WATCHMEN: Lawsuit Q & A

[Hey, a letters page! Lots of emails and message-board comments about the Watchmen lawsuit after I posted an analysis of the recent court decision a week ago--here are some of the more interesting ones, along with answers that expand on the original post.]

I’ve got a question: If this thing plays out and Warner ends up still releasing the film–but not before paying Fox a hefty sum and maybe having to put up with the Fox logo on posters, the beginning of the film etc.–will Fox have any creative input or say about the film? Will they try and tone this thing down to some PG-13, 90-minute flick and basically fuck it up? Because that seems to be their speciality.

Nahh—any payout from Time Warner would be designed to get Fox out of the henhouse, not to feed it like a stray that won’t get lost.

And besides, that’s really the opposite of what Fox is being accused of—getting money for nothing, as it were, rather than having to work for the paycheck. It just wants a slice of the pie, not to have to pound the flour.

And, speaking of pie…

Thanks for the info, Andrew. This legal bull and money struggle between these companies is so childish, I think. I’ve spent three weeks babysitting my 10-year-old cousins, and while I love ‘em to death, they’re spoiled brats. And these companies seem to be children. The legal proceedings and battles over “pieces of the pie” are much like when my cousins fight over how much food or toys they’ve got–they both have the same amount.

When adults act like children and use the law like toys, they should be removed from their jobs and replaced with adults. Then, when those childish adults can stop acting like children and are ready to play right, they can maybe come back into the fold.

I’m not sure that comparison is entirely fair. Sure, they’re fighting over slices of the pie; but if it were a pie worth $100 million to $200 million–like, I dunno, a pie cooked by Jesus–you’d get a lot of adults fighting over it too.

OK, a question: As this case is built by both sides, does business for the film continue as normal? Will we still get next month’s video diary? Is Time Warner allowed to go ahead and sort out when and where they’ll put out the film’s second trailer, etc.?

Hurm. Lawyers. Worse than prostitutes. Break easily. Next time I will--ooh look, the diner. I wonder if they have pie?

Whether it remains business as usual over at Watchmen Central is really up to Time Warner to make the call. There’s no injunction yet–right now, it’s just that funny sound in the engine, like Rorschach makes when he breathes. Could be something, could be nothing.

But now you have to decide whether to chance a trip from L.A. to Vegas, knowing that your car could crap out in the desert, and–congratulations–you’ve just won a weekend trip to Barstow, staring at that stupid giant thermometer while the local mechanic waits for the replacement part. And, no, she’s not a hot grease-monkey chick like in the movies.

So how does Time Warner decide what to do about the Rorschach breathing and giant thermometer and imaginary grease-monkey chick? Well, like everything else, it turns them into numbers.

It might decide to put the brakes on all things Watchmen–except for, you know, actually finishing it–because if it’s concerned that Fox has a shot at winning, it’d just be digging itself a deeper hole.

It might decide to just keep on digging, since putting down the shovel now would cause all sorts of other problems–contract disputes, wasted money that’s already been spent, etc.–because, after all, it’s already spent a pound, what’s a few more pennies? Might as will stick it out to the end.

(This would be a bad betting strategy once you made it to Vegas–gotta know when to fold ‘em, yeah?–but remember, you’re not there yet.)

Or, more likely, Time Warner would–as I said–turn all these possibilities into numbers. Then it would input them into something charitably called a formula, and see what the risk would be for moving forward, balanced against the cost of grinding everything to a halt.

Think of it like an actual scale: probable costs for stopping work on one side, potential penalties for continuing on the other, and then you slide the little triangle that balances it all somewhere to the left or the right, depending on what you think your odds are of winning.

(So yeah, in addition to the numbers, there’s a triangle too. Geometry: the comic book version of math.)

Fox's lead trial attorney. No, just kidding, he works over in contracts.

The problem, obviously, is that most of these numbers–probable cost, possible penalties, chances of winning—are either outright guesswork, or are so complex in calculation that, let’s be honest, they might as well be.

Which leads us to Time Warner’s final option: Sometimes, you just go with your gut. Lawsuit negotiations are a lot like poker–you don’t know what the other guy’s got in his hand, or if he’s going to call your bluff, or what stakes he’s really got in mind. So, when you’re at the big-chip table, you’ve got to trust your instincts.

So…what is Time Warner’s gut (such as it is) telling it about moving forward with all of the Watchmen promo work that you mention? My gut (such as it is) tells me that, like the rest of us, Time Warner wants to go to Vegas. It knows that it intends to pay Fox to stop making that noise in its engine. It wants to get this film across the desert in time for the big premiere on March 6. And, with all that in mind, it’ll do what it takes to get it there.

And for the fans, once that happens, it’ll be winner-winner-chicken- dinner.

Thanks for the great article, Andrew. If I’m understanding it properly, you’re saying that just because the court agreed to hear the case, it’s not a guarantee that Fox could be right. It’s just that there’s a chance that Fox could be right. What’s more, copyright laws and movie rights are so tangled that I wouldn’t be surprised if this lawsuit went on well after the movie was released.

Glad you liked it. You’re right, as well–though that first point is a bit more technical, so no more metaphors about poker or bakery.

The court ruled that Fox might have a case, based solely on what it says in its legal papers. (In other words, if you can’t even make out your case on paper ahead of time, then there’s no way you could actually win a trial; since the purpose of the trial is to prove what you put in your complaint.)

Here, the judge ruled that Fox’s complaint laid out its case well enough to go forward—not such a big deal, as you might imagine, when you’re talking about attorneys from a top movie studio. Whether those facts actually are true, though, is something that wouldn’t get decided until a trial….but, as I said before, I can’t realistically imagine it’ll ever come to that.

Okay, that’s all for now. I’m off to Vegas to go get some pie.

Related posts:

• Watchmen Lawsuit Analysis
• Watchmen: Three Hours To Midnight

2 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI