The BBC reports that Twentieth Century Fox has applied to a Los Angeles court to block the release of Watchmen, based on the comic books written by Alan Moore. Fox, which says it bought film rights to the series in the 1980s, has been given the go-ahead to launch an injunction against rival Warner Bros. Fox said it “will be asking the court to enforce our copyright interests”. The movie has already been filmed and was due for release 6 March. Last week US District Court Judge Gary Feess said Fox could hold some of the rights to the material, even if it did not hold all rights. Fox spokesman Gregg Brilliant said it planned to stop the release of the movie and “any related Watchmen media that violate our copyright interests in that property”. His Warner Bros counterpart, Scott Rowe, said: “The judge did not opine at all on the merits, other than to conclude that Fox satisfied the pending requirements.”
The South Carolina state Senate has appointed a committee to review incentives designed to give South Carolina a much bigger role in the movie industry. The Film Incentives Study Committee met Aug. 19 with the state Commerce Department, the Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department and officials from various state colleges to discuss efforts to help the industry at the state level.
According to Joystiq the big screen adaptation of Spy Hunter, the 16 bit arcade classic, has hit another speed bump. Director Paul Anderson (Alien V Predator) appears to have been taken off the pic by the studio. This is the second directorial change for the film, the first being the loss of John Woo.
/Film says that a Veronica Mars movie is still under discussion. They report that in an interview with EW series creator Rob Thomas said that he’s had “a few conversations” with Mars executive producer Joel Silver. Thomas says that he’s too busy right now, “But as soon as I have any free time, that’s my top priority.”
Pyramid Saimira will be the co-producers of Kamal Haasan’s mega movie ‘Marmayogi’ according to MSN. A press note issued on Tuesday evening by Pyramd Saimira said that the tri-lingual movie (with Tamil, Hindi and Telugu versions) might also have an English version. At the beginning of the year this movie was reported to be a Disney production but no mention has been made of the mouse.
Warner Bros is looking to take advantage of Michigan’s new film rebate incentive law according to the Detroit News. The billion dollar studio is one of dozens that has shown interest in Oakland County in Michigan, looking at Ford’s abandoned Wixom Assembly Plant. The law, passed in April, will reimburse film-makers for certain instate expenses including job training, production and construction. Talks over Wixom are still preliminary.
Sources:
BBC
SC.gov
Joystiq.com
Latino Review.com
/Film
MSN
Detroit News
