The Morning Roundup: Watchmen Settle Down, Violence at the Movies, Email from Hugh Jackman

Written by: Phoebe Raven, CC2K Staff Writer

This morning we have glorious news about the Watchmen law suit being settled, tales of violence at the movies (sic!), Hugh Jackman writing all of us a mail and some Obamarama. Rejoice, a new era has begun!

First things first:

The fight is over, now the action can ensue! Fox and the WB reached a settlement over their Watchmen law suit. It includes the WB paying a large amount of money to Fox and Fox being cut in on the box office grosses of the film.
A joint statement read:

"Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox have resolved their dispute regarding the rights to the upcoming motion picture Watchmen in a confidential settlement. Warner Bros acknowledges that Fox acted in good faith in bringing its claims, which were asserted prior to the start of principal photography. Fox acknowledges that Warner Bros. acted in good faith in defending against those claims Warner Bros. and Fox, like all Watchmen fans, look forward with great anticipation to this film’s March 6 release in theatres."

In addition to grosses from the first movie, Fox will also get part of the grosses from any sequels that might follow. For more info (and some numbers about how much cash was forked over) go to /Film.

Now, let's move on to our regular roundup and look at the box office.

It might be a stupid and predictable movie, but apparently Americans love their McMovies and so Paul Blart Mall Cop was the movie of choice for most people this weekend. Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino is still going strong at No. 2. At #3 and #4 are two newcomers, My Bloody Valentine 3-D and Notorious. More news on those two now.

At the screenings of both My Bloody Valentine and Notorious violence broke out this weekend.

At an official post-screening party of Notorious in Brooklyn, NYC, four people were stabbed. Three of them are stable, one is still in critical condition. There is no word about what caused the violence.
In a far more serious incident, a moviegoer was shot during a screening of the movie in Greensboro, NC. The star of the movie, Jamar Woolard, was also in attendance and the theater was evacuated. The film has now been dropped from the theater's lineup.
What's going on there? Is the East Coast-West Coast feud still not over?

In Valley Steam, NY, a 16-year-old boy was stabbed by a security guard after a screening of My Bloody Valentine 3-D, because the boy wanted to stay inside the theater while waiting for his ride. He required six stitches and the security guard will be charged with assault. Craziness!

Remember I told you about that SAG emergency meeting? The outcome was relatively boring, a moderate majority of the SAG board think that executive director Doug Allen should go, because he isn't the right leader. The plans to swipe the strike authorization were "sabotaged" at the meeting, so we are still waiting and holding on. Meanwhile, Allen wrote a letter to the guild members on Sunday, offering a compromise. He would try to meet one more time with AMPTP to reach a settlement and if he can't, the strike authorization will move ahead.
Does all this sound too complicated and slow-moving to you as well? OK, let's move on then to exciting news.

Hey, hey, Hugh Jackman cares about us! And by "us" I mean all of the people who can't wait for Wolverine. Hugh wrote an email to the folks over at AICN regarding the reshoots he is currently doing for the film and he included an exclusive picture of the cast.
CHECK IT OUT:

These days it's Obamarama everywhere (just sounds funnier than Obamania), so it is easy to forget about the most entertaining president of the US, George W. Bush. Sure, he made a lot of fatal mistakes, but at least he gave us things to laugh about. And because of this fact, Will Ferrell is now going to portray GWB in a one-man Broadway show called You're welcome, America. In it, Ferrell as Bush will be reminiscing about his time in office. Previews for the show open today and then it will run until March 15th, so go and check it out if you are so inclined.

And that's it for today.

What do you mean, you still want more? Well, if you insist:

HERE are tons of images from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
and HERE is your overdose of coverage from the Sundance Film Festival going on as you read.

Now shut up and watch some trailers!

I Love You, Man (Red band trailer)

The Informers (Unrated trailer)

500 Days of Summer