A pair of major lawsuits have been filed this week that could pose problems for two of the biggest movies slated to be released in 2009. The first involves Zack Snyder’s adaptation of the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ acclaimed graphic novel Watchmen. The monthly series was originally released by DC Comics, which is owned by Time Warner, so it would seem to make sense that Warner Brothers is the studio developing this film. But hold on a minute there tiger. Watchmen has been a long time coming to the big screen, and apparently at one point in the late 80’s, Fox acquired the rights to a Watchmen movie. Now they are seeking to stop Warner Brothers from releasing the movie, as they claim it violates copyrights and contracts that Fox owns.

Who knows why they waited so long to file the lawsuit, but I suppose they wanted to make sure that the production was moving ahead, so that there would be money to make off the deal. Warner Brothers are obviously too far along to abandon the project, so I’m assuming they will end up buying out whatever rights Fox legally owns. Sneaky bastards.

As for the other legal battle unfolding, Variety reports that Tolkien’s estate is suing New Line Cinema for $150 million. They claim that they have not received their share of the profits from the Lord of the Rings films, and that they could terminate any other rights to Tolkien’s work (including that The Hobbit) if they aren’t compensated. Isn’t it funny how Peter Jackson also had a similar lawsuit with New Line that was only recently settled? It certainly seems like someone over at New Line is “fudging the numbers”, so to speak. New Line had no comment at this time, but I could see this particular lawsuit dragging out a bit longer than the Watchmen one. Will The Hobbit be delayed for another year or two? Let’s hope not.

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