Tagged: Dave Gibbons

Judge’s Ruling Favors 20th Over Warner on ‘Watchmen’

  • News
  • December 26, 2008

Judge Gary Allen Feess handed Warner Bros. a legal lump of coal on Christmas Eve, as he issued a brief ruling indicating 20th-Century Fox has the distribution rights to Watchmen, according to Variety.

His five-page ruling said, “Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the ‘Watchmen’ motion picture.”

Frees, over the fall, urged Warner Bros. and 20th to iron out their differences.  He repeated the suggestion in the document, saying, “The parties may wish to turn their efforts from preparing for trial to negotiating a resolution of this dispute or positioning the case for review.” Warner is set to release the film on March 6, 2009.

Fox acquired the rights from DC Comics in the 1980s with producer Lawrence Gordon’s production company.  When 20th lost interest, Gordon moved the project to Universal and Paramount Pictures before landing it with Warner, parent company to DC.

Fox contends that Gordon never obtained all rights from them and they have a controlling interest in the highly-anticipated feature based on the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons comic.

Given the holidays, Freees promised a lengthier explanation prior to the January 20 trial date.  Warner Bros. had no comment on Wednesday.

‘Watchmen’ Top BookScan Charts for November

  • News
  • December 4, 2008

watchmen-trade-paperback-1031596It’s little surprise that the Watchmen toped BookScan’s list of Top 20 Graphic Novels for November for the fifth month in a row.  In a report at ICv2, it was noted the book actually hit the Top 10 list twice with the paperback edition of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ story atop the list and the new hardcover edition in the sixth spot.

Eight of the 20 spots belong to traditional graphic novels with the remaining dozen spots nabbed, as expected, by Manga releases, led by Fruits Basket Vol. 21 in second place. DC’s Joker original tale debuted in fourth place and gave the publisher three of the Top 10 spots. Marvel had no titles in the Top 20 although DK’s holiday book Marvel Chronicle debuted in 17th place. Similarly, Running Press’ wonderful DC Vault appeared in 15th place.

BookScan’s report of bookstore sales is an incomplete picture of the book business but used as a measuring stick by publishers and retailers.

Rank    Title                                                                                                  Author                              Pub     PubDate

1           WATCHMEN TPB                                                                           ALAN MOORE               DC         4/1/95
2           FRUITS BASKET VOL. 21                                                            NATSUKI TAKAYA         TKP       11/1/08
3          NARUTO VOL. 32                                                                           MASASHI KISHIMOTO  VIZ        12/1/08
4          THE JOKER                                                                                     BRIAN AZZARELLO      DC       11/1/08
5          YU-GI-OH! GX VOL. 2                                                                     NAOYUKI KAGEYAMA   VIZ       11/1/08
6          WATCHMEN HC                                                                             ALAN MOORE                 DC       11/1/08
7         NARUTO VOL. 31                                                                            MASASHI KISHIMOTO   VIZ       9/1/08
8         HELLSING VOL. 9                                                                           KOHTA HIRANO             DHC    10/1/08
9         CHIBI VAMPIRE VOL. 11                                                                YUNA KAGESAKI            TKP     11/1/08
10       BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 8 VOL. 3                  DREW GODDARD         DHC    10/1/08
11       OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB VOL. 11                         BISCO HATORI               VIZ       11/1/08
12       THE DRESDEN FILES: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE HC     JIM BUTCHER                DEL    10/1/08
13       FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST VOL. 17                                              HIROMU ARAKAWA        VIZ      10/1/08
14       TSUBASA  VOL. 19                                                                         WILLIAM FLANAGAN      DEL     11/1/08
15       THE DC VAULT: A MUSEUM-IN-A-BOOK                                   MARTIN PASKO              RPB     10/1/08
16       BLEACH: SOULS OFFICIAL CHARACTER BOOK                   TITE KUBO                       VIZ      11/1/08
17       MARVEL CHRONICLE                                                                   BREVOORT, DEFALCO DK     11/1/08
18       D.GRAY-MAN VOL. 11                                                                    KATSURA HOSHINO     VIZ     11/1/08
19       VAMPIRE KNIGHT VOL. 5                                                              MATSURI HINO               VIZ      9/1/08
20       BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE SPEC. ED. HC                           ALAN MOORE                 DC      3/1/08

No Shortage of “Watchmen” Books Planned For January

  • News
  • August 6, 2008

With the much-anticipated release date of the Watchmen feature film still 7 months away, there’s still plenty of time for everyone to cash in on the buzz. ICv2 reports that Titan Books will have not one, not two, but four books hitting shelves between now and the film’s March 9 release next year.

Among the books scheduled for January release are Watchmen: The Art of the Film, a hardcover collection of images from conceptual and pre-production periods of the project, and Watchmen: The Official Film Companion, a collection of exclusive interviews with various members of the cast and crew discussing the project and story from which it’s adapted.

However, with all of the amazing visual elements we’ve been shown thus far, it was the third January-scheduled release that caught my eye:

Watchmen: The Film Portraits, a hardcover, will feature the b/w photos of Clay Enos, the official photographer on the set of Watchmen. Enos spent some of his time on the set shooting black and white portrait photographs of the lead and supporting characters, and even extras from the crowd.

Titan will also be publishing original Watchmen artist and co-creator Dave Gibbons’ reflections on the project, Watching the Watchmen, in October.

ComicMix Radio: Steven Moffat On Taking Command Of Doctor Who

Even for an established and award winning television writer like Steven Moffat, taking command of a 45 year old universe is a little daunting. In the first part of our exclusive ComicMix interviews with the top BBC talents, he tells us his outlook for the future, plus:

  • Dave Gibbons shares his reaction to seeing The Watchmen come to life
  • The creator of Scream turns to comics
  • What is was like to camp out under the full moon last night waiting for Breaking Dawn

No spoilers here – really  just Press the Button!

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-1725408 or RSS!

 

 

Watchmen Movie Trailer Image Gallery

  • News
  • July 17, 2008

When the Watchmen movie trailer hit the ‘Tubes today, word traveled pretty quickly. Of course, so did the orders to take it down on various sites, making it difficult for some fans to find out what all the fuss was about. To that end, here’s a collection of screenshots from various scenes that appeared during the trailer, so you can talk amongst yourselves about this first glimpse at the much-anticipated adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ graphic novel.

Here are a few images to whet your appetite, presented in order of their appearance in the trailer, but be sure to view the full gallery after the jump:

watchmen1-00-4077418

watchmen2-00-3398114

 

(more…)

Editing Challenges Trouble ‘Watchmen’ and Other Movie News

  • News
  • June 27, 2008

watchmen-cover-9841292Fans have long wondered how any director could condense Watchmen into a feature-length film (I always liked the suggestion of doing it as an HBO miniseries), and now director Zack Snyder is feeling that pinch.

The Geek Files blog has a comprehensive entry about Snyder’s difficult editing task. The current length sits at an epic three hours, and this is already after the Black Freighter storyline and other material has been excised into a wholly separate film that will come out as a companion DVD.

[Snyder] added: "I’ve lost perspective on that now, because to me, the honest truth is I geek out on little stuff now as much as anybody. Like, people will go, ‘We’ve got to cut. You don’t need that shot of Hollis Mason’s garage sign.’ And I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? Of course you do. Are you crazy? How will people enjoy the movie without s**t like that in it?’

"And we had Dave Gibbons in there, too, and he would draw on our books, and it was just sick cool.

"And so then you come back from that experience, and you go to the studio, and the studio’s cool, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t love it like we do. Right? It’s like just a movie, like, ‘Oh, we have this movie, Watchmen, and it’s ****ing long.’ Like, ‘What are these superheroes? They look crazy.’ So you have that experience. So for me, right now, I’m in the middle of that."

Snyder has already said he is planning a 4hrs 30mins Director’s Cut DVD edition of the movie. There will also be a companion DVD called Tales of the Black Freighter, based on a background story depicted within the panels of Watchmen.

There’s also some other comics movie news:

The New Jersey Star-Ledger reports some anecdotal evidence that successful films are boosting sales of actual comics at shops.

And the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offers an early look at Wanted and another article on the best and worst comic-to-film adaptations.

New ‘Watchmen’ Set Video – Costumes

Zack Snyder and the Watchmen movie crew recently delivered another video from the set of the film, providing a bigger peek at the "look" of the upcoming adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ groundbreaking graphic novel.

This time around, costume designer Michael Wilkinson takes you on a tour of the clothing that makes the men — and women — of Watchmen.

UPDATE: Looks like the code JoBlo provided to embed the video wasn’t playing nice with our system here, but I think I’ve wrangled it into shape now. Apologies for the delay. – RM

 

 

 

 

(via Cinematical and JoBlo)

 

‘Watchmen’ Compared: Movie vs. Comics

  • News
  • April 7, 2008

watchmen-cover-8034515

The biggest question regarding the currently filming adaptation of Watchmen has to be how it will compare to the original comics series, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The comics are some of the most highly regarded works ever created, and so the filmmakers face the task of not only making a quality movie, but also of appeasing fans of the book.

A new report over at Slashfilm takes some new photos from set locations and puts them next to Gibbons’ original art, so fans can decide for themselves how close director Zack Snyder is hewing to the source material. The locations include:

  • Dr. Manhattan’s lab
  • Dr. Manhattan’s apartment
  • Rorschach’s jail cell
  • The Comedian’s apartment
  • Mason’s Auto Repair
  • and the New York City streets

In other Watchmen movie news, ComingSoon has some video from the set, which you can check out right here.

‘Watchmen’ Costume Details Leaked

  • News
  • February 8, 2008

Kung Fu Rodeo has posted reports from visitors to the set of "Watchmen" that reveal how many of the characters will look in the live-action adaptation of the graphic novel.

The reports contain some spoilers for people who haven’t read the book. (And if you’re one of the people who hasn’t read it, all I can say is, "Why the heck not?") I’ve posted the descriptions of Rorschach, Silk Spectre and Ozymandias below, but the report has info on just about every one of the main characters.

RORSCHACH – definitely my favorite from the series and looking super creepy in real life. I think most readers know that the rorschach effect on the mask will be done in CG as all the photos I saw of him he just had a blank white mask on. The suit is all brown, which I guess will darken up when filming. Basically looks awesome and one still I saw has him with his grapple hook gun. There are shots of him picketing without the mask as Ernie Kovacs….I still can’t believe this is Kelly from the Bad News Bears…but he’s perfectly freaky for this character. I hope the voice is as good – hurm….!

SILK SPECTRE – Carla Cugino looks AMAZING in a classic 1940’s looking outfit for the Silk Spectre – the bulk of the photos were of her in her youthful days. The photographer must have loved her. Many photos I saw of her in different types of poses and mostly looking like costume color and lighting tests.

OZYMANDIAS – this guy is spooky looking. The shots I saw have him in his purple suit and really weird doll-like eyes, perfectly combed blonde hair. I also expected a slightly bulkier man playing this character since I saw him as more of a retired Captain America but here he looks quite slim. Didn’t see the costume but all the Veidt ads are in there looking just like Dave Gibbons drew them.

 

(via c2f)

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