Tolkien Estate and New Line Settlement Leaves Way Clear For The Hobbit Movies
Published on: 8th September, 2009
Tolkien Estate and New Line Settlement Leaves Way Clear For The Hobbit Movies | Related News
The lawsuit that threatened the making of The Hobbit movies has been settled out of court according to a press release signed by both parties.
The lawsuit had been hanging over the head of The Hobbit as The Tolkien Trust asked the courts to rescind the rights to any further movies based on the works of Tolkien over monies still owed from The Lord of the Rings movies.
Tolkien’s heirs sued New Line Cinema in February 2008, claiming the studio owed it millions in profits from the movies released between 2001 and 2003. The movies earned an estimated $6 billion in sales of movie tickets, DVDs and merchandise.
The terms of the deal are being kept private.
Warner Bros. took over New Line in March 2008 and their entertainment chief operating officer, Alan Horn said:
“We deeply value the contributions of the Tolkien novels to the success of our films and are pleased to have put this litigation behind us.”
Christopher Tolkien, the authors Son and trustee of The Tolkien Trust based in the UK said that the lawsuit had been regrettable but that the trust is happy the dispute has been settled on satisfactory terms that will allow The Tolkien Trust to properly pursue its charitable objectives.
Bonnie Eskenazi, an attorney who handled the lawsuit for the Tolkien estate, said the settlement vindicated the heirs and will touch more than just movie audiences.
The Tolkien Trust claimed to have received an upfront payment of just $62,500 before work began on The Lord of the Rings trilogy with the promise of a further 7.5% of any and all future gross sales which was never paid.
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Good. In that case, they better get cracking on the script. About time we got some real information about the movie.
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This is excellent news. The world of Tolkien is so vast and large, the stories seem endless whether in movie or game form there is so much for the imagination. I say let it begin!
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