The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the federal judge hearing the lawsuit brought by Twentieth Century Fox against Warner Bros. over the rights to release the Watchmen movie has indicated that he will not make a pre-trial ruling on the merits of Fox’s complaint, leaving open the very real possibility that the suit could go to trial on January 20th.  That's the new trial date set by the judge, who moved the original court date of January 6th back two weeks.  Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s groundbreaking graphic novel is set to debut in theaters on March 6th.

According to The Times U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess told lawyers for both sides that “a series of 1990s contracts between Fox and Watchmen producer Larry Gordon are so open to interpretation that he could not render a pre-trial judgment for either party, as the lawyers had requested.”

The judge’s failure to make an early determination raises the stakes in what is turning into a nasty game of “chicken” rooted in the murky world of “turnarounds,” the process in which potential movie properties move from one studio to another after the original studio sours on the project (see “Fox and Warners Watchmen Feud Escalates”).  Warner Bros. has already put a good deal of effort behind the March debut of the Watchmen movie.  Trailers for the Watchmen movie have accompanied the mega-hit The Dark Knight (resulting in a huge surge in sales of the Watchmen graphic novel) and the new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.