Tolkien Estate Sues New Line Cinema (Failure to Pay Royalties Apparently)

Yahoo! News (AP) ^ | 2/11/2008 | Alex Veiga

[MarineBrat]

“Crud!” a narc screamed. “It’s her nibs!”

[longtermmemmory]

since when to studios pay royalties? is this a new thing?

[Red_Devil 232]

In the eastern sky, Velveeta, beloved morning star of the elves and handmaid of the dawn, rose and greeted Noxzema, bringer of the flannel tongue, and clanging on her golden garbage pail, bade him make ready the winged rickshaw of Novocaine, herald of the day. Thence came rosy-eyeballed Ovaltine, she of the fluffy mouth, and lightly kissed the land east of the Seas. In other words, it was morning.

[Trajan88]

yep... New Line probably used the tired line that they'd pay royalties only on NET profits... therefore New Line would claim that there was no net profit after paying actors, production crews, marketing, etc.

Hopefully the Tolkien estate has it in writing that royalties were to be paid on GROSS profits (or some such).

I read some time ago that the author of the Silence of the Lambs got zilch because the contract stipulated it would pay only if there was a net profit... wa-la no net profit so the author got nada (or relatively little).

Hollywood = sleaze-ville.

[Pyro7480]

Yeah, Tom Bombadil was a neat character. I also didn’t like how they altered some characters and scenarios, especially Faramir. For this reason, “The Fellowship of the Ring,” in my opinion, (especially in its Extended Edition), was the best adaptation of the source material.

[Malsua]

When they get around to doing The Hobbit, I want to see what they do with Beorn

Beorn is doable. He's just a "golden compass" black bear that is sometimes man, sometimes bear. The morphing part shouldn't be an issue.

In the for what it's worth category, I play Lord of the Rings online...besides the fact that I run into the main characters on occasion, one of the most fun moments was very early on after release and my RL wife an me were exploring. We found the spot where Bilbo got the trolls "stoned". It was very satisfying on a number of levels. The game is quite true to the books, I've enjoyed playing it.

[MarineBrat]

Forth from the gate burst a hundred thousand rabid narcs swinging bicycle chains and tire irons, followed by drooling divisions of pop-eyed changelings, deranged zombies, and distempered werewolves. At their shoulders marched eight score heavily armored griffins, three thousand goose-stepping mummies, and a column of abominable snowmen on motorized bobsleds; at their flanks tramped six companies of slavering ghouls, eighty parched vampires in white tie, and the Phantom of the Opera. Above them the sky was blackened by the dark shapes of vicious pelicans, houseflies the size of two-car garages, and Rodan the Flying Monster. Through the portals streamed more foes of various forms and descriptions, including a six-legged diplodocus, the Loch Ness Monster, King Kong, Godzilla, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Beast with 1,000,000 Eyes, the Brain from Planet Arous, three different subphyla of giant insects, the Thing, It, She, Them, and the Blob. The great tumult of their charge could have waked the dead, were they not already bringing up the rear.

[Richard Kimball]

I read several years ago that William Shatner never received any royalty payments for the original Star Trek series because according to the studios it still hadn't turned a profit. IIRC, it worked like this: Studio 1 had the contract with the cast members, and had to pay them once the show turned a profit. Instead of renting it out for television at a profit, they rented it to Studio 2, (which was a part of the large corporation that owned both studios) at far below market value. Studio 2 rented the show to television stations and turned a ton of money, but Studio 1 showed it as a loss each time they rented the show out. Shatner talked about Desi-Lu (still owned by Lucy, then) screwing them royally. They required Star Trek (which was made by a production company, Desi-Lu was the distribution company) to buy their props from the Desi-Lu studios, and charged them something like $500 for the communicators (this was in 1966, when pro football players made $10,000 a year.)

People involved in the entertainment industry are dishonest.

[MarineBrat]

Beorn is doable. He's just a "golden compass" black bear that is sometimes man, sometimes bear. The morphing part shouldn't be an issue.

His intelligent animals would present the most difficult part I think. As I recall he had a house full of animal servants.

[SlowBoat407]

Tim, now a rather handsome six-foot carrot, laughed loudly and changed into a coiled parking meter. Frito, dizzy as a great wave of oatmeal flowed through his brain, grew heedless of the puddle of drool collecting in his lap. There was a noiseless explosion between his ears and he watched with terror as the room began stretching and pulsating like Silly Putty in heat. Frito’s ears began to grow and his arms changed into badminton rackets. The floor developed holes out of which poured fanged peanut brittle. A score of polka-dotted cockroaches danced a buck and wing on his stomach. A Swiss cheese waltzed him twice around the room, and his nose fell off. Frito opened his mouth to speak and a flock of flying earthworms escaped. His gall bladder sang an aria and did a little tap dance on his appendix. He began to lose consciousness, but before it ebbed completely, he heard a six-foot waffle iron giggle, “If yoo dig it now, jes’ wade till th’ rush hits you!

[MarineBrat]

WELCOME TO QUAINT, HISTORICAL WHEE
POPULATION 1004 388 96 AND STILL GROWING!

[AFPhys]

In order to do justice to Bombadil’s pervasive influence in the history of Middle Earth, the movies would have had to be 2-3 hours longer. I was disappointed, too, until I realized how hard it would have been to create all the needed backstory of Ol’Tom that Tolkein is able to imply and to scatter through the books.

All in all, I believe that Jackson and his writers did a spectacular job of bringing this story to the public. In order to do a better job, someone will need to write a book. Oh, wait, I guess someone already has!

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Yeah, Arwen saved Frodo, not Glorfindel.

Not too pleased with this myself, but it is known as 'dramatic compression'. Way too many characters in the novels to include them all in the movies. I was rather fond of Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth.

[KarlInOhio]

The Sty itself was divided into farthings, half-farthings, and Indian-head nickels ruled by a mayor who was elected in a flurry of ballot-box stuffing every Arbor Day.

Ballot-box stuffing? So, the Boggies are a bunch of Dems.

[unspun]

Then there was the hatchet-job they did, to Faramir.

Maybe before the lawsuit they could be tarred and feathered....

[Charles Henrickson]

they only received an upfront payment of $62,500. . . .

That seems like just a Tolkien amount.

[radiohead]

In his hand he carried an ancient and trusty weapon, called by the elves a Browning semi-automatic.

Oh man, I haven't read that book since it first came out. What fun! I like the part where they're in Rivendell (or whatever passes for it in the book) and eating dirt and twigs, 'the usual food for people without a visible means of support.' Something like that. Funny stuff.

[dighton]

they only received an upfront payment of $62,500. .

More than $$ are at stake. They need to £ away on this point.

[M1911A1]

OUCH.

[M1911A1]

OUCH again.