God forbid studios did anything mature or intelligent that might make fans happy. Instead of following Judge Gary Feess’s advise to find a mutually acceptable settlement, lawyers from Warner Brothers and Fox announced that they will put Watchmen’s fate in the hands of the federal judge. According to The LA Times, the hearing will take place on January 20th that will determine whether the movie can or will be released on March 6th as currently scheduled.

I have to admit, I’m a bit surprised at Warner Brothers’ acceptance of such a decision. Feess was the one who decided that Fox is the studio that owns the distribution rights for Watchmen - on Christmas Eve no doubt. I’m a bit surprised the Internet hasn’t lit up with Photoshop jobs and YouTube videos of Feess as a digital Ebenezer Scrooge. After all, Fox has made it pretty clear that they don’t want a piece of Watchmen, but instead to keep the movie from seeing daylight. I always assumed that was just big talk from the studio, but the lack of an effort to reach a settlement that would make money for both studios (and make millions of fans happy) makes things pretty clear - Fox is a bigger Scrooge than Feess. That could wind up working against the studio, since it was Feess who suggested Fox not seek an injunction against the movie and the studios work some sort of deal out.

At least January 20th is not that far away, so we don’t have long to wait to determine whether we all need to use sick days on March 6th in order to go see Zack Snyder’s latest comic book adaptation. As frustrating as hearing a judge will determine the fate of that March 6th release date is, I feel a little more comfortable with that then putting the movie in the hands of a jury. Of course, even if WB is allowed to release the movie in March, there’s still the final decision over the rights to be determined (Feess’s current decision is only a preliminary one), so expect there to be news about the “Watchmen War” for some time.