So now it's on, according to Variety, to a "federal judge decid(ing) the case" on Inauguration Day.
I assume this means a different federal judge than the one who has already decided in Fox's favor, right?
But more unclear, for me, is Variety's ongoing mishandling of the actual assertions in the case.
Warner Bros has NOT "denied Fox's assertions." They have disagreed with Fox's conclusions based on their assertions. And in that is the entire case.
As I wrote before, according to the Judge's last finding, WB agrees that all of these agreements were in place and that they were aware of all of them. It is WB's position that the turnaround agreement between Fox and Larry Gordon/Largo for Watchmen was superfluous - even though it is the most current document - because they decided that the quitclaim agreement between Fox and Largo had already released the project from any entanglements with Fox.
I kinda wonder how many of Gordon’s other projects have Fox entanglements and are still sitting around because other studios are respecting the turnaround agreements, which probably make the other projects too expensive to mess with. Hmmm…
I know this all seems like semantics to some, but just a few weeks ago, there was still geek fury claiming that WB had no idea about Fox’s contracts. Dead wrong, but WB’s admission. And this issue too… the only fact at issue here is whether some judge will decide the quitclaim invalidates a later turnaround contract… and then, what “distribution” actually means as a matter of dollars and cents and sense.
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2009/01/the_watchmen_th.html