A complex, multi-layered mystery adventure, "Watchmen" is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the "Doomsday Clock" - which charts the USA's tension with the Soviet Union - is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed-up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion - a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers - Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity...but who is watching the watchmen?

?[The assassin] has a gun,? Snyder explained. ?So the MPAA said, ?Look you can?t have him [holding the gun]? ? I don?t even think it?s one second. I think it?s like 12 frames. He?s pointing the gun at the camera, and they said, ?You can?t do that.??


For years, the MPAA has prohibited weapons from being pointed at the ?viewer? in advertising, presumably for fear that it will freak them out. That?s why you always see guns pointed at angles on movie posters and in film trailers.

A judge has denied a Warner Bros motion to dismiss 20th Century Fox's lawsuit over Warners' right to make a film based on the graphic novel "Watchmen."

Ruling is potentially a huge victory for Fox, which could wind up as a profit participant in the film, and could cost Warners millions considering the film's box office prospects. However, Fox's legal team says it isn't looking for monetary compensation and instead wants to prevent the big-budget film from being released altogether.

Project, which has been in development for two decades, finally began lensing in September with Zack Snyder at the helm. Warners was set to release the film, which stars Patrick Wilson and Jackie Earle Haley, on March 6th in the same slot in which "300" opened.

At the heart of Fox's suit, filed in February, is the contention that it never ceded rights to the property. And according to the federal Judge Gary Allen Feess, Fox retained distribution rights to the graphic novel penned by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons through a 1991 claim. Furthermore, Feess appears to agree that under a 1994 turnaround deal with producer Larry Gordon, Gordon acquired an option to acquire Fox's remaining interest in "Watchmen," which was never exercised, thereby leaving Fox with its rights under the 1994 agreement.

The court has asked the two parties for expedited discovery; generally the discovery process can take up to two years. Because the film has already wrapped and is dated for spring 2009, the judge wants to move forward quickly.

"We will be asking the court to enforce Fox's copyright interests in 'The Watchmen' and enjoin the release of the Warner Bros film and any related 'Watchmen' media that violate our copyright interests in that property," said Fox.

Surprisingly, Fox said it would rather see the film killed instead of collecting a percentage of the box office. "When you have copyright infringement, there are some damages you never recover," said a source close to the litigation.

Fox spent more than $1 million developing "Watchmen" but had not previously taken legal action against the project, which had been in development at Paramount several years ago.

Will Tales of the Black Freighter be included in the film?
No. However director Zack Snyder has announced that it will be released as a separate DVD 5 days after the cinematic release of Watchmen. It will be animated and feature the voice of Gerard Butler. It will then be edited back into the film for an extended special edition DVD.

Director Zack Snyder has previously revealed that his upcoming "Watchmen" movie will be about 2 hours and 42 minutes long, but more edits could be made.

Now, Zack and his wife Deborah have spoken to Sci-Fi Wire about how long the current cut is. "We're getting really close," said Deborah. "We're at two hours and 35 minutes."

Zack added: "The movie's pretty long ... compared to '300,' which was an hour and 58 minutes. The director's cut [of Watchmen] is about three hours and 10 minutes long. It has even more than the theatrical version as far as the detail that gets even closer to the graphic novel."

Zack was shooting an animated version of the graphic novel's comic-within-a-comic, "Tales of the Black Freighter," which is envisioned as a separate DVD release coinciding with "Watchmen's" theatrical debut in March. Eventually, his plan is to edit the "Black Freighter" material directly into "Watchmen," presumably for a home-video release.

"'The Black Freighter' version of the movie that we're working on -- which has the ins and outs of the 'Black Freighter' comic book woven through it, with an animated version of the 'Black Freighter' -- will be about three hours and 40 minutes," Zack said. "So there's a huge epic version of "Watchmen," which will probably come out after the movie's theatrical release, for hardcore [fans]."