The legal dispute between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. over screen rights to Watchmen is coming to a head very quickly. U.S. District Court Judge Gary Allen Feess has set a trial date of January 6th for the case, while indicating that Fox should give up  any notion of a preliminary injunction and instead concentrate on expediting the discovery and deposition phase of the trial.  After the discovery portion of the case Fox will be able to petition the judge for a permanent injunction to stop Warners from releasing the film, which is currently set to premiere on March 6th.

The dispute between the studios stems from a 1991 agreement between producer Lawrence Gordon and Fox, which established a buyout arrangement under which Fox would relinquish its screen rights to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen graphic novel.  Fox claims that Gordon failed to live up to his part of the agreement, while Gordon and Warner Bros. contend that he did.

While Warner Bros. had been pushing for a quicker trial date (April) than Fox (June—see “Fox and Warner’s Watchmen Dispute Escalates”), with his decision to begin legal proceedings in early January, Judge Feess appears to be in no mood for a long, drawn out dispute and wants to get the facts of the case, including sworn depositions and all the relevant documents, out in the open as quickly as possible.