Rich Johnston’s “Lying In The Gutters” column over at Comic Book Resources has an exclusive news leak regarding the ongoing legal wrangling between Fox and Warner Bros over the upcoming and highly-anticipated “Watchmen” film. According to Johnston one of the major concessions that Fox is willing to take are the rights to the classic 1960’s live-action “Batman” TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward.

Even though Fox owns the show itself, the rights to DC characters such as Batman and Robin are currently held by Warner Bros, and despite the show’s famously camp nature versus the ongoing “gritty” trend in comic book media, Fox sees the rights to the show as a major plus for them, both in terms of rebroadcast but also for a long-awaited DVD release of the classic show as well.

“Watchmen” is scheduled to hit theaters March 9th 2009, but legal issues over the rights to a film version of Alan Moore’s groundbreaking graphic novel between Fox Studios, who claim to have the actual rights to the material, versus Warner Bros, who have the actual film ready to release, have threatened to hold up or even indefinitely put off the release of the highly-anticipated movie. A hearing in the suit is scheduled for January of 2009, and Warner is hoping that the case will be settled in time for the movie to be released on-schedule.

And while Johnston claims that Fox will still also be collecting a hefty chunk of change as well, it does appear that the fate of “Watchmen” will be resting on the transferring of the rights to the Batman show.

Stay tuned to Toxic Shock TV, for Watchmen news and more.

By Costa Koutsoutis, (Source: Comic Book Resources)