N.Y. Times guy Michael Cieply reported today that a federal judge in Los Angeles intends to grant 20th Century Fox’s claim that it owns a copyright interest in Zack Snyder‘s Watchmen, which has been funded/produced by Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures and set for release on 3.6.09.

“Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the Watchmen motion picture,” the ruling said. The judge, Gary A. Feess of the United States District Court for Central California, “said he would provide a more detailed order soon,” Cieply wrote.

What will happen from this, presuming that the expected challenges and whatnot don’t change the Feess ruling? WB, I would imagine, is going to have to fork over a significant chunk of the forthcoming Watchmen revenues….right? I mean, WB isn’t going to actually hand over the distribution of this much-anticipated film, lock, stock and barrel…are they?