Feb 11 2008
It Appears They’re Making A Hobbit Out Of It
The estate of J.R.R. Tolkien has just sued New Line Cinema over royalties for the hugely successful Lord of the Rings movies. Or rather, the lack thereof. The estate - a charitable trust - has never received a penny from New Line other than a pittance of an up-front payment.
LOS ANGELES - The estate of "Lord of the Rings" creator J.R.R. Tolkien is suing the film studio that released the trilogy based on his books, claiming the company hasn't paid it a penny from the estimated $6 billion the films have grossed worldwide.
The suit, filed Monday, claims New Line was required to pay 7.5 percent of gross receipts to Tolkien's estate and other plaintiffs, who contend they only received an upfront payment of $62,500 for the three movies before production began.
The writer's estate, a British charity dubbed The Tolkien Trust, and original "Lord of the Rings" publisher HarperCollins filed the lawsuit against New Line Cinema in Los Angeles Superior Court. If successful, it could block the long-awaited prequel to the films.
Robert Pini, a spokesman for Time Warner Inc.'s New Line, declined to comment.
The films — 2001's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," 2002's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," and 2003's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" — have reaped nearly $6 billion combined worldwide, according to the complaint.
The suit seeks some $150 million in compensatory damages as well as punitve damages. What is going to be a bigger problem for New Line is that the estate is also seeking to bar New Line from making any other films based on Tolkien's work. That would kill the plans for The Hobbit. New line has been sued repeatedly over this now:
In 2004, Zaentz sued New Line, claiming the studio cheated him out of $20 million in royalties from the film trilogy, which he optioned to New Line for a percentage of the movies' profits.
He and the film studio reached an out-of-court settlement a year later.
Jackson's production company also tangled with New Line in 2005 over profits from the films. A lawsuit was settled last year.
They appear to have a bad hobbit on this sort of thing.
2 Responses to “It Appears They’re Making A Hobbit Out Of It”
They appear to have a bad hobbit on this sort of thing.
Ugh!!
This is not a new problem. I first read “The Lord of the Rings” in a pirated paperback edition put out by a scifi publishing house back in the 1960s. It turns out Tolkein’s agent had never gotten an American copyright.