Now here’s a piece of good news in this cold, harsh January. Over the past month or so news has been coming in of a legal dispute between Warner Brothers, who were planning to release comic-book adaptation Watchmen in March, and 20th Century Fox, who claimed to have owned the rights. Things didn’t look good when the case’s judged granted tha Fox did indeed have a claim to the film’s rights, and that this may lead to the film being postponed, or even never seeing the light of day.

Last week was supposed to see the two parties return to court, but it was delayed due to a seemingly positive settlement. And now we know the result of that settlement, in which Fox will receive 8.5% of the gross box-office intake, plus a lump sum in cash, plus a share of any sequels or spin-offs. This means that Watchmen will indeed be released on March 6. Comic book fans can now rejoice (die-hard comic fans can scowl). In other news relating to the film, it now looks like it will run at 163 minutes, a suitablly long time for the complex comic.