Tolkien Estate Sues New Line Cinema

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.

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"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.

Comments

[MadMoll]

Gee.. a dishonest film studio... who'd a thought?

[strifeknot]

The human and race ought to sue Tolkien and Peter Jackson for crimes against art.

Tolkien fans are almost as philistine and obnoxious as Star Wars fans, but still lag well behind the cretinism of Beatles fans. Those who like all three need to be removed from the gene pool.

[readreza]

right... Tolkien and John Lennon - what kind of cretin sees the value in their contributions??

yes, that was sarcasm.

what the hell are you talking about ?

[strifeknot]

I'm talking about middlebrows who think the anemic, childish works by the Liverpudlian Mediocrities are high art.

Try listening to the Velvet Underground and read some Flann O'Brien, then try to tell me how great Tolkien and Lennon are.

[adc]

How much is $62,500 in Mithrail?

[cinemaven]

$62,500... New Line should be ashamed - instead, they'll try to fight this the way they have every other suit over the rightful share of the trilogy.

I think the Tolkien Estate should have required a much larger up front though. Even those outside of the movie business know about the magic accountants who can prove that a movie that made billions didn't make any money on paper.

[MaxD]

If new line is in the wrong it wouldn't surprise me. This is what Peter Jackson and New Line had their fight about too.

[MsLiz]

It seems stupid to have paid nothing to the Tolkein trust since the pre-production payment of $62,500. It's just so blatant.

[RGKahn]

It seems that New Line is carrying on an old Hollywood tradition, that of cheating the people who owned the property that they bought out of the negotiated payments. They make contracts with writers, to use their original material, and writers who rewrite it and then use accounting gimmicks to show that there were little or no net profits from which their percentages come from. They will "prove" that the highest grossing movie in history actually "lost" money, so that they do not have to pay them anything. What a den of thieves.