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

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

Especially the comics that didn't expect to explode later, I didn't care about some rights and interests, and inadvertently completed the authorization.

It's easy to authorize, but it's hard to get it back.

Especially when part of the rights and interests of "Watchmen" still fell into the hands of Twentieth Century Fox, which is also one of the six major Hollywood companies.

Back in the early nineties, after the success of Tim Burton's version of the "Batman" movie, Warner Bros. planned the adaptation of "Watchmen" into a movie, and even started writing the screenplay, the screenwriter at that time was Sam Hamm, and it was once rumored that Robin Williams would play Rorschach, Jamie Lee Curtis as the ghost, and the participation of Richard Gere and Kevin Costner and so on.

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

But after several rewrites of the script, coupled with strong opposition from the original author, Warners eventually shelved the filming of "Watchmen" and the collaboration with Twentieth Century Fox fell through.

Hollywood has never been a mess, and there has never been a shortage of competition between the big six companies, and because of the age-old relationship, Warner Bros. ignored or simply didn't take the deal from more than a decade ago.

As a result, at the height of this year's writers' strike, Twentieth Century Fox took Warner Bros. directly to the court, demanding the distribution rights of the "Watchmen" movie.

Warner Bros. was so obsessed with the operation that they didn't pay attention to the lawsuit until the court ruled in favor of Twentieth Century Fox, and then they suddenly realized and filed a copyright appeal.

When it came to copyright disputes, the release date of "Watchmen" had to be postponed.

In the end, in order for the film to be released, in order to ensure the complete rights and interests of "Watchmen", Warner Bros. had to pinch his nose and settle out of court with Twentieth Century Fox.

The two sides reached a settlement agreement ahead of the Oscars, and the rights battle between Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox was settled by March.

Warner Bros. paid Twentieth Century Fox a sizable fee, not only spitting up all the compensation for the copyright pit of the "Terminator" sequel, but also paying 8 percent of the global box office.

Correspondingly, Twentieth Century Fox no longer owns any rights in Watchmen, nor does it serve as the distributor of the film, and future sequels have nothing to do with it.

To some extent, Warner Bros. used the rights to the sequel to "Terminator" to pit Twentieth Century Fox, and Twentieth Century Fox quickly seized the opportunity to get back on the field.

"Twentieth Century Fox went too far. ”

Inside the theater, facing Kevin Tsuhara, Ronan said directly: "In this case, isn't the usual practice in the circle to charge a little fee?"

Kevin Tsohara shook his head: "They're really excessive, Warner Bros. has always been friendly with other companies in the circle. ”

Ronan said casually: "The real controller of Twentieth Century Fox is back, and I heard people in Britain say that James Murdoch is more radical. ”

Warner Bros. was a little hurt by the pit this time, Kevin Tsohara has not suffered such a big loss in recent years, and is a little angry: "A hairy boy who relies on his father's generation, he doesn't know how high the sky is. ”

Ronan said: "Warner is very sensitive with Fox and News Corp. right now, Kevin, there's no need to be so angry. ”

Instead of answering, Kevin Tsohara asked, "I heard that there is also a contradiction between your relativistic entertainment and twentieth century Fox. ”

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

"This company ......" Kevin Tsohara pointed out otherwise: "This family, it's really unpleasant. ”

Ronan faintly agreed: "Who said it wasn't?"

As things stand, if Fox and James Murdoch get into trouble in the twentieth century, Warner Bros. will definitely fall into trouble.

There is also fierce competition between the major Hollywood companies, otherwise it would not have become the Big Six, or even later became the Big Five.

When Zack Schneider came in, Ronan talked to him for a while.

Since "Watchmen" has already completed all production, Zack Schneider has been involved in the work of the Justice League cinematic universe since last year, and the specific progress will certainly not be said to Ronan, but the re-directing and filming of the "Superman" movie is news that has been made public.

Producer Warner Bros. has full confidence in Zack Snyder, believing that "he has a keen sense of pop and a visual style to match".

Zack Schneider also made it clear that because of the success of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, his position in the Warner Bros. and Justice League cinematic universe has been cemented.

Ronan understands what he means, and in terms of visual style, Zack Schneider is the closest director to Christopher Nolan.

In terms of the huge success brought by "The Dark Knight", Warner Bros. chose Zack Snyder in the absence of Christopher Nolan, which also seems to be the right decision.

At the very least, it can make the successful model and style continue in the future DC comic movies.

The visual style of "Watchmen" is very obviously influenced by "The Dark Knight", and its strong dark style is evident from the first second of the opening.

The dark style is a major feature of the film, and another major feature is Zack Schneider, who is a die-hard fan of DC Comics, so that the film is faithful to the comics to the greatest extent.

Zack Schneider also mentioned this in a previous media interview, saying that he strives to remain faithful to the original book and the original author: "For now, their ideas have stood the test of time. ”

Whether this is good or bad is difficult to say.

This is a big event for comic book fans, and Zack Snyder adheres to the principle of staying true to the original book - the original comic book highlights the elements of sex and violence, which is a break with the tradition of superhero comics, and the movie version follows this setting, full of extremely bloody shots, which can also be said to be a breakthrough for superhero movies, and the movie version not only follows the structure of the original book, but even 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 was highly restored, but passers-by and viewers felt that this paragraph was a bit redundant.

Fortunately, Zack Schneider did not shoot completely according to the comics, and successfully connected the classic scenes of many comics, so that people will not be confused.

It is undeniable that some fans who have watched "Watchmen" and are familiar with the comics will have the illusion that Zack Schneider seems to be afraid of leaving his mark on the film, and it is more like a translation than a conversion from one medium to another, which makes some of the flaws of the original comics even more obvious.

Comics are not movies.

In fact, one of the wisest decisions made by the former Marvel series of movies was to make drastic changes to the comics, although there were such and such problems, compared with the villains are all mentally retarded, but to ensure the popularity of the film, greatly reducing the entry threshold for theaters.

What about Warner Bros. and Zack Snyder's approach, instead, they continued to raise the barriers to entry for DC superhero movies, and in the end, even made passers-by and audiences completely confused.

Judging by this "Watchmen", Warner Bros. and Zack Snyder have embarked on this incomparably right path.

In short, this movie, Zack Schneider has not gone to the extreme, and it can be regarded as a preliminary solution to a difficult problem - how to retain the richness of the multi-layered and multi-character characters in the original book of "Watchmen" to satisfy the thirst of comic book fans, and on the other hand, to do enough foreshadowing in the film to ensure that more audiences who do not know the original book are willing to sit down and watch this 160-minute R-rated movie.

This story of "superheroes" is not ordinary, it depicts a world full of sin and intrigue, the "superheroes" are banished, and the most important thing is not to save humanity, but to save themselves in extreme anxiety, nothingness and loss.

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

Although it is not as exaggerated as "Twilight: New Moon", except that 10 points is 1 point, it is not much better than Brother Bao's "Vampire Slayer Lincoln".

Those who like it are held to the sky, and those who don't like it are scolded.

Comics, especially superhero comics, have always been seen as commercial works that make money.

In recent years, film adaptations based on superhero comics have been such as "Spider-Man", "Iron Man" and "The Dark Knight", as well as blockbusters like "Hulk" and "Daredevil ".

But one thing is obvious, there is also a special analysis in the circle, even if it is a commercial superhero movie, the box office is not particularly bad.

"Watchmen" opened in 3,911 theaters, the largest R-rated superhero movie in any time, and Warner Bros. seems to want to make this film more popular and topical than Zack Schneider's last "Spartan 300 Warriors".

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

Under normal circumstances, this kind of non-sequel film will exceed or at least equal to the Friday box office on Saturday.

In the opening weekend of North America, "Watchmen" earned $55.21 million at the box office.

It's not particularly good, but it's not bad either, and even exceeds the $50 million expected by Warner Bros.

Zack Schneider at least handed over a passing answer sheet to Warner Bros. and DC Comics.

(In reality, Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox had a serious dispute over the copyright of "Watchmen", and both sides even sued separately for several months.) ）