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The Hobbit On Hold
Flea of Pain writes "Director Guillermo Del Toro has confirmed upcoming Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit has been put on hold indefinitely because the movie has been caught in a 'tangled negotiation' over the future of the MGM movie studio. The film, based on J.R.R. Tolkien's first book in the fantasy series, was reportedly due to begin shooting this summer, but has been mired in delays. Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, who will act as producer on the new film, recently dismissed rumors of trouble with the picture, insisting, 'It's not really been delayed, because we've never announced the date.'"
Now what will I do?
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
Bond 23 has also been delayed because of MGM's legal issues. http://www.imdb.com/news/ni2143090/
I was looking forward to seeing Mr. Craig shoot some guns, drive some fast cars, and flirt with some girls.
Given Jackson's track record with LOTR the Hobbit movies are worth a couple billion dollars in revenue. There is absolutely no possibility they won't get made. There have been several fits of "on hold" while the rights were negotiated with the Tolkiens. There will be more "on hold" moments while more parties wrangle for their cut. In the end it will make it to the screen because everyone, absolutely everyone, wants this.
Lurking at the bottom of the gravity well, getting old
They can't wait too long. Ian McKellen just turned 71.
an audience.
years. The copy copyright was in 1937, 28 years, plus a possible 47 year extension. 75 years Max and assuming the filed properly.
2012 it expires. Seems to me the Tolkien estate should suck whatever blood they can get from our culture now.
The Renewal System
Under the 1909 copyright law, works copyrighted in the United States before
January 1, 1978, were subject to a renewal system in which the term of copyright
was divided into two consecutive terms. Renewal registration, within strict time
limits, was required as a condition of securing the second term and extending
the copyright to its maximum length.
On January 1, 1978, the current copyright law (title 17 of the United States
Code) came into effect in the United States. This law retained the renewal
system for works that were copyrighted before 1978 and were still in their first
terms on January 1, 1978. For these works the statute provides for a first term of
copyright protection lasting for 28 years, with the possibility for a second term
of 47 years. The 1992 amending legislation automatically secures this second
term for works copyrighted between January 1, 1964, and December 31, 1977.
The Hobbit was published in 1937. It had to be extende withing 28 year. 1965 at the latest.
The second extension is for 47 years. meaning the second, and final extension shoud ahve ended in 2007.
note: If a copyright originally secured before January 1, 1964, was not renewed at
the proper time, copyright protection expired at the end of the 28th calendar year
of the copyright and could not be restored.
Some of the first runs didn't even have a copyright mark, so one could argue the copyright is invalad. You would need to be a dick to argue that.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
however, jackson did a good job with the trilogy.
Elf shield surfing.
Dwarf tossing jokes.
Rewriting parts of the story to make it 'more exciting'.
Let's just say that he did ok, hmmm?
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
In life+50 countries like Canada, it will be 2024 (it becomes PD Jan 1 of the year after the 50th anniversary of the death), but in the US, since it was copyrighted under the rules in place then, with the extensions (geekoid forgot about the 20 year extension in 1998), the copyright will expire in 2033. In the UK and EU and many other countries where it is life+70, it will be PD in 2044. This is all assuming the terms aren't extended yet again.
I'm glad they've put a stop to it too.
Fucking Aragorn in the Hobbit. [...]
I knew Bilbo lived alone and never married, and took a young hobbit into his underground home to be his ward, but I thought the Batman parallels ended there. And wasn't Batman really straight anyway? I thought that the "Batman is gay" thing was a joke. And Aragorn is in love with Arwen. No, no. None of this adds up at all!