Stale Popcorn

According to Variety the Tolkien Trust, the charity that manages the estate of J.R.R Tolkien, and the publisher HarperCollins have filed a $150 million lawsuit against New Line Cinema for breach of contract regarding their “gross profit participation payments” for The Lord of The Rings trilogy.

As well as the $150 million in compensation they are also seeking punitive damages and a declaration from the courts that any further rights New Line Cinema may have to the works of Tolkien under the original agreement, including the planned Peter Jackson produced adaptions of The Hobbit, can be terminated.

Here’s more details from Variety:

According to the suit, although the “Lord of the Rings” films produced by New Line are among the most financially successful films ever created, with worldwide gross receipts of nearly $6 billion, New Line has failed to pay the plaintiffs any portion of the gross profit participation to which they are entitled under their deal.

Bonnie Eskenazi, who represents the trust, said, “New Line has brought new meaning to the phrase ‘creative accounting.’ I cannot imagine how on earth New Line will argue to a jury that these films could gross literally billions of dollars, and yet the creator’s heirs, who are entitled to a share of gross receipts, don’t get a penny.”

You’ve got to wonder what the hell New Line are playing at. This is pretty similar to the suit that Peter Jackson brought against them in 2005 to do with his profit participation being “shortchanged” and also Producer Saul Zaentz has sued New Line twice about profit participation. And now this. It really doesn’t look good for New Line, or The Hobbit, at the moment.

Especially when you add this information from the IMDB (via TheOneRing.net) about Time Warner considering reducing New Line back to producing low-budget movies once more:

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.

The future really doesn’t look bright for New Line.

[Source - Variety & TheOneRing.Net]

Posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 1:56 pm under Movie News by Gareth.
Tags:Movie News

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