Watchmen set free!

Warner Brothers and 20th-Centur Fox have come to terms over Watchmen, which means that Zack Snyder's eagerly awaited adaptaion of the Alan Moore-Dave Gibbons graphic novel will open on March 9th, as announced.

The alwsuit that put the film's release in jeopardy hinged on rights ownership, with Fox claiming that it had had the right to distribute the film because it had purchased rights to the graphic novel back in 1986, and that producer Larry Gordon had obligations to Fox when he took Watchman to Warners, even though he was unable to get the film made at Fox (and, subsequently, Universal and Paramount).

As is so often the case in Hollywood, money fixed everything — a lot of money. See the Variety story for details.