In the latest surprising turn in the Fox vs. Warner Bros. lawsuit over the rights to the Watchmen movie, lawyers for both Fox and Warners have asked Judge Gary Feess to delay the upcoming hearing.  Lawyers for Warner Bros. had been pushing for the hearing in the case to be moved up from January 20th to January 12th and Judge Feess was set to rule on that motion today, but today, according to Nikki Finke’s authoritative Deadline Hollywood, lawyers for both sides asked the Judge to delay today's ruling on moving up the hearing because “settlement talks have been productive” and are set to continue over the weekend.

This latest move is surprising since, at least in public, Warner Bros. has firmly denied any interest in settlement and vowed to continue its fight against the judge’s preliminary ruling in favor of Fox (see “Watchmen Judge Rules in Fox’s Favor”) in spite of the conventional wisdom, which would appear to indicate that Warners would have to settle in order to safeguard its March 6th debut date for Watchmen.