It’s been a long, dirty, despicable road, but it looks now like the hard-fought battle between Fox and Warner Brothers over the rights to Zack Snyder’s Watchmen has finally been settled.

If you’ve just re-surfaced after a lengthy stay under a large pile of Rosie O’Donnel’s laundry, then you can catch up with what’s gone by just searching “Watchmen” on our site — you’ll find much coverage of the trial. For those who have followed, just a summary: Basically, Fox realized that they f’d up hard by passing on Watchmen; then they decided to sue Warner Bros. because they technically still had some form of legal right to distribute it; and then it seemed a judge agreed and was going to give them the rights. Then, just when it looked like it was going to get really nasty and the movie was likely going to have to be delayed from its March 6, 2009 release date, the two parties got together and had a little alone time to figure something out.

Now, finally, it’s being reported that a settlement was reached and given to overseeing Judge Gary Feess with a request for the lawsuit to be thrown away.

No word on the actual details of the settlement, but word is that Fox will be getting the expected huge amount of money as well as a percentage of the theatrical take. It’s also being said that Fox won’t be a co-distributor, like it was looking like might happen, so there’s a minor win for Warner Bros. to look at.

Both Fox and WB released crap statements, both saying the other studio “acted in good faith” during the trial and what they were trying to do. Allow me to translate said statements.

Warners: “Fantastic. Unreal amounts of money and time and effort put into a project and we get to pay these little fuck-cookies to sit and throw darts at available properties that were written by 13-year-old kids. We’re really just excited to get that pathetic mooch company off our ass. They left a rash, you know.”

Fox: “Well, what can we say? We tried our best to go and get paid and it just didn’t play out. We’re really running low on Goobers at the office, so this would have helped out so… wait, what? You say we won? No shit!? How much did we get? That is friggin’ nuts, man. I can’t believe that worked. Did Judge Gary Feess get the Edible Arrangements we sent? I sure hope so. It had pineapple on it. I’m buying the wine coolers for the Jenga party tonight!”

So there you have it. Actual details for the settlement should be known very soon!

I assume this officially means that we will get this movie on time, and that’s the most important part.

[Source: THR]