The Dukes of Hazzard

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The Dukes of Hazard movie will not be released
Permalink | Friday - June 24, 2005
It might not the greatest idea in the world to get legal council from someone whose email starts with "SmoothB" (although Anton Scalia's email is BadMutha*bleep*ka19, so maybe I should) but worldly reader and local heartbreaker Tom sent in two stories yesterday in regards to an injunction that went down yesterday afternoon and will prevent Warner Brothers from releasing the feature version of The Dukes of Hazard, previously due out August 5th. The full public record can be found on the website for the Federal District Court for the Central District of California. The heart of the record says the following:

"Order by Judge Gary A. Feess: granting motion for preliminary injunction. WHEREFORE, IS IT HEREBY ORDERED that … Warner Brothers … (is) preliminarily enjoined during the pendencey of this action from preparing producing, editing, distributing, advertising, exploiting, copying, publishing, or licensing, for theatrical sequels based on or derived from the feature motion picture "Moonrunners"

Moonrunners is the 1975 movie that is credited as the premise for the Dukes of Hazard, and they were so similiar they both even featured Waylon Jennings as the narrator. I never saw that movie because I hadn't been born yet and also because, based on a recent poll of my grandparents, I'm adorable and a precious angel and shouldn't watch movies like that, although you'd never know it by reading my t-shirt with a kitten in sunglasses on it and the phrase "Here Comes Trouble!".

Below is a screen cap of part of the Judges directive, which is worth reading just to see the phrase "Jessica Simpson is extremely hot right now" written down in a legal document to be recorded in the halls of justice forever. And thanks again to Tom who pretty much did all the work on this. Although it wouldn't have killed him to write some funny jokes, unlike the crap I threw out here. Jeez, I don't wanna throw around the word "lazy", but…



Note - I do feel compelled to mention that The Dukes of Hazard website is still up, which would seem to violate the advertising portion of this injunction, so I can't say for sure how serious this sort of thing is. It may happen all the damn time for all I know. I tried asking my life-size Torie Wilson cut-out about it, but she was all oiled up and only had one thing on her mind, baby.

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Warner Bros. Pictures has agreed to pay a Georgia-based producer at least $17.5 million for infringing on the copyright to his even-more-obscure 1974 United Artists film, "Moonrunners," which became the basis of the hit Warners TV skein, "The Dukes of Hazzard."

The amount paid to the producer, Robert B. Clark, is more than what the studio spent in talent salaries on the new "Hazzard" pic.

However, Warners was faced with federal judge Gary Allen Feess' preliminary injunction, which would have canceled the Aug. 13 release of Warner's new "Dukes of Hazzard" feature and seen all copies of the $55 million Johnnie Knoxville-starrer impounded by federal marshals.

What's more, the film's DVD release would have been delayed indefinitely, and its $40 million theatrical marketing budget -- much of that spent on spot TV ads -- would have gone down the drain.

Marc Toberoff, the attorney who represented Clark in U.S. District Court, would only reiterate his previous statement of last week that "the parties have reached a settlement of all claims in the litigation," adding that "the terms of that settlement are confidential." (Daily Variety, July 23)

Scott Rowe, a spokesman for Warner Bros. Entertainment, said on Thursday afternoon that the studio declined to comment.

In winning a preliminary injunction, Toberoff demonstrated to the judge's satisfaction that Clark was likely to win at trial and would suffer irreparable harm if the movie opened. Irreparable harm is presumed in copyright infringement cases, based on a 1999 lawsuit by Sun Microsystems against Microsoft.

Now that a settlement has been reached, Warners will premiere the new "The Dukes of Hazzard" feature July 28 at the Mann Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

Still unclear is whether Clark will be getting an invitation. (As reported by VARIETY)