According to the Hollywood Reporter Warner Bros. has taken over the star-crossed Watchmen feature film project.  In development as a motion picture since the 1980s, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel classic was recently named one of Time Magazine's 100 Best Novels (see 'Watchmen Makes Time's Top 100 Novels') and also received a five-page write-up in a recent issue of Entertainment Weekly (see 'EW Celebrates Watchmen') and a solid notice in the N.Y. Times Book Review (see 'Absolute Watchmen in N.Y. Times Book Review'). 

The perennial bestseller has continued to sell well in both direct market comic shops and traditional bookstores, but attempts to adapt Watchmen to the silver screen have repeatedly failed.  Universal obtained the Watchmen movie rights in 2001, but couldn't pull the trigger.  Paramount took over in 2004 and it appeared that the production was about to begin this summer when a new management team took over the studio and put the kibosh on the project (see 'Paramount Boots 'Watchmen'') because of the film's $100 million plus budget and somber tone.

Now the project is set up at Warner Bros., the sister company of Watchmen publisher DC Comics.  On March 17th Warners is releasing V for Vendetta, which is based on another graphic novel written by Alan Moore.  According to the Hollywood Reporter Warners has jettisoned David Hayter's Watchmen script as well as Paul Greengrass, who was slated to direct the Paramount version, which means that we are unlikely to see a Watchmen on the big screen anytime soon.  However, if the V for Vendetta film does well, look for Warner Bros. to make a serious effort to get a Watchmen movie made.