Tolkien estate sues New Line

[Gentlegamer]

Send in the Ents to destroy Hollywood!

 

[Ranger REG]

Send in the Ents to destroy Hollywood!

I would agree to that if Tolkien Estate hadn't threatened or even considering to halt production of Hobbit, if they won the lawsuit.

 

[Glyfair]

NYT report about the lawsuit

From the NYT story:

In that legal action he had accused New Line of cheating him out of tens of millions of dollars by selling subsidiary rights for books, DVDs and merchandise to members of its own corporate family, Time Warner, for less than market value.

One thing I heard many years ago was that a company like Warner Brothers would license the video rights to their movies to Warner Home Video for something symbolic like $1. For those who get a "percentage of profits" from the movies (actors, directors, etc.), they would end up with their percentage of that $1, not whatever profit Warner Home Video actually made.

 

[frankthedm]

What this all seems to come down to is Hollywood outsiders have gotten sick of the creative accounting Hollywood insiders have been using for a very long time.