Producer speaks out on Watchmen case

It's been a busy weekfor the Watchmen case between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Settlement talks between lawyers from both parties have been "productive," according to the Associated Press.

The real bombshell, however, came yesterday with an open letter from Watchmen producer Lloyd Levin, published at HitFix, which takes Fox to task for sitting on the project for years only to come after Warner Bros. now. He also praises Warner Bros. for taking a risk in funding the production of an expensive, "hard R" rated adaptation with no stars and a $100-plus million budget.

Now here's the part that has to be fully appreciated, if for nothing more than providing insight into producing movies in Hollywood: The Watchmen script was way above the norm in length, near 150 pages, meaning the film could clock in at close to 3 hours, the movie would not only be R rated but a hard R - for graphic violence and explicit sex - would feature no stars, and had a budget north of $100M. We also asked Warner Brothers to support an additional 1 to 1.5 hours of content incurring additional cost that would tie in with the movie but only be featured in DVD iterations of the film. Warner's supported the whole package and I cannot begin to emphasize how ballsy and unprecedented a move this was on the part of a major Hollywood studio. Unheard of. And would another studio in Hollywood, let alone a studio that didn't show one shred of interest in the movie, not one, have taken such a risk? Would they ever have made such a commitment, a commitment to a film that defied all conventional wisdom?

Only the executives at Fox can answer that question. But if they were to be honest, their answer would have to be "No."

Shouldn't Warner Brothers be entitled to the spoils - if any -- of the risk they took in supporting and making Watchmen? Should Fox have any claim on something they could have had but chose to neither support nor show any interest in?

Be sure to read the full letter.

Earlier this week, Warner Bros. asked the judge to make his decision as soon as Monday on the case. Now, according to the Associated Press report, the lawyers requested the judge delay a hearing scheduled for today to allow additional time for negotiations.