly cool, which is probably a testament to the music of the Smashing Pumpkins. Thanks to /Film reader Gregory V for the tip.

Watch More Cool Videos Here!
Video of the Day is a daily feature of /Film showcasing geekarific video creations. Have a video we should be feature on VOTD? E-Mail us at orfilms@gmail.com.

I don’t know how I missed this, but apparently Warner Bros released eight new character posters for Zack Snyder’s Watchmen at Comic Con 2008. The posters stick with the 80’s style of the original Alan Moore comic book mini-series. Head on over to Omelete to see the posters in higher resolution.

Although the Watchmen panel itself didn’t yield many answers as to what would be happening with all of the extra footage being shot for Watchmen, such as the Black Freighter comic book and various text essays from the graphic novel, Zack Snyder did end up revealing his current game plan later on in the day at the Entertainment Weekly Visionaries session.
It was already announced that there would be an animated Black Freighter movie being released around the time when Watchmen hits cinemas, but apparently the extent of its involvement in the Watchmen mythology won’t end there. Snyder made mention that they’ve also filmed the transitions featured in the graphic novel [...]

Video game lovers will be pleased to know that, among all the other fascinating side projects that will complement the film, the game counterpart to Watchmen will not just be some half-assed cash grab. Zack Snyder has made sure that all these interconnecting elements building up this Watchmen universe won’t just be tossed out there without any foresight. He’s clearly thinking these things through, and making sure they all amount to something meaningful.
This was particularly evident when a Comic Con attendee asked him a question regarding what we could expect from the recently announced Watchmen video game:
We had quite a back and fourth about that. They sent me a script [...]

On Friday afternoon at Comic Con, Peter Sciretta and David Chen of /Film are joined by Kelvin and El Mayimbe of Latino Review and Vic from Screenrant to talk about the atrocity that was The Spirit, the unexpected surprise of The Wolfman and the awesome Watchmen footage.
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Director Zack Snyder and the entire Watchmen gang had a lot to live up to at Comic Con after that extensive teaser trailer took the world by storm in front of all those Dark Knight screenings. As it turns out, they weren’t quite able to live up to it, but that’s not at all a commentary on the quality of the film.
The footage itself was fantastic, helping to further remove any inklings of doubt that the filmmakers wouldn’t be able to retain the greatness of the graphic novel. The downside was that there wasn’t nearly enough of it. I personally was hoping for at least a couple of full scenes [...]

The Owlship from Watchmen has landed at the San Diego Comic Con. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to board the ship. Check out my photos below.

Just checked in to my hotel and San Diego and was handed a hotel key with the Watchmen logo on it. Turns out, this is just one of eight comic con branded hotel keys which are available at participating Comic Con hotels. The keys include Watchmen, Terminator Salvation, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Chuck, Wonder Woman, Fringe, The Big Bang Theory and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

NECA will be selling an exclusive Watchmen t-shirt at Comic Con this year. The shirt features the logo of MASON Auto Repair, which is owned and operated by the original Nite Owl, Hollis Mason. Below you can find shots of the film location, and the original panels from the graphic novel.

By the way, I’ve decided that during Comic Con we will be removing the one post per day limit on our Cool Stuff feature. There is just too much cool stuff to cover, and we want to bring you everything we possibly can.

Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment has announced that they will be producing a series of video games based on the upcoming big screen adaptation of Watchmen. But you won’t be able to buy these games in stores, instead WBI will be releasing them for download for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The first game is expected in March 2009, around the time of the film’s theatrical release. A follow-up will hit in time for the film’s home video release. Many fans believed that it would be impossible to make a feature film out of the acclaimed graphic novel. Some of those naysayers are beginning to change their tune. But [...]