Tolkien estate sues New Line

Krug · Feb 11, 2008

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117980703.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

Looks like creative accounting by New Line is in action again...

horacethegrey · Feb 12, 2008

:\ Yeouch. And I thought the lawsuit with PJ was bad enough. It's one thing to cheat the director, but to cheat the estate of the man who inspired your most successful film franchise? Yeesh. Bob Shaye must be tearing his hair out from this.

frankthedm · Feb 12, 2008

Krug said:
Looks like creative accounting by New Line is in action again...

That's all of hollywood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_points.

Hollywood accounting is not limited to movies. An example is the Warner Bros. television series Babylon 5 created by J. Michael Straczynski. Straczynski, who wrote 90% of the episodes in addition to producing the show, would receive a generous cut of profits if not for Hollywood accounting[citation needed]. The series, which was profitable in each of its five seasons from 1993–1998, has garnered more than US$1 billion for Warner Bros., most recently US$500 million in DVD sales alone. But in the last profit statement given to Straczynski, Warner Bros. claimed the property was $80 million in debt. "Basically," says Straczynski, "by the terms of my contract, if a set on a WB movie burns down in Botswana, they can charge it against B5's profits." [8]

Storm Raven · Feb 12, 2008

frankthedm said:
That's all of hollywood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_points.

And, to raise an older point, this is why all of the arguments made by the studios and producers concerning the current writers strike are pure horse manure.

Mistwell · Feb 12, 2008

frankthedm said:
That's all of hollywood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_points.

It's not "all" of Hollywood. It's some of it, but lets not make hasty generalizations .

Ranger REG · Feb 13, 2008

Hmm. Didn't realize that the LOTR film right (sold to Saul Zentz of Tolkien Enterprise) have a proviso that allows Tolkien Estate to take a cut in revenue, even though the trustee leader Christopher Tolkien don't believe LOTR is "filmable."

Correct/Clarify me if I'm wrong.

Other sources reporting this...
http://movies.aol.com/news/story/_a/jrr-tolkien-estate-sues-rings-studio/20080211153409990001
http://www.mania.com/57406.html
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=48333
http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/12063.html

Silver Moon · Feb 13, 2008

On the one hand, it takes huge amounts of chuzpah to claim that a film series that did six billion in sales didn't make any money.....but it's not exactly the case that Christopher Tolkien hasn't made any money off of his father's work!

Silver Moon · Feb 13, 2008

This should settle fast now that Jackson's agreed to do the Hobbit - too much money available to let what works out to small change get in the way.

Rykion · Feb 13, 2008

I wonder if United Artists mentioned the 7.5% when they sold the rights to Saul Zaentz. As far as I know, Tolkien Enterprises owned by Saul Zaentz still holds the film rights. They just licensed them out. I wonder if their license with Miramax and New Line mentions the 7.5%. It might not be clear who owes the money to the Tolkien Estate.

As long as it took to become a lawsuit, I suspect someone at Harper Collins/Tolkien Estate found the 7.5% clause in the original film rights document after the movies were made and released. Christopher Tolkien certainly seemed to think the estate would get nothing from the movies when he talked about them a few years ago.

Krug · Feb 16, 2008

NYT report about the lawsuit

Tolkien estate sues New Line

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