Will a legal challenge halt the Watchmen movie release?

It’s quite a staggering development, and one that we had to blink twice at when we first saw it. For with director Zach Snyder now in post-production on the eagerly-awaited Watchmen movie, and with the first trailer playing in cinemas, 20th Century Fox has revealed that it’s going to try and block the release of the film.

This stems from an argument from Fox that it bought the rights to make a Watchmen movie back in the 80s, and thus early last year, it took legal action against Warner Bros. Fast forward to earlier this week, and a judge refused Warner’s attempts to get the lawsuit dismissed, which presents a major headache for the studio. Already low on tentpole pictures for 2009, to the point where the Harry Potter movie has been shunted eight months to try and plug the gap, Watchmen is a huge hope for Warner Bros, and it now faces a legal battle simply to get it released on time, with revenues in tact.

Fox has now said that it will be seeking an injunction to prevent the release of the film, something Warner Bros will naturally try and avoid at all costs. In fact, we’d happily predict that the film will still hit its planned March release date.

But at what cost? The likelihood now, given the length of the legal process (and it’s time that Warner Bros simply doesn’t have on its side), is that the two parties will broker some kind of settlement deal. It seems the best case scenario now for Warner Bros will be that it has to give a chunk of the Watchmen loot to Fox.

The worst case? That the release of one of its most anticipated blockbusters will be in jeopardy. Watch this space…

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