According to the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper, the heirs to the estate of J. R. R. Tolkien are suing New Line Cinema, the producers of a new film based on The Hobbit, maintaining that they are owed $220 million in profits from the earlier The Lord of the Rings films.
In 1969, J. R. R. Tolkien sold the film rights to the Lord of the Rings trilogy to United Artists for a lump sum and a reported 7.5% cut of future profits. The rights were then passed to, or shared with, a number of different entities and studios, finally ending up at New Line in 1999. The three films produced by the company were released from 2001-2003, and were huge critical and box office successes, earning some $6 billion to date.
The Tolkien estate says in its lawsuit that it has received no payments from New Line or its parent company, Time Warner.
In addition to a share of the films’ profits, the author’s son and the family charity, the Tolkien Trust, are demanding a termination of film rights, citing breach of contract.
“Should the case go all the way to trial, we are confident that New Line will lose its rights to The Hobbit,” Bonnie Eskenazi, the lawyer for the Tolkien estate, told the Guardian.
The film, which is to be directed by Guillermo Del Toro, is currently in pre-production. The case is scheduled for October.
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I certainly understand the family’s side, but I so hope their lawsuite doesn’t stop or even postpone production of the Hobbit movies. I mean, how long will Ian McKellan be able to do Gandalf if the movie gets delayed too long and I can’t imagine anyone else as Gandalf.
Dammit. Pay them, New Line! I need my Hobbit fix! (It also probably makes financial sense in the long run.)