Posted on 02/11/2008 5:48:45 PM PST by Pyro7480
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 estimate includes everything from box office receipts to revenue from sales of DVDs and other products.
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 by New Line 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.
The lawsuit claims J.R.R. Tolkien established a trust through which he signed a film deal in 1969 with United Artists. After Tolkien's death, his heirs created the charity in the author's name.
Meanwhile, the original agreement terms were picked up by Hollywood producer Saul Zaentz, who produced an animated film in 1978 based on the "Rings" books, and eventually licensed the rights to make live-action films to New Line.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said they have spent the years since the movies hit theaters trying to negotiate a settlement with New Line.
Other disputes over the film's earnings have surfaced in recent years.
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.
The only thing in this world more mythical than hobbits are residuals in Hollywood.
Many years ago I was a Hollywood entertainment attorney. Every nasty rumor you have ever heard about the ethics of producers and studios is true. It is the most dishonest bunch I have ever encountered.
If the contract was for payment to be made based on profit, we all know that they would never see a dime. However, the contract appears to be based on the "gross." Now if New Line prove they had no "gross" that would indeed be an accounting miracle. I hope this goes to a jury and the jury slams New Line.
Wow! I thought I was the only one who knew about lustful elf-maidens and roller-skating dragons!
The water was nowhere more than a few feet deep, and the boggies had little difficulty making their way across. "This is indeed a queer river," said Bromosel, as the water lapped at his thighs.
The movies were pretty good, though I was disappointed that they cut out Tom Bombadil. They did stay relatively true to the tales though, and kept a good sense of right/wrong and good/evil.
Huh—I thought Tolkein sold the rights to LOTR many years ago for a pittance, claiming it was “unfilmable”—I didn’t know there was anything contracted for a share of gross receipts.
Won’t help them in this case - the agreement was for a percentage of gross receipts, not gross or net profit...:) Smart of the Tolkien trust!
In his hand he carried an ancient and trusty weapon, called by the elves a Browning semi-automatic.
New Line Cinema fights to the death on this one.
No... That's diffrnt I think.
The Hobbit movie was hung up on a dispute between PJ and New Line. Which has apparently been resolved.
Dagnabit! Where is my copy????
Grundig blaupunkt luger frug
Watusi snarf wazoo
Nixon Dirsken nasahist
Rebozo boogaloo!
Vas ist? Ver is der handsome Farahslaxer?
Yeah, Arwen saved Frodo, not Glorfindel. While I enjoyed the movies quite a bit, I was annoyed by a number of things such as Arwen's "you want him, come and claim him". I've read the trilogy 5-6 times in the past 30 years or so and I have to roll my eyes at that one. Glorfindel sets Frodo on his horse and sends him across the ford of Bruinen thereafter invoking Elrond's invokation to have the ford wash the riders away. In the movie...Arwen does it and rides across with him.
Bombadil would be extremely difficult to adapt to the screen since he's essentially insane. An immortal with unlimited powers, as he was before and he will be after. He makes Treebeard seem like a hatchling. I can't imagine how you could do Tom without going way into some weird Monty Python type of world where you find a refuge in the middle of war where people feel that basket weaving is the most important task of the day, everything else being useless dreck.
Boggies are an unattractive by annoying people whose numbers have decreased rather precipitously since the bottom fell out of the fairy-tale market. Slow and sullen, and yet dull, they prefer to lead simple lives of pastoral squalor.
Oh you bet! A royalty of 7.5% on gross receipts of $6 BILLION would be a $450 million dollar payout... You can bet that New Line will push themselves to bankruptcy over this one!
In their midst was a towering dark shadow too terrible to describe. In its hand it held a huge black globe and on its chest was written in cruel runes, “Villanova.”
“Aiyee,” shouted Legolam, “A ballhog!”
True, he was pretty loopy. I loved his portrayal in "Bored of the Rings" as Tim Benzedrine and his wife Hashberry. Strobe candles, indeed!
When they get around to doing The Hobbit, I want to see what they do with Beorn.
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