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Tolkien Trust Sues New Line, May Kill "Hobbit"
oboreruhito writes "The AP is reporting that the Tolkien Trust and HarperCollins are suing New Line Cinema for $150 million in compensatory damages, unspecified punitive damages, and a court order revoking New Line's rights to produce any more films on Tolkien properties. The Tolkien Trust says that New Line paid them only $62,500 to make 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy of films — instead of the agreed-upon 7.5 percent of gross receipts of all film-related revenue. The suit may set back, if not kill, a film adaptation of Lord of the Rings prequel 'The Hobbit,' which Peter Jackson had recently signed up to make after his own legal row with the studio over payment for the sequels."
Jackson himself only got paid after he sued New Line
Not exactly. He had already been paid quite a bit, but not nearly as much as they owed him.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
IIRC the issue at stake was the fact that New Line struck "sweetheart deals" on much of the "tie-in revenues" which PJ was owed a piece of according to his contract; however, because these deals were struck with subsidiaries of New Line and/or New Lines's parent company, the overall $$ "New Line" (as opposed to the subsidiaries) the $$ that could have been made on those licenses - i.e. this was a shady way for the greater company surrounding New Line to move profits from the "New Line" section of the accounts (a %of which is owed to the cast and crew) while keeping it within the overall company.
No, but he co-wrote the screenplay, directed and co-edited all three films(at the same time) and helped set up a company specifically to do the special effects. For him, it was a 10 year project, 24/7(literally). Watch the extras and you'll see he basically lived the film for the entire project. It was only because he put so much effort into it that the film was such a great success, or even got off the ground at all.
America, Home of the Brave.
Not true. jackson got paid according to his contract. However, his contract did not specify that he should get a percentage of the "tie in revenues" (games, toys etc.) He sued New Line to get a piece of that as well.
I believe it went something like this (numbers made up):
Jackson gets x% of the profit from New Line Pictures.
New Line Pictures sells the DVD rights to New Line DVD for $0.50 a copy. Open market bidding would've resulted in a price of $10 a copy.
New Line Parent Company makes tons of money on the DVDs. But Jackson's contract was with New Line Pictures, who barely made any money at all off the DVDs, so Jackson gets very little money.
There were probably other similar items involved, but DVDs is the one I remember specifically.
That's what you think. By selling the distribution rights to a subsidiary below cost, New Line was able to show a loss on the movie while their subsidiary was showing gangbuster profits. Since the contract was with New Line rather than the subsidiary, the result is that they didn't have to pay out any royalties.
So sorry. Maybe the next film will do better? Just sign here on the dotted line and we promise cross our hearts that the next film will show a profit. Really.
I almost guarantee that the judge will take New Line to the cleaners for such accounting. It won't change anything, though, as the studios count on it being too costly to go through a court battle to recover the money you're owed. An occasional loss in court still brings them out ahead.
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