Legendary Pictures suffered a loss in the first skirmish in its litigation against the producers that brought it Godzilla (see "Legendary Sues 'Godzilla' Producers"), according to Hollywood Reporter.  Legendary, which terminated the producers and filed suit to force arbitration, had argued that a long-form production agreement that was in draft stage was binding with respect to arbitration.  The judge in the case ruled that it was not, and that the case should proceed to trial, according to the report.

The ruling is damaging to Legendary, because it also relied in part on the long-form agreement for its right to terminate the producers, who argued that there was an oral agreement to include them in the movie.  While there was no specific ruling on the status of the unsigned agreement on any issues except arbitration, tossing it for this narrow purpose is not a good sign for its use in other issues. 

The movie is scheduled to release May 16, 2014.