Originally, Warner Bros. set a schedule for "Watchmen" in early March, but the sudden copyright dispute forced the release of the film to be postponed to April.

Just like Marvel's comic works, the copyrights of some DC works are actually very complicated.

Especially the comics that didn't expect to be popular later back then, so they didn't care about some rights and interests and completed the authorization inadvertently.

It is easy to authorize, but it is difficult to regain your rights.

Especially when part of the interests of "Watchmaker" fell into the hands of Twentieth Century Fox, one of the six major Hollywood companies.

As early as the early 1990s, after Tim Burton's version of "Batman" was a success, Warner Bros. planned to adapt "Watchman" into a movie and even started writing the script. The screenwriter at that time was Sam Hamm. It was once rumored that Robin Williams would play Rorschach, Jamie Lee Curtis played the Ghost, and Richard Keel and Kevin Costner's participation, etc.

In order to share the risks, Warner Bros. also found Twentieth Century Fox and licensed the distribution rights of "Watchmen" to Twentieth Century Fox.

However, after many rewrites of the script, coupled with the strong opposition from the original author, Warner eventually put aside the shooting plan for "Watchmen" and the cooperation with 20th Century Fox was left unresolved.

Hollywood has never been a harmonious man, and there is never a lack of competition among the six major companies. Because of the long-standing relationship, Warner Bros. ignores or does not take the agreement from more than ten years ago seriously.

As a result, at the most intense stage of this year's screenwriter strike, Twentieth Century Fox directly sued Warner Bros. and demanded the copyright to the "Watchman" movie.

Warner Bros.'s many times, their mysterious operations are really hard to understand. They did not pay attention to this lawsuit in the early stage. It was not until the court ruled that Twentieth Century Fox won that it suddenly realized and filed a copyright appeal.

Regarding copyright disputes, the release date of "Watchmaker" has to be postponed.

Finally, in order to release the film and to ensure the complete rights of "Watchmen", Warner Bros. had to pinch his nose and make an out-of-court settlement with Twentieth Century Fox.

The two sides reached a settlement agreement before the Oscars, and the copyright dispute between Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox was settled before March.

Warner Bros. paid 20th Century Fox a considerable fee. Not only did he spit out all the compensation for the copyright pit of the sequel of "Terminator" that year, but he also had to pay 8% of the global box office share.

Correspondingly, Twentieth Century Fox no longer has any interest in "Watchmen" and will not serve as the publisher of the film, and future sequels have nothing to do with it.

To a certain extent, Warner Bros. openly used the copyright of the sequel to "Terminator" to trick Twentieth Century Fox, and Twentieth Century Fox quickly seized the opportunity to find the scene.

“Twentieth Century Fox is too much.”

In the theater, facing Kevin Tesuhara, Ronan said directly: "In this case, aren't the usual practices in the circle all symbolically charged a little fee?"

Kevin Tessulhara shook her head: "They are really too much, and Warner Bros. has always been friendly with other companies in the circle."

Ronan said casually: "The real controller of Twentieth Century Fox is back. People in the UK say that James Murdoch is more radical in doing things."

Warner Brothers was cheated a little painful this time. Kevin Teshura has never suffered such a big loss in recent years. She is a little angry: "A young boy who relies on his father's generation, doesn't know that the world is high."

Ronan said: "Warner, Fox and News Corp are very sensitive now, Kevin, there is no need to get such a big fire."

Kevin Teshura did not respond, but asked, "I heard that there is also a contradiction between your Relativity Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox."

Ronan nodded, looking sincere: "About Fantastic Four and X-Men, the contradictions are sharp and irreconcilable."

"This company..." Kevin Tesuhara said something differently: "This family is really unpleasant."

Ronan echoed lightly: "Who said no?"

Judging from the current situation, if Twentieth Century Fox and James Murdoch encounter any trouble, Warner Bros. will definitely take the blame.

Competition among major Hollywood companies is also fierce, otherwise it would not have become six major companies, and even five major companies later.

When Zach Schneider came in, Ronan chatted with him for a while.

Since "Watchmen" has already completed all productions, Zach Schneider has been working in the Justice League cinema universe since last year. Of course, the specific progress will not be told to Ronan, but it has been made public that it has been redirected and filmed the movie "Superman".

The producer Warner Bros. was full of confidence in Zach Snyder, believing that "he has a keen sense of touch and a visual style that matches it."

Zach Schneider also made it clear that his situation in the Warner Bros. and Justice League movie universe was consolidated due to the success of Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight".

Ronan understood what he meant. From a visual style, Zach Schneider was the director closest to Christopher Nolan.

As for the great success brought by "The Dark Knight", it seems that Warner Bros.'s choice of Zach Schneider seems to be a very correct decision when Christopher Nolan will not cooperate.

At the very least, the successful mode and style can be continued in future DC comic adaptations.

The image style of "Watchman" was significantly influenced by "The Dark Knight", and its strong dark style appeared from the first second of the opening.

The dark style is a major feature of the film, and another major feature is that Zach Schneider, who is a die-hard fan of DC comics, makes the film loyal to the comics to the greatest extent.

Zach Schneider also mentioned this in a media interview, expressing his efforts to remain faithful to the original work and the original author: "At present, their creativity has been tested by time."

It is difficult to say whether this is good or bad.

This is a grand event for comic fans. Zach Schneider adheres to the principle of being loyal to the original work - the elements of highlighting and violentness of the original comics are a breaking of the superhero comic tradition. The movie version follows such a setting, full of extremely bloody shots, which can also be regarded as a breakthrough for superhero movies. The movie version not only follows the structure of the original work, but also maintains consistency with the comics in terms of camera settings.

Many passers-by said that they were not very friendly, especially the plot of a comic interspersed in the movie. Although the comic is highly restored, passers-by audiences find this part a bit redundant.

Fortunately, Zach Schneider did not shoot completely according to the comics, and successfully connected many classic scenes of comics, which would not be confusing.

It is undeniable that some fans who have watched "Watchmen" and are familiar with comics will have an illusion: Zach Schneider seems to be afraid of leaving his mark in the film, and it is more like a translation than a transition from one media to another, which makes some flaws in the original comic more obvious.

Comics are not movies.

In fact, the wisest decision made by the Marvel series of movies was to make drastic changes to the comics. Although there were problems such as these and other problems, the villains were all mentally retarded and funny, but they guaranteed the popularity of the film and greatly reduced the entry threshold for theaters.

What happened to Warner Bros. and Zach Schneider? Instead, they continued to raise the entry threshold for DC superhero movies, and finally even made passers-by completely confused.

Judging from this "Watchman", Warner Bros. and Zach Schneider have already embarked on this extremely correct path.

In short, Zach Schneider has not yet reached the extreme of this movie, which has initially solved a problem - how to retain the richness of multi-level characters in the original "Watchmaker" to satisfy the desires of comic fans. On the other hand, it is necessary to lay a foundation in the film to ensure that more viewers who do not understand the original work are willing to sit down and watch this 160-minute R-level movie.

This story about "superheroes" is not ordinary. It describes a world full of sins and conspiracies. The "superheroes" are exiled. The most important thing they are not to save humanity, but to save themselves in extreme anxiety, nothingness and loss.

Even so, the reputation of "Watchman" is inevitably divided like "The Three Hundred Warriors of Sparta".

Although it is not as exaggerated as "Twilight: Crescent", except for 10 points, it is not much better than Bao Ge's "Vampire Hunter Lincoln".

People who like it will be praised to the sky, and there will be a lot of scolding you who don’t like it.

Comic themes, especially movie adaptations of superhero comics, have always been regarded as commercial works that specialize in making money.

In recent years, movies adapted from superhero comics have been successful like Spider-Man, Iron Man and Dark Knight, as well as those who have failed like "The Hulk" and "The Daredevil".

But one thing is obvious. There are special analysis in the circle that even superhero movies that are commercially frustrated, the box office is not particularly bad.

"Watchmaker" has been released in 3,911 theaters, and the scale is the largest number of R-rated superhero movies. Warner Bros. seems to want to make this movie a more popular and more topical movie than Zach Schneider's previous film "The Three Hundred Warriors of Sparta".

But the box office of the film is not very good, especially the trend, Friday > Saturday > Sunday, $25.14 million > $19 million > $11.52 million, the curve is not very healthy.

According to normal circumstances, such non-sequel films will have a box office of more than or at least the same as the box office of Friday.

The painting weekend in North America was launched, and "Watchman" earned $55.21 million in box office.

Not particularly good, but not bad, even exceeding the $50 million expected by Warner Bros.

Zach Schneider at least delivered a qualified answer to Warner Bros. and DC Comics.
Chapter completed!