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Tolkien Estate Sues New Line

Source:ComingSoon.net, The Tolkien Trust

February 12, 2008

The estate of "Lord of the Rings" creator J.R.R. Tolkien is suing New Line Cinema, claiming the company failed to pay a cut of gross profits for the blockbuster films. Here is today's statement from The Tolkien Trust:

The trustees of The Tolkien Trust, a British charity, have filed an action against New Line Cinema for its failure to pay a contractually required gross profit participation in the three films based on the world-famous Lord of the Rings trilogy. The trustees of the estate of JRR Tolkien and HarperCollins Publishers are co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The suit was filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The Lord of the Rings films produced by New Line are among the most financially successful films ever created by Hollywood and were released in 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively. The cumulative worldwide gross receipts to date total nearly $6 billion. Notwithstanding the overwhelming financial success of the films, and the fact that the plaintiffs have a gross participation in each of the films, New Line has failed to pay the plaintiffs any portion of the gross profit participation at all.

The trustees' UK lawyer, Steven Maier, of Manches LLP, said: "The Tolkien trustees do not file lawsuits lightly, and have tried unsuccessfully to resolve their claims out of court. But in this case, New Line has left them no option at all. 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. To make matters worse, to date New Line has even prevented the plaintiffs from auditing the last two films of the series. The trustees are very aggrieved by New Line's arrogance."

The complaint seeks, among other things, in excess of $150 million in compensatory damages, as well as punitive damages, and a declaration from the Court that the plaintiffs have a right to terminate any further rights New Line may have to the Tolkien works under the agreements, including The Hobbit, due to the serious and material nature of the breach of the agreements.

Bonnie Eskenazi, the trustees' US counsel who filed the complaint, 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."

JRR Tolkien is the world-renowned author of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "The Hobbit." The Tolkien Trust is a UK registered charity that has made grants to charitable causes all over the world totaling over $8 million in the last five years alone.

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COMMENTS (55)

Posted by:

Daniel

February 11, 2008

figures something like this would happen...

Posted by:

Mr Chuff

February 11, 2008

for ****s sake...

Posted by:

Hawper

February 11, 2008

This is ridiculous. If New Line doesn't get to make The Hobbit and the bridge movie soon, I'm going to go crazy. These lawsuits are getting way out of control.

Posted by:

Josh

February 11, 2008

Just pay them the money. Its not like they cant afford it with the 6 billion they have made already. The tolkein estate deserves the money. Im sure they will settle out of court. Stopping the two new films is not very cost effective.

Posted by:

Ricardo

February 11, 2008

greedy s...

Posted by:

Dax

February 11, 2008

The Tolkien estate is legally obligated to a cut, but do they deserve it? What did they do to help make the film trilogy? J.R.R. Tolkien's been dead for quite awhile...

Posted by:

Greg

February 11, 2008

It would be unwise for the Tolkien estate to not allow the making of the Hobbit films as they would be missing out on an even larger sum of money than what they are suing for.

Posted by:

eancer

February 11, 2008

I guess the power of the ring has corrupted everyone....

Posted by:

Bolichnikov

February 11, 2008

If they haven't gotten paid for the first two I'm sure they aren't worried about missing out on future earnings from films. New Line needs to cough it up they know they'll make a billion more per movie they release.

Posted by:

Bita

February 11, 2008

Isn't this the same thing that Peter Jackson was saying all along about two years ago? New Line should just pay and move on. It's not like The Lord of The Rings trilogy didn't bring them recognition and acclaim. New Line needs some more viable hits, and the Tolkien Estate is the place.....everyone knows this.