The Watchmen Lawsuit Is Over

 

And thank god for that.  Luckily, the news I have to report here is actually good too.  I was convinced that the Watchmen Lawsuit meant that the film was pretty much screwed and that there was no way in hell that the film was going to be released on March 6th like it has been planned to. 

 

It makes me very happy indeed then to report that Fox Pictures and Warner Brothers have officially reached a settlement in the case over who has the rights to the Watchmen property.  The super good news is that the film will not be delayed and we will be able to see it in March afterall.  Here's the results of the settlement:

 

Warner Bros. gets the right to open its superhero pic on March 6 as planned, and Fox's logo will not be on the film, sources said.

 

Fox, on the other hand, will emerge with an upfront cash payment that sources pegged between $5 million and $10 million, covering reimbursement of $1.4 million the studio invested in development fees, and also millions of dollars in legal fees incurred during the case.

 

More importantly, Fox will get a gross participation in "Watchmen" that scales between 5% and 8.5%, depending on the film’s worldwide revenues. Fox also participates as a gross player in any sequels and spinoffs, sources said.

 

A joint statement said, "Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox have resolved their dispute regarding the rights to the upcoming motion picture "Watchmen" in a confidential settlement. Warner Bros. acknowledges that Fox acted in good faith in bringing its claims, which were asserted prior to the start of principal photography.

 

Fox acknowledges that Warner Brothers acted in good faith in defending against those claims. Warner Bros. and Fox, like all "Watchmen" fans, look forward with great anticipation to this film’s March 6 release in theatres."

 

So there you have it folks, it's all settled and we can stop freaking out about this.  I must say that I find it funny (and by funny I mean sad) that after all of their posturing and all of their public statements, both Fox and WB have gone back on everything they've been saying about the case for months now.  Fox has maintained since filing the suit that the case wasn't about making any money off of WB's hard work, and that all they really wanted to do was shut the film down since they were the one's with the rights to it.  And WB has been steadfast in stating that there was absolutely no way they'd back down and would fight tooth and nail before they gave Fox even a penny for the film. 

 

But now here we are.  WB, fearing a major delay or even possibly a full loss of rights to the film from the court case has backed down and willingly signed onto a deal with Fox.  And Fox, for all its claims of not wanting cash, has signed on to take a rather sizeable share of the film's profits.  5% to 8.5% may not sound like much at first, but if you think about it we're talking about 5% of a potential blockbuster film.  Let's say that the film makes $100 million in the US and maybe another $200 million worldwide.  5% of $300 million is $15,000,000.  That's a lot of cash for not having to do a damn thing.  And those estimates of earnings are being conservative.

 

Am I suprised by any of this?  Of course not.  Any moron with half a brain knew that Fox's lawsuit was about money from the moment the court documents were filed.  They realized that WB had a potential gold mine on their hands, and they wanted their share.  Did they try to stop the film when it went into pre-production?  No.  Did they try to stop the film while it was being filmed?  No.  Fox only gave a damn about the film after last summer's San Diego Comic Con, when there was a line a mile long outside of the convention center that was trying to get into the room where they were going to be showing footage from the film.  At that point Fox's ears picked up and they realized they had missed a big opportunity to make a lot of money, and within days court papers were being filed.

 

And WB's attitude was certainly unwarranted.  They had to know from the beginning that Fox had a solid case.  They can't have been paying for the gigantic team of Lawyers they were throwing at this thing and not realize that.  So their trying to deny a settlement for so long was absolutely absurd.  The moment Fox filed its case, WB should have been trying to reach an out of court settlement.  Now they're going to be paying Fox off anyways, plus they've accumulated massive court costs.  Way to go WB.  That was a brilliant bit of economics right there.

 

Oh well though.  It's not my problem.  I'm just glad that it's over and that we'll get to see the film on March 6th.  Halleluiah!!!  Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and stare at some more pictures of the Silk Spectre II in her skintight vinyl costume.

The Final Cylon Speaks!!!

 

Ok, so last Friday night the first new episode of Battlestar Galactica in almost a year finally aired on the Sci-Fi Channel.  It was the first of the 10 episodes that are coming out to close the series out, and as such one would expect that the episode would start answering a lot of the questions that have been plaguing fans of the show for a long time, right? 

 

Wrong!

 

Admittedly, there was one big secret solved.  Ok, to be honest it was a giant secret solved, but the episode actually did more harm than good in that it left us with about a dozen new questions to ponder.  The big reveal, of course, was that the final Cylon was revealed.  And in the interest of trying really hard not to be a giant douche I'm not going to reveal who that person is right now and accidentally spoil the moment for anyone who hasn't seen the episode yet.  Be forewarned though, you've got about a week before I start talking about this openly, so get to watching that episode.

 

For those of you who have seen the episode, and were just as flabbergasted by it as I was, the LA Times has a really good article with the person who is playing the Final Cylon.  In it they reveal that they've known they were the final Cylon for almost two years now, and they're finally able to talk about it.

 

To check out the article, click here.

The Week In Geek - 01/18/09

This week on Geek-tastic we learned the following:

 

• The first episode of the brand new Geek-tastic Podcast has been posted online!


• We have a Beginner's Guide To Star Trek that will help turn anyone into a new Star Trek fan.


• Superman's into S&M


• Samuel L Jackson may not play Nick Fury in the upcoming Avengers movies.


• Sadly, Ricardo Montalban has passed away.

Finally.....New Battlestar Galactica Starts Tonight!!!

 

Finally, after almost a full year of waiting, the second half of Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica starts tonight!!!

 

It's the beginning of the end for the Battlestar crew.  This is the final season of the show.  There's only a handful of shows left, and there's still tons of questions to answer.  Like; Who's the final Cylon?  How the hell did Starbuck come back from the dead?  What the hell happened to Earth?  Why do I find Number Six hotter when she has sandy blonde hair than when she has platinum blonde hair?  These questions need answers people, and we only have a short time left to get answers. 

 

The waiting has been killing me, but it's almost over.  Only a few more hours left to go. 

 

If you want to get caught up on what's going on with the show (as I said, it's been a while since the last episode aired), you can Catch The Frak Up by watching these two videos.  The first one summarizes all of the events from the first three seasons of the show in a convenient 8 minutes.

 



 

The second video covers the first half of season four in 5 minutes, which should bring you totally up to speed with the latest developments on the show.



 

Oh, and then there's the websiodes.  Sci-fi Channel's website currently has a 10 part webisode miniseries up called The Face of the Enemy.  The events in it take place between the first and second half of season four.  You can watch them by going here.

 

Ok, now that you've fully caught up, you should be ready to go.  All that's left to do is get prepared for the awesomeness that will be tonight's new episode.  So go out and buy yourself some whiskey so you can drink like Colonel Tigh, get your frakking party hat on, and let's get ready to kill some toasters!!!

Cool Geek Apparel - Warrior Plumbers T-Shirt

 

Oh my god, this shirt is quite possibly one of the most disturbing, yet crazy cool t-shirts I've seen in a long time.  It perfectly captures the total insanity that is the basic Super Mario Brothers plotline if you have ever really stopped to think about it. 

 

Two plumbers, who can shoot fireballs from their hands and who ride a dinosaur named Yoshi, go galavanting around the mushroom kingdom killing the native fauna that inhabit the area.  The games plot is sort of an acid trip induced dream, and this shirt manages to really get that point across well. 

 

You can buy the shirt here.

 

I'm not even sure what part of the design is the coolest.  Is it Mario burning the face off of a Koopa?  Or is it Luigi punching a Phirana Plant in the face?  Or what about Yoshi being a Velociraptor (and he's squishing a goomba beneath his foot)?  Hell, even the flying Koopa's look awesome.

 

Whoever designed this shirt needs to be given some sort of geek award for its awesomeness.

 

(Via BoingBoing)

Growing Up Star Wars: 1977 - 1985

 

Someone over at flickr has created an awesome group called Growing Up Star Wars: 1977-1985 in which people are posting their childhood photos in which they are somehow showing their love of Star Wars as a kid.  Whether it be playing with Star Wars Toys, Star Wars halloween costumes, childhood drawings of Star Wars scenes or even just wearing a Star Wars T-shirt, the site has amassed an amazing collection of photos that have captured an entire generation of geeks in their formative years.

 

I only wish I could find any childhood photos of me with my Star Wars stuff so I could add them to the group.  Unfortunately, my parents weren't too big on photos as I was growing up.  Sigh.

 

Looking through the photos, I couldn't help but get nostalgic for those days of old where out in my back yard in the trees and the bushes and the dirt I could reinact the events on the forest moon of Endor with my Star Wars toys.  Oh the many adventures Luke, Han, Chewie and Leia had out in that suburban wilderness.

 

It also made me realize that somehow I don't currently own a Star Wars t-shirt anymore.  This is a horrible tragedy that must be corrected immediately.  Thank god for sites like Stylin Online.

 

(Thanks go to my good friend Christina for pointing out this group to me)

Batman Is Dead (But I'm Sure He'll Be Back In A Few Months)

 



 

The big comic book news this week is that Dc Comics' big crossover thingy Final Crisis has come to an end.  This is important because fans were promised that the end of the Batman R.I.P storyline would finally be revealed as the Crisis came to it's conclusion. 

 

Well, DC didn't fail the fans on that promise.  Batman's fate has been revealed, and he's about as dead as a door nail at this point (see above photo).  What killed the Caped Crusader, you ask?  Who was it that was finally able to take down the world's greatest Detective?  The answer, suprisingly, is Darkseid.  While trying to save the planet, Bats gets blasted by Darkseid's Omega Rays and gets fried to the crispy and smoking state you see above.

 

The question now of course becomes, "How long will it be until Batman comes back"?  We all know the death of a major character like Batman has about as much a chance of being a permanent development as I have of ever being elected Pope.  It's just not gonna happen.  So how long will it be until we see Bruce Wayne beating down the baddies, Gotham Style?  A week?  A month?  Six months?  A year?

 

Your guess is as good as mine, really.  No one really knows for sure.  I'd be willing to bet it'll be somewhere between six months to a year though.  DC has to allow the death to have enough time to sink in (so it sort of means something), but at the same time they don't want to go too long without the original Batman in the tights, because chances are fans will start to get annoyed if Dick Grayson is left holding the mantle of the Bat for the next five years or so.

 

On a totally unrelated side note:  Who the hell is drawing this book anyways?  And why is he making Superman look like a constipated 60 year old man?  I guess I wasn't aware that wrinkles and gaunt cheekbones were all the rage amongst superhero comics nowadays.