And they thought pirates were bad…
by T. Colin Dodd
You just don’t mess with Hobbits. You don’t take their rings, and you definitely don’t trifle with their IP.
The trustees of The Tolkien Trust, a British charity, have filed an action against New Line Cinema for its failure to pay a contractually required gross profit participation in the three films based on the world-famous Lord of the Rings trilogy. The trustees of the estate of JRR Tolkien and HarperCollins Publishers are co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The suit was filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The Lord of the Rings films produced by New Line are among the most financially successful films ever created by Hollywood and were released in 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively. The cumulative worldwide gross receipts to date total nearly $6 billion. Notwithstanding the overwhelming financial success of the films, and the fact that the plaintiffs have a gross participation in each of the films, New Line has failed to pay the plaintiffs any portion of the gross profit participation at all.
February 14th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I’m not quite certain I understand what point is being made, and what relevance these tags have … who is downloading what, and where is the shame in it?
I do see how this is relevant, in that it demonstrates the unscrupulousness of the big movie-making companies … much like how the RIAA refuses to pay the artists more than a pittance. I’m given to understand that Peter Jackson had to sue New Line Cinemas to get what he was supposed to get, too. But is that the point you were trying to make?