Tolkien sues New Line... for a lot.

That's pretty outrageous that the Tolkein's haven't received any gross. No amount of creative accounting can justify that. Peter Jackson had to sick his attack dogs on them to get his share, and that was only settled because Golden Compass tanked and they needed to get The Hobbit going. Now it might get derailed again by the Tolkein's lawsuit. I hope they get every cent they deserve and then some.
 
How many of you guys have local indi-dudes wanting you to shoot and supply gear for back-end deals... I laugh my ass off at those all the time... but hell, I didn't think that back-end deals meant taking it in the back-end... even at THAT level.

Yeah, I'm sorry, but I hope they break 'em. What the heck is a lousy $62k? Pff... nothing.
 
I'm surprised they let the trilogy go for such a lousy advance. I would have fought for about ten times the amount - per property.

I've said it before, but they obviously didn't bring Patrick Swayze with them to the negotiations. You should always bring Patrick Swayze (the one from Road House).


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It seems like New Line has some very sleazy management. This is ridiculous. Part of it is the government's fault for allowing companies to practice these ridiculous accounting procedures. New Line can, for instance, say they're going to come out with a huge HI-Def release on both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD (even though HD-DVD will probably be gone in a few weeks) and add on the expenses of creating those discs, adding extras, marketing them. They can even go as far as to say they're going to create a new ten minute short story about where Hobbits come from, and add all those "projected" costs onto their reports, saying that that (and the 100 other things they're "projecting they might do) is what's offsetting "official profits". Of course none of these things require them to project what they'll make from these endeavors. So ridiculous it makes me sick.
 
Isn't Saul Zaentz the guy who wouldn't give John Fogerty any royalties to his CCR songs? I think he sued Fogerty for "plaigerizing himself" because his new songs sounded too much like the ones Zaentz owned the rights to. I can understand screwing him over..but give the Tolkeins a break
 
It figures they are owned by Time Warner. Can one expect any less?

I hope the Tolkien Estate nails New Line to the wall. It would be a shame for us Tolkien fans to be deprived of "The Hobbit" as well.
 
c.g._eads said:
It seems like New Line has some very sleazy management. This is ridiculous. Part of it is the government's fault for allowing companies to practice these ridiculous accounting procedures. New Line can, for instance, say they're going to come out with a huge HI-Def release on both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD (even though HD-DVD will probably be gone in a few weeks) and add on the expenses of creating those discs, adding extras, marketing them. They can even go as far as to say they're going to create a new ten minute short story about where Hobbits come from, and add all those "projected" costs onto their reports, saying that that (and the 100 other things they're "projecting they might do) is what's offsetting "official profits".
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I don't have an issue with that -- writing off expenses for tax purposes is perfectly justifiable. Which, I would think, is why the agreement mentioned would have them paying on gross receipts -- meaning before expenses. So all of the creative accounting won't help them...
 
Despicable. Disgusting. Revolting. I want to call them a bunch of *words worse and more colorful than the auto sensor would catch*

The judge should determine what figure it would take to bankrupt / shutdown new line and award that figure or what the plaintiffs are asking, whichever is greater.
 
The decision to give away the rights to LOTR for 62,000 dollars ranks right up there in the annals of boneheaded Hollywood financial moves with James Cameron giving up all his salary and profit points on Titanic when it went over budget, and 20th Century Fox giving George Lucas all merchandising rights to Star Wars...The Tolkein's should take heart though in Stan Lee's victory over Marvel, where he sued for 10 percent of the profits from the Spider-Man films and won.
 
If it was paying on gross then what's the problem here? New Line doesn't have a leg to stand on.

As far as why "projected costs" don't work is because you can make anything a projected cost. You could say you're going to re-touch up the entire movie with newer CGI technology in three years and that it will cost 50 million dollars. There's clearly too much wiggle room in that area and it allows companies to rip people off.
 
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Batutta said:
The decision to give away the rights to LOTR for 62,000 dollars ranks right up there in the annals of boneheaded Hollywood financial moves with James Cameron giving up all his salary and profit points on Titanic when it went over budget, and 20th Century Fox giving George Lucas all merchandising rights to Star Wars...The Tolkein's should take heart though in Stan Lee's victory over Marvel, where he sued for 10 percent of the profits from the Spider-Man films and won.
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Well it was 1969, that was upfront money against returns, or just an option, and at the time the movies were thought to be unproducible except in animated form.

This is by no means a scientific inflation formula, but my mom told me when she started teaching in 1972 that she made $7K a year. So maybe now a starting teacher salary is $35k, so that would mean $70 grand would be like $350 grand. Not bad for an "unproducible" property in live action, when adult animated films had not yet been proven and are still more of a risk than family animated movies.
 
This is ridiculous. I agree in hoping that the Tolkien estate nails New Line to the wall. You would think for a trilogy of this scale, the originator wouldn't be the one screwed. Absolutely disgusting.

-Kegan
 
Oh wow... That's just a whole new low. I didn't even know that Jack. Even more despicable.

-Kegan
 
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