Tolkien Estate suing New Line Cinema

Looks like another example of New Line not paying...
"The Hobbit" film(s) now in doubt...


'Lord of the Rings' dispute could cost $6B

J.R.R. Tolkien's estate sues New Line Cinema for withholding profits. Lawsuit could threaten related productions.

February 11 2008: 4:29 PM EST
CNNMoney.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- 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 failed to pay a cut of gross profits for the blockbuster films.

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 on Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The lawsuit claims New Line was required to pay 7.5% of gross receipts from the films to Tolkien's estate and the other plaintiffs. A call to a spokesman for New Line, a unit of Time Warner Inc., (TWX, Fortune 500) the parent company of CNNMoney, was not immediately returned.

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 plaintiffs seek more than $150 million in compensatory damages, unspecified punitive damages and a court order giving the Tolkien estate the right to terminate any rights New Line may have to make films based on other works by the author, including "The Hobbit."

Such an order would scuttle plans New Line has in the works to make a two-film prequel based on "The Hobbit."

"Rings" trilogy director Peter Jackson has already signed on to serve as executive producer on the project, which is tentatively slated to begin production next year, with releases planned for 2010 and 2011.

"The Tolkien trustees do not file lawsuits lightly, and have tried unsuccessfully to resolve their claims out of court," Steven Maier, an attorney for the Tolkien estate based in Britain, said in a statement. "New Line has not paid the plaintiffs even one penny of its contractual share of gross receipts despite the billions of dollars of gross revenue generated by these wildly successful motion pictures."

Maier also claims the film studio has blocked the Tolkien estate and the other plaintiffs from auditing the receipts of the last two films.

https://money.cnn.com/2008/02/11/news/tolkien_lawsuit.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008021116

First PJ and now Tolkien's estate. Just how much money did New Line not pay out?

greedy world.

As with any studio - it paid only as much as it could legally justify not paying. Didn't Zaentz sue New Line as well?

Good timing by the Tolkien Trust - wait until The Hobbit is announced and then pounce.

First thing I though was, "Oh, crap. This might screw up The Hobbit."

Darklord Dave said:

Good timing by the Tolkien Trust - wait until The Hobbit is announced and then pounce.

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VERY good timing.
Since now if the Hobbit is halted NewLine will feel heat from the fans as well... ..
... "cough up ya ****in buck...." New Line....

Oh the Humanity!

The Tolkien Estate can ask for whatever it wants in a lawsuit...it doesn't mean they are going to get it. Certainly if they are owed money they will get it but as to having the courts terminate New Lie Cinema's "Hobbit" rights...I doubt that one's going to fly.

Sounds like the ploy of a bitter, pompous, old man, Christopher Tolkien, to prevent yet another of his father's wonderful works from being shared with the rest of the world....the guy really is quite pathetic.

*sigh* actually now that i checked my books i think New Line owes me some money.

I'm really beginning to hate all things New Line.

In other news:

End of the Line for New Line?
Time Warner executives are considering folding New Line into its Warner Bros. division or keeping the brand as a separate production unit with Warner Bros. handling its distribution, the Wall Street Journal reported today (Monday), citing people familiar with the situation. The newspaper said that in either scenario, New Line would be reduced to producing low-budget films as it once did instead of blockbusters like its recent Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Journal did not indicate what would become of The Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings prequel, which New Line is scheduled to produce this year.

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Oh boy...New Line has really screwed some people with LOTR...I just hope the Hoobit doesn't get canned.

All I can say is, this better not affect The Hobbit. We've waited long enough as is.

Yes, Zaentz was the first to sue and, I believe, settled out of court quickly. Am wondering: even if this suit does not get the rights back to the Tolkien Estate for Hobbit, whether they can slap in injunction on it to temporarily cease any further action on the production until the suit is settled? (Remember also that there was a threatened suit of NL by some of the secondary/tertiary actors -- supported by the principals -- back in 2002 or so for higher compensation for guest appearances to plug the show. And isn't there a suit in the works by the bit players for more compensation as well?)

From the beginning, my thoughts on the Jackson/NL tussle has been colored by all these actions. Smoke = Fire kind of thing. Looks like NL upper management has their backs up against the wall.

Man, this could put a monkey wrench in seeing The Hobbit films. I hope things are resolved quickly so we can get on with it.

And I agree about the timing, evidently the estate holders are no slouches

The Craw said:

*sigh* actually now that i checked my books i think New Line owes me some money.

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Now that you mention it....I think I might have to check into that myself.



Seriously, this better not cause any setback for the Hobbit films...I'm gonna be real bitter if it does.

:emperor

Agent23 said:

Now that you mention it....I think I might have to check into that myself.



Seriously, this better not cause any setback for the Hobbit films...I'm gonna be real bitter if it does.

:emperor

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if i do sue em, im gonna wait til right in the middle of production so i can delay things like a real *********.

Yeah I hate New Line.
And Yeah I hate The Tolkien Estate too.

This is getting ****ing irritating.

Darklord Dave said:

As with any studio - it paid only as much as it could legally justify not paying. Didn't Zaentz sue New Line as well?

Good timing by the Tolkien Trust - wait until The Hobbit is announced and then pounce.

Click to expand...

good timing for the tolkien estate, and screw the rest of the world that wants to see this transformed to movie version.

DAMN NEWLINE!!!!!