Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp

The trailer for the highly anticipated superhero movie "Watchmen" promises intense on-screen action, larger-than-life characters and scathing social commentary. But lately the movie has become better known for its courtroom drama, with 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. continuing to clash over interests in the film. Fox is trying to block Warner's scheduled March 6 release, claiming that it controls the rights to the movie through a series of deals it made with the producer, Lawrence Gordon.

Will Smith has dispatched drug lords, aliens and robots. So a few chipmunks should pose no problem. But 20th Century Fox's decision to open its family comedy "Alvin and the Chipmunks" today against Smith's sci-fi thriller "I Am Legend" shows there is no shame -- and potentially plenty of money -- in finishing a distant second at the box office. Warner Bros.' "Legend" is expected to become Smith's seventh consecutive film to open No.

The marketing folks at 20th Century Fox delivered an early Christmas gift to newsrooms this year: "Alien vs. Predator: Requiem" ornaments with the cheery tagline: "This Christmas There Will Be No Peace on Earth." We can just picture trees now -- decorated with tinsel, stars, bells, angels, lights and Alien and Predator balls.

Screenwriters usually operate like lone wolves, or in small packs, but these days they seem to be finding comfort in company -- or at least in writers' collectives. There's the Writers Co-Op formed earlier this year at Warner Bros. by John Wells ("ER") and the 1[dot]3[dot]9 Inc. collective organized by Chris McQuarrie ("The Usual Suspects") a few weeks later. Now writers are banding together, at 20th Century Fox, of all places, a studio with a reputation for extremely tight purse strings.

Twentieth Century Fox and the Chicago Film Critics Assn. have reached an agreement on movie screenings, the group's president Dann Gire said, two weeks after the CFCA called on its members to hold an "action of protest" against the studio for favoring some critics over others. Fox agreed to be more inclusive with its screenings after the CFCA came to the studio with a proposal to augment its code of ethics, requiring its members to honor studio-mandated embargoes on reviews.

Twentieth Century Fox is on the edge of an Internet publicity crisis. It's Day 10 of the Chicago Film Critics Assn. boycott on all Fox and Fox Searchlight films, a protest against the studio's practice of limiting online critics' access to screenings. Now critics all over the country are coming forward to echo their complaints and promise solidarity, revealing a simmering hostility between studios and many online journalists. Critics in Washington, D.C.

Some critics won't get a look at "The Simpsons Movie" until three days before it opens nationally, a strategy Twentieth Century Fox is using to preserve the film's plot from Internet pirates and scoop-hungry movie bloggers. The film, which "Simpsons" fans have awaited for years, is set to premiere in Westwood on July 24 with a wide release on July 27. Fox is hosting screenings for most critics and reporters on July 24, 25 and 26.

The studio built to stage the special effects for the 1997 film "Titanic" has been sold. Twentieth Century Fox, which built the 46-acre oceanfront Baja Studios in Rosarito, Mexico, has sold the facility to Baja Acquisitions, a group of private investors, in an all-cash deal. Financial details were not disclosed.

Movie theaters typically love having two big-budget movies butting heads on a holiday weekend because that will keep cash registers whirring at cinema complexes. But an abundance of riches has put theaters in a bind for Memorial Day 2009. Both 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. have chosen that date to release what each hopes will be its first 3-D blockbuster. DreamWorks' "Monsters vs.

With the award season upon us, everyone is looking for that perfect "token" of appreciation. And the solution may come from 20th Century Fox. What better present for that nominee in your life than Humphrey Bogart's first studio contract? Know a star with project commitment issues? Here are the various letters and telegrams demanding that Marilyn Monroe show up for the final stills for "Seven Year Itch" and on set for "How to Be Very Very Popular." (She did neither.