The battle between 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers over the cinematic rights to "Watchmen" is absurd. Actually, I discredit what 20th Century Fox is trying to do by playing into their hands and actually believing that there really is a battle going on. 20th Century Fox doesn't really want stop "Watchmen" from being released. A more accurate way of describing the situation is that 20th Century Fox waited in the weeds until the movie was in the can and now is attempting to gain a piece of film's revenue by pursuing a lawsuit with the sole aim of settling for a share of the film's profits.

Again, Fox doesn't want the movie to be stopped. Far from it. Say they win their lawsuit... 20th Century Fox would face a massive amount of fan backlash for being responsible for burying a film that has a deeply passionate and vocal fan-base. You can already see this on movie websites around the internet, with some calling for a full boycott of 20th Century Fox films. Furthermore, say it is ruled that 20th Century Fox owns the rights to the film. Now what? They start from scratch, re-work the script, re-shoot the film and release a second version of "Watchmen" that will forever be compared to the WB version that 20th Century Fox is responsible for ruining? A ruling in favor of 20th Century Fox in this legal absurdity is a lose-lose for both parties. So, why all this legal drama?

Simple. Money grab. This is how you attempt to profit off something by hijacking someone else's work:

1. Threaten a lawsuit claiming rights to the material.
2. Allow media to pick up on the lawsuit story, drumming up publicity for the movie.
3. Sue.
4. Sit back and let media continue their coverage of the situation which will generate more free publicity for the movie.
5. Settle the lawsuit receiving a share of the movie's revenue
6. Claim victory while praising movie and the movie's creators. Say you were just protecting you rights, never meant for the film to be stopped and are excited to see the final product.
7. Sit back and collect your revenue share which was enhanced by the publicity the movie gained from your manufactured courtroom drama.

At worst Watchmen's release date will be pushed back a couple of months. Well, that just moves the movie from March to the very lucrative summer movie season. I think that's something both parties could live with.

In any case, you're going to see Watchmen. It might not be on March 6th, 2009, but it will be sometime around that date. Believe me, Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox both want that to happen.