As **Watchmen **fever builds to a crescendo, there's one man who'll be watching the movie's release with a somewhat bittersweet sensation.
If it does well at the box office, the film's producer Larry Gordon could be in hock to Warner Bros. for a hefty chunk of the grosses. It's an unusual situation, stemming for December's court judgement that forced Warners to recognise Fox's stake in the movie. Fox negotiated a settlement in which Warners agreed to pay them $1.5m in development costs, as well as a hefty 8.5% of Watchmen's worldwide grosses.
Straight back 'atcha, said Warners, who are reportedly planning to exercise a clause requiring Gordon to reimburse them for unforeseen problems with Watchmen. This is bad news for the veteran uber-producer behind films like **Die Hard **and Hellboy, although he looks likely to fight the claim or possibly even take legal action against another party he blames for the imbroglio: the transitional lawyers he used to move the project from Fox to Warners back in the '90s
Basically, if Watchmen goes gangbusters at the box office, don't be surprised if there's more than a few people in Hollywood donning Rorschach masks and disappearing into the night.
You'd need to be Denny Crane to fully understand the intricacies of a case that's been 20 years in the making, but all the details are summarised here.