Merry Christmas to everyone from The CineManiac household. I'm sitting in my parents house with the weather heading towards, a far too warm in my book, 64 degrees. (Boo I want snow!) But not all is Merry in Hollywoodland.

As some of you know Fox and Warner Brothers have been in a bitter dispute over who has the rights to the adaptation of Watchmen. It's far to convoluted to go into, but at one point Fox had some rights in the property and claim they still do. (Why Fox waited for Warners to complete the much publicized film before pulling there rights out of their hat is still beyond me.) Recently the release date was pushed back to January 20th, making some wonder if the movie would hit it's March 6th release date.

But today the New York Times is saying that Judge Gary A. Feess has granted 20th Century Fox’s claim that it owns a copyright interest in the “Watchmen." Stating that “Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the ‘Watchmen’ motion picture.”

Where exactly this leaves the film is still the big question. Some think the two might make a deal to co-distribute the film with a profit split, while the folks over at Cinematical had different thoughts, "expect a major payoff from Warner Bros. (and maybe those rumored Batman television show rights) to Fox in order that we'll still be at that March 6th show.'

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Labels: Watchmen