The estate of "Lord of the Rings" creator J.R.R. Tolkien is suing the film studio that released the trilogy based on his books, claiming the company hasn't paid it a penny from the estimated $6 billion the films have grossed worldwide.Fox sues Warner over rights to currently filming Watchmen [Link]The suit, filed Monday, claims New Line was required to pay 7.5 percent of gross receipts to Tolkien's estate and other plaintiffs, who contend they only received an upfront payment of $62,500 for the three movies before production began.
The writer's estate, a British charity dubbed The Tolkien Trust, and original "Lord of the Rings" publisher HarperCollins filed the lawsuit against New Line Cinema in Los Angeles Superior Court. If successful, it could block the long-awaited prequel to the films.
Robert Pini, a spokesman for Time Warner Inc.'s New Line, declined to comment.
What the heck is it with lawsuits this week? First it's the Tolkien estate attacking New Line, now it's Fox attacking Warner Brothers. If you know me well enough, you probably know exactly what I'm going to say about this before we even begin. Fox filed suit on Friday against Warner Brothers, claiming they have the rights to develop, produce, and distribute a film based on Watchmen. Interesting thing to note: DC Comics, who published (and therefore owns the real rights to) Watchmen, is a subsidiary of Warner Brothers Entertainment and has been since 1969. Oh Fox, let's just admit you've already lost this case.
Fox's lawsuit seeks to "restrain (Warner Bros. Pictures) from taking actions that violate Fox's copyrights and which stand to forever impair Fox's rights to control the distribution and development of this unique work." In essence, this would shut down production on the film. They claim that between 1986 and 1990, they acquired all movie rights to the 12-issue DC Comics series and screenplays by Charles McKeown and Sam Hamm. That's not it though, things aren't that streak-free here.
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