Watchmen is in trouble once more. The legal wranglings between Fox and Warner have gotten serious enough to hamper a release of the film at least temporarily.
Fox aquired the rights to Watchmen about 20 years ago for producers Lawrence Gordon. when the project failed to launch Gordon moved to other production companies with his project and eventually it got off the ground in the Zak Snyder movie (which is almost complete) at Warner.
Warner had a deal with Paramount (who were going to distribute the movie) but now Fox have stepped in and said that part of their original rights still exists and they want to distribute it.
Now a New York judge has declared Fox's rights to be upheld and that the film will not be released until the matter is settled. He also urged Fox and Warner to settle it out of court on not let it go to trial.
Fox obviously still want a piece of the pie but should the really have any right to after shelving the project for twenty years and then waiting until someone else spent a fortune in time and effort making it for them only to leap in and try to steal profit for an film they really have nothing to do with?