'Hobbit' Halt: Tolkien Heirs Sue New Line - Tolkien Estate want...

Viggo Mortensen in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' In what may prove to be hold-up for the long-awaited adaptation of "The Hobbit," the Tolkien Trust has sued New Line over alleged lack of ...

[Gilles]

"the estate of the "Rings" author, is requesting more than $150..."

Wow! That's a lot of money! ;)

[Daniel F]

Hmmm... You think that ought to be $150 million?
Yikes.
I just fixed the story...
Thanks for the head's up...

[J-Dub]

This is really disappointing. It's especially interesting that New Line won't offer any comments.

[iamme]

I hope it delays things just enough to get PJ's schedule free up for HIM to direct the Hobbit!!
And New Line should pay what they owe. How ridiculous.

[SmilingAssassin]

New Line sux! I wonder if the accountants over there think that Bob came up with the idea for Middle Earth himself.

[SJohn]

I would like to think the Tolkien estate was probably paid whatever the original agreement was for licensing the rights to the movie, and really shouldn't get any more.
Go back in time about 5-6 years and pretend hisory went a little differently. The Fellowship came out and bombs at the theater, Two Towers comes out and does even worse. New line gets out while it can and cancels the release of RotK. This puts New line in the hole 100's of millions of dollars in production cost. Do you think Tolkien estate wants to help out and cover some losses? no, they wouldn't.
That's the reason they paid for the rights in the first place; after that New Line is assuming the liability in case this thing blows up in it's face. Just because it didn't doesn't mean everybody gets to go back and decide they now want a larger peice of the pie. Most of the time your lucky to get the whole pie back, this was just an exception, and a good gamble for New Line.

[OmegaWolf747]

Since when were an author's descendants entitled to profit from the author's works?

[Megan]

According to the article, New Line hasn't paid one penny of it's contractual share. That means New Line is in default on a contact, despite having purchased the rights to the series, a contract is a contract.

[HPete]

OmegaWolf747 wrote:

Since when were an author's descendants entitled to profit from the author's works?

Yeah, this is a strange thing with copyrights. It is wrong IMHO. After an author dies, it should go to public domain and not to the heirs.
Blame Disney and Co. for alot of this since they keep succesfully lobbying for extending copyright length everytime Mickey comes up for expiration.

[Bubba Nicholson]

Don't forget me, I also made creative contributions but received nothing. Think of the actors, too, laboring to make three films at once without profit participation. Naughty newline!

[Bubba Nicholson]

OmegaWolf747 wrote:

Since when were an author's descendants entitled to profit from the author's works?

Since inheritance laws. How's life under that rock, bud?

[K von M]

OmegaWolf747 wrote:

Since when were an author's descendants entitled to profit from the author's works?

It's the trust, not the heirs themselves, and the executors had a signed contract with New Line that they would receive a percentage of the profits from the movies. So it's not really a matter of Tolkein's descendants thinking they're entitled, it's a matter of New Line honoring the contract.

Considering that New Line screwed Peter Jackson as well, this doesn't really surprise me.

[long time fan]

The estate needs to withdraw rights from new line cinema and hire Peter Jackson to produce and direct the hobbit.

[Erisian23]

What an interesting cross-section of opinions on a contractual dispute. I esp love the fellow arguing the Tolkien Trust shouldn't be entitled to what the contract specifies they are entitled to. If it was such a bad deal for New Line, they were welcome to decline to sign the contract. The trust isn't trying to renegotiate the contract after the fact, merely to ensure its provisions are fairly enforced.

We know New Line agreed to pay a share of gross receipts after certain thresholds were met and now we hear they allegedly got extremely creative with the accounting to make it look like those thresholds weren't met. We also know New Line were not strangers to creative accounting prior to this disagreement either.

I'm not at all a fan of Disney's copyright laws (protecting Micky's profits at the expense of our shared cultural heritage). I *am* however a fan of contract law and New Line needs to pony up however much they are contractually obligated to. If a judge and jury conclude they've already done so, the Tolkien Trust can bugger off back to their fallen empire to cry over crumpets and tea.

[treetroll]

If people are having so many problems with this company paying up, why do they keep going back? I'm sure Warner Brothers or Universal would jump on the chance to put out any other Tolken films. I say sue them, get out of whatever contract and look for a new studio.

[Ashley]

Another delay, wow they just keep on coming right out of the woodwork don't they? I'm starting to realize we shouldn't get our hopes up until word is announced that they've actually released a trailer, then maybe I'll let myself get excited. Maybe.

[qwerty]

150 million seems more than reasonable for such an outstanding book series. A series that comes with pre-made advertising, eager and ready audience that have read the books and are ready to watch the movies over and over again in the theaters, buy DVD's and get friends and family interested in seeing the films that otherwise wouldn't go. I hope the Trust gets what they are due and hope they get it with interest! What's the interest on 150 million a year?

[Ideas2design]

I wonder which of the “two towers” will win. Let the contract agreement speak for itself in the court of law to resolve this dispute in an ethical manner and reasonable timeframe.

[just me]

since the man himself said so in his will do me a favour i write songs for a living and my boy will get what i say. why should the film makers get everything from an idea that was written by somebody else. i hate people that get rich off the back of other peoples creativeness and claim all the fame themselves. this is nothing but a boy/girl band of the film industry.

[just me]

and please tell me why things should go to public domain when an author dies and leaves estate to his family from a deal that was broken. tolkien was a caring man that made sure his family was gonna be ok. KEEP THE CORPORATE LEECHES OUT OF THIS WORLD.....GOD DAMN CAPITALISTS!!!! SNAKES THE LOT OF THEM. you know i wonder how some of you would react if your family left you something and then somebody took it and bled it from under your nose....think on it.these people obviously have no conscience