http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080211/ap_en_ot/tolkien_lawsuit_3 And they are trying to dissolve any future collaboration including "The Hobbit".
Are they at it again? I thought Newline's rep couldn't get any lower when Jackson accused them of failing to accurately distribute the earnings from 'Rings... I don't know about the paucity of their claims, but it's a big embarrassment for Newline nonetheless.
Since New Line has a long history of being a good company and doing things for the fans, I have to see this pan out before I comment.
I want to see the Hobbit made, but damn, they need to pay these people. Is Pat Lee running New Line secretly?
They had the foresight to make the movies due to the mass amount of potential profit and now play dumb about paying thefair share of what is owed? By contract? Are the exects at NL just stupid or what? They wouldn't even have had that money without the rights. These guys are just greedy trolls. Seriously, I hope that they lose the rights. Give them to another company. Hell, I bet Jackson would walk on over to the new company and Produce/Direct them too.
Figures. They just get things going with the Hobbit and now this happens. Luckily, MGM has rights to the Hobbit, as well, so this might not be such a blow to the films as we might think. As far as New Line is concerned, Bob Shaye is the one mainly responsible for the studio's problems in regards to Lord of the Rings and the monies that are owed. He's a typical tightwad in a suit, who has no gratitude whatsoever for the people who made Lord of the Rings in the first place, whether it be Jackson who made the films or Tolkien who wrote the books. Thankfully, his contract won't be renewed this year and he'll be shown the door. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
It's not like I have any insight to the details of New Line's workings, but they can only be accused of world-class shadiness so many times before I start to suspect they might be guilty. In this case, the magic number was two.
If MGM takes the full rights and put Jackson as Director it would be perfect. Anyway judging by both Jackson and the Tolkein estate getting involved, New Line is probably guilty. Though I wonder why the Tolkein estate took so long to get involved.
Srsly...LOTR brought in more money than like..every other New Line movie in the past decade combined. Wha's their pro'lem, mang?
Except that Jackson said he doesn't want/have the time to direct it. He signed on the Executive Produce though.
Who knows? Perhaps they were waiting out the New Line/Jackson row to see how that came out before spending on the lawyers...
It says right in the article that they have tried unsuccessfully to settle the issue out of court. Now they are taking it to court. Do people not read the links?
I see what you did there. I saw Peter Jackson one time. He was at EB buying xbox games. I didn't realise it was him until the clerk said his name (he paid with a credit card). He had lost a lot of weight. I say they should get his cheap Mexican equivalent to direct. I am, of course, talking about Guillermo del Toro.
I was going to but I had to get to sleep. Really? I did not know he had said that. I knew that he signed on to executive produce but didn't know something was keeping him from the Directors chair.
