Zack Snyder has released a new Watchmen featurette introducing all the characters.  Check it out!

A Los Angeles federal judge has ruled that 20th Century Fox owns the distribution rights to “Watchmen,” representing a setback for Warner Bros.’ plans to release the pic in March.

“Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the ‘Watchmen’ motion picture,” the ruling said.

Judge Gary Allen Feess issued the surprise ruling Wednesday — a week after setting a Jan. 20 trial date for Fox’s suit — and indicated he would issue a more detailed ruling soon. Warner spokesman Scott Rowe declined to comment.

Warner Bros. has not backed off a release date of March 6 for “Watchmen,” directed by Zack Snyder and starring Patrick Wilson and Jackie Earle Haley.

Fox filed the suit in February, contending it retains distribution rights to the graphic novel penned by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons.

The suit asserts that producer Lawrence Gordon’s option to acquire Fox’s remaining interest in “Watchmen” was never exercised, thereby leaving Fox with its rights under a 1994 turnaround agreement. Warner Bros. has denied Fox’s assertions and contended Fox doesn’t hold the copyright.

Fox originally acquired the rights to “Watchmen” in the late 1980s and spent more than $1 million developing the project, which later went to Universal and then Paramount before landing at Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures.

source: variety.com

All My Sons will complete their run on January 11, 2009.  For information on how you can get tickets to see the show, go to http://www.allmysonsonbroadway.com/ .

A Los Angeles federal judge has moved the trial for Watchmen back two weeks to January 20 after declining to issue a ruling on whether Fox or Warner Bros. controls the rights to the project, reports Variety.

Judge Gary Allen Feess set the new trial date Monday, noting that he’s required to handle a criminal matter on January 6. He also refused to make a pre-trial summary judgment — as requested by both sides — because, he said, the contracts between Fox and Watchmen producer Larry Gordon are so open to interpretation that they require a trial.

Fox’s suit, filed in February, contends that it retains distribution rights to the graphic novel penned by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. It claims that Gordon’s option to acquire Fox’s remaining interest in Watchmen was never exercised, thereby leaving Fox with its rights under a 1994 turnaround agreement.

Warner Bros has denied Fox’s assertions and contended Fox doesn’t hold the copyright. They are still planning to release the Zack Snyder directed film on March 6, 2009.

Watchmen stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino and Jackie Earle Haley.

The all-star complete recording of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s short-lived 1947 Broadway musical, Allegro, featuring Audra McDonald, Nathan Gunn and Patrick Wilson, will be released Feb. 3, 2009.

Produced by David Lai, Bruce Pomahac and Ted Chapin, the first complete recording of the musical will be released by Sony Masterworks Broadway, the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization announced.

For the recording, Larry Blank conducts the 50-piece Istropolis Philharmonic Orchestra, featuring the original orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett and dance arrangements by Trude Rittmann.

The new recording of Allegro features Patrick Wilson (The Full Monty, Oklahoma!) as Joe Taylor, Jr.; Nathan Gunn (Camelot) and Audra McDonald (Ragtime, Carousel, Master Class) as Joe’s parents; Marni Nixon (My Fair Lady, Nine) as Joe’s Grandma; Judy Kuhn (Les Misérables, She Loves Me, Chess) as Beulah; Liz Callaway (Baby, Cats, Miss Saigon) as Emily; Laura Benanti (Gypsy, Into the Woods, Nine) as Jennie; and Norbert Leo Butz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Wicked, Is He Dead?) as Joe’s best friend, Charlie.

The Allegro ensemble features Judy Blazer, Maureen Brennan, Ashley Brown and Kathy Morath as well as a full chorus and a children’s chorus. Vocal cameos are made by original Broadway Follies veterans Harvey Evans and Kurt Peterson, as well as Ray DeMattis; New York City Cultural Affairs Commissioner Schuyler Chapin; All Souls Church Reverend Dr. Galen Guengerich; Lincoln Center Theater executive producer Bernard Gersten; theatre critics Howard Kissel and John Simon; and Allegro’s original production assistant, Stephen Sondheim.

Allegro “tells the story of an earnest country doctor, Joseph Taylor, following his life from cradle to adulthood, and his journey — both literal and moral — from small town to big city, and back again. The score is unconventional: fragments of song move in and out of the action like passing thoughts; melodies flit by in one scene only to take hold and blossom in the next. Major songs are given to minor characters, while the central character has comparatively little solo work. A chorus provides spoken commentary and sings aloud inner thoughts. Original director/choreographer Agnes de Mille’s extended ballet sequences are reflected in intriguing orchestral pieces.”

In a statement Ted Chapin, president of The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, said, “Along with the innovations of the original production, Allegro’s score has its own innovative qualities, most of which are simply unknown. To do justice to the show that Rodgers & Hammerstein created, I have long wanted to capture the score in a way that explains to us all how the musical tapestry of Allegro was conceived. It is almost through-composed, using elements of songs in fascinating, dramatic ways – which has led people to assume incorrectly that it is a lesser work. After all, Allegro comes chronologically between Carousel and South Pacific, so it’s not as if Rodgers & Hammerstein had lost their talent. My hope is that this recording will introduce this extraordinary work to musical theatre lovers in the best way possible – and I am thrilled that we have been able to attract such a stellar group of artists to join us.”

The Allegro score includes “So Far,” “The Gentleman Is A Dope,” “I Know It Can Happen Again,” “Come Home,” “You Are Never Away” and the title song.

For further information visit SongBMGMasterWorks.

source: playbill.com

The Watchmen footage that director Zack Snyder showed at this summer’s Comic-Con in San Diego is now officially online and can be watched for free at iTunes by going to this link! You will, of course, need iTunes to play the clip.

Opening March 6th in conventional theaters and IMAX, the anticipated big screen adaptation stars Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino, Stephen McHattie and Matt Frewer.

source: comingsoon.net

Not all is lost on the Main Stem if a Chekhov revival can turn a profit. Producers announced today that The Seagull, starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Peter Saarsgard, recouped its investment. Also, All My Sons–with John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, Patrick Wilson, and Katie Holmes–recouped its $3.25 million capitalization. According to a news release, it is “the highest capitalization of a commercial play ever to be recouped.” Welcome news following months of closings, postponements, and cancellations due to financing woes.

Though this has been the case for some time now, producers will probably lean on name actors more than ever to get their plays financed and mounted, and who could blame them? ‘T’would be nice, however, if they were to recall, even for a moment, that August: Osage County did well for itself with a cast of 1,927 unknowns, not one of whom the Blue Hairs From Bay Shore could have picked out of a lineup featuring Stepehn Baldwin, André the Giant, Shelley Winters, and Hervé Villechaize.

A new Watchmen trailer was released. You can watch it here!:

There’s been some new Watchmen posters revealed and there’s one of Patrick as Nite Owl as well. You can view them here in the Access Hollywood Watchmen gallery. The film opens on March 6, 2009

Check out the latest poster for Zack Snyder’s Watchmen, which Yahoo just debuted. The flick is set for release March 6, 2009 and stars Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino, Stephen McHattie, Matt Frewer and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the “Doomsday Clock” - which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union - is permanently set at five minutes to midnight.

When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed-up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion - a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers - Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future.