The Energon Pub

http://reporter.blogs.com/thresq/2008/02/tolkien-estate.html

Today, the estate of "Rings" author J.R.R. Tolkien and original publisher HarperCollins filed suit against New Line, the studio that brought the book series to screen, claiming New Line failed to pay 7.5 percent of gross receipts from the films, which netted an estimated $6 billion combined worldwide.

The plaintiffs want more than $150 million in damages as well as a court order giving the Tolkien estate the right to terminate any rights New Line may have to make films based on other works by the author, including "The Hobbit." That film, you'll recall, was green-lighted after New Line settled its long-running accounting dispute with director Peter Jackson. Original rights holder Saul Zaentz has also expressed displeasure at New Line from time to time.

Yep....there goes any hope of The Hobbit actually getting done.

I should sue the Tolkien estate for $50 million for denying me the movie of the book I loved as a kid.

Senor Hugo wrote:I should sue the Tolkien estate for $50 million for denying me the movie of the book I loved as a kid.

I should sue them for making me want to read 1000 pages of PAIN.

Though I wonder what this means for LOTRO...

Senor Hugo wrote:Yep....there goes any hope of The Hobbit actually getting done.

I should sue the Tolkien estate for $50 million for denying me the movie of the book I loved as a kid.

heh, make me co-complainant for that matter. i believe The Hobbit is more suited for the big screen since the story's more compact and everything is wrapped up in one book.

and oh, i really loved this to death, i believe i was still in 4th grade when i finished this book (while my schoolmates were still on Nancy Drews and Sweet Valley Twins... *snort*). that's like a freaky long time ago.

sheesh, what's up with their family? it's almost as if they didn't receive a single penny off the proceeds.

Shadowman wrote:

Senor Hugo wrote:I should sue the Tolkien estate for $50 million for denying me the movie of the book I loved as a kid.

I should sue them for making me want to read 1000 pages of PAIN.

Though I wonder what this means for LOTRO...

Sorry Shadow, you can't sue them for something you chose to do.

It should mean nothing for LOTRO as long as they pay royalites from every copy and expansion sold and subscription sold. LOTRO follows the books, not the films. This seems directed only at New Line. The estate only wants rights to terminate the Hobbit movies and nothing about the videogame.

This will probably be settled out of court. New Line can afford to pay the royalites given they'll get more from the Hobbit movies than they lost. They've wanted to do the Hobbit dince ROTK finished and finally got the green light. If they were smart enough, they wouldn't let their greed trip them up again. I'd say just pay them what they want. It's not worth losing even more money than whats was already spent going throught he trouble of greenlighting the film just to lose the rights because they didn't fulfil their part of the contract.

Still, the Tolkien family are entitled to their royalties. I don't think they did get a penny judging by the looks of things. Disney did the same crap with Peter Pan and got away with it. The family cares for the good professor's works and none of them saw the movies, save one who was subsequently cut off from inheiritence for doing so.

Roadbuster wrote:

Shadowman wrote:

Senor Hugo wrote:I should sue the Tolkien estate for $50 million for denying me the movie of the book I loved as a kid.

I should sue them for making me want to read 1000 pages of PAIN.

Though I wonder what this means for LOTRO...

Sorry Shadow, you can't sue them for something you chose to do.

Sorry, I should have added a " " emoticon.

Shadowman wrote:Though I wonder what this means for LOTRO...

Nothing. As long as LOTRO gives the Tolien estate a large chunk of money for every copy sold.

You would think that the Tolkien estate would be more or less happy with increased book sales due to the movie releases, as well as the general appreciation of Tolkiens work. But we all know how greedy Christopher Tolkien is.

i_amtrunks wrote:

Shadowman wrote:Though I wonder what this means for LOTRO...

Nothing. As long as LOTRO gives the Tolien estate a large chunk of money for every copy sold.

And it IS Midway. They have enough money pocketed from Mortal Kombat to pay that off.

i_amtrunks wrote:You would think that the Tolkien estate would be more or less happy with increased book sales due to the movie releases, as well as the general appreciation of Tolkiens work. But we all know how greedy Christopher Tolkien is.

I can't help but imagine the Tolkien Family as the real-life version of the Corleones from The Godfather.

Christopher is Michael. CS Lewis is Luca Brasi.

Are the Tolkein family members rich? I wonder how much they did get from the movies. Maybe they got 7%, and are disputing the 5%? Or maybe it's a matter of whether the worldwide figures were calculated properly? There are lots of reasons for me to wonder who is really at fault.

Rogue. wrote:Are the Tolkein family members rich? I wonder how much they did get from the movies. Maybe they got 7%, and are disputing the 5%? Or maybe it's a matter of whether the worldwide figures were calculated properly? There are lots of reasons for me to wonder who is really at fault.

Considering JRR Tolkien wrote some of the longest-lasting, high-end High Fantasy book of ever, that has held up without having an "Updated" version, I think they have some change to spare.

Bram Stoker was not so lucky. What's that? You're character is used by fifteen thousand different companies...per week? Yeah.