Warner Bros.’ "Watchmen" is more likely to see the court before it sees the cinemas. A federal judge ruled last week that the rights for the film may belong to 20th Century Fox.

Therefore Warner Bros. was blocked to release the adaptation of the graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Gibbons.

A federal judge in Los Angeles, Gary A. Feess of United States District Court for the Central District of California, agreed with Fox lawyers that there are a lot of reasons to continue the lawsuit and thus postpone the film’s release, which was announced March 6, 2009.

Fox attempted to put the project on big screens ten years ago but they didn’t manage to get beyond the actual drawing.  Now when Warner Bros. managed to go further than they ever got, they were accused of never getting the rights to “Watchmen.”

In a statement, Scott Rowe, a Warner spokesman, said the judge’s ruling was not taken according to the merits of the case. “We respectfully disagree with Fox’s position,” Mr. Rowe’s statement said.       

“Watchmen” tells the story of superheroes who fall into disgrace and become victims of their own personal inner debates. Zack Snyder is the director of “Watchmen” and the regressed superheroes are played by Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Billy Crudup and Jackie Earle Haley. The action takes place in a rather strange 1985 world.

"Warner Bros.' production and anticipated release of “Watchmen” motion picture violates 20th Century Fox's long-standing motion picture rights in the Watchmen property," Fox says in a statement.