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Lord of the Rings studio sued by JRR Tolkien’s estate

Thursday, 14 February 2008

Lord of the Rings studio sued by JRR Tolkien’s estate

New Line Cinema, the film studio behind the Lord of the Rings series of movies, is being sued for $150m (£76.8m) by JRR Tolkien's estate on the grounds that no royalties were paid.

A legal action filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by JRR Tolkien’s representatives claims that nothing has been received from the $6bn (£3bn) made by the Lord of the Rings films, and further alleges that New Line Cinema only paid it an upfront fee of $62,500 (£32,000).

JRR Tolkien's estate, as well as the publisher HarperCollins and The Tolkien Trust charity, has claimed compensation and damages.

The JRR Tolkien estate have also applied for a court order to allow them to terminate any rights the studio have to make films based on other works by the celebrated fantasy author, including The Hobbit.

Steven Maier, a lawyer for the UK-based Tolkien Trust, said: "New Line has not paid the plaintiffs even one penny of its contractual share of gross receipts, despite the billions of dollars of gross revenue generated by these wildly successful motion pictures."

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