Watchmen, the eagerly anticipated film by director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead, 300) based on the acclaimed comic by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, is due in theaters on March 6, 2009. But there is a lot of controversy surrounding the film.

On February 8, 2008 20th Century Fox filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros., just as filming on Watchmen was wrapping, that stated that the movie’s producer, Lawrence Gordon never paid Fox to take the project to a new studio to develop. The thing is that this project has been in and out of development since 1986 but never made it to filming till last year. Lawrence Gordon acquired the rights in ‘86 for Fox but several people attached to make the film ran into budgeting problems and previously attached director, Terry Gilliam, called the story unfilmable. So, in steps visionary director Zack Snyder who seems to have pulled it off while keeping it true to form. The film’s trailer made it’s big debut with the release of the new Batman film, The Dark Knight, and has received massive praise from the fan community. Now, comes the big snag. Just a couple of weeks ago (August 2008), a judge denied Warner Bros.’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit from 20th Century Fox which means that some of the film’s gross will go to Fox or worse– Fox wants the film to not be released. Now, Fox has only had one successful hit this year, albeit a minor one – Horton Hears A Who. All of their other releases this year have made miniscule profits if any and they are banking on their next big movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, to give them the boost they need. Wolverine looks great trailer-wise and will probably make a killing but Fox might want to rethink their Watchmen strategy. The comic book fan community can often make or break a movie…or at least badly bruise it and with Fox trying to block Watchmen they very well might see a boycott of Wolverine as well as other Fox projects if their tune doesn’t change. With some fans, it might already be too late. Now, the “fanboy” community is only a part of the audience for a movie, even a comic book themed flick, but the studio could be dissing a possible 50 million dollar portion of their gross in a worst case scenario. The rumblings of a boycott of Fox films are out there on the net and it’s not only because this is something as beloved as Watchmen but also that director Zack Snyder is somewhat of a hero in the eyes of many comic book fans. A possible quote from the devoted fan might be, “you dis him, you dis all of us. And we will have our revenge!”

Now, for those of you who don’t know, Watchmen is a story set in an alternate 1985 where superheroes exist, Nixon is still president (thanks to an amendment to the Constitution) and the United States and the Soviet Union are on the brink of war. Rorshach (see pic above), a superhero/vigilante, investigates the murder of a fellow superhero, The Comedian, and discovers a plot to discredit and murder various heroes. He soon finds that a much larger conspiracy is in play that will change the world.

The comic was a 12 issue series from DC Comics written by legendary comic book author Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons and is often labeled the greatest superhero drama of all time. As a fan, I really hope this makes it to theaters and in all likelihood, it will. Am I going to boycott Fox films? If the film doesn’t get released, I probably will. But I hope not….Wolverine looks pretty fucking good. For those Watchmen fans out there, maybe we just need Rorschach to get to some of those Fox executives for some finger breaking (if you’re a fan, you get this). If you’ve never read Watchmen you really should check it out.