Lord of the box office to sue over hobbit profits

[emad]

Times
By Nic Hopkins
Hollywood's highest-paid director wants a bigger share of the billions generated by his Tolkien trilogy



HE BECAME Hollywood’s highest-paid director and his films picked up 17 Oscars but the partnership between Peter Jackson and the studio with which he made The Lord of the Rings trilogy does not seem destined for a happy ending.

The director is suing New Line Cinema for a greater share of the profits from the film version of Tolkien’s books which generated $6 billion (£3 billion) in sales.

Jackson, who recently became the highest-paid director yet with a £10 million deal to remake King Kong, believes that he has been hoodwinked out of income from merchandising and video and computer games sales from the trilogy..

He is suing over money from the first of the three films, which generated $870 million at box offices in 2001 as well as hundreds of millions more from sales of DVDs, computer games and merchandise such as rubber elf ears, hobbit pipes and ornamental swords. If he wins he will be entitled to more profits from the second and third films.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1508543,00.html

[joeybee12]

1. I guess when I watched the DVD extras and it seemed like everyone

had such a great time making the films, I was wrong!

I guess he wants to be George Lucas and set up his own studio.

[aden_nak]

2. Lucas knew to secure the merchandising rights in advance.

Jackson should have followed through. Though in Lucas's day, most studios didn't give a flying frig about merchandising rights, especially on what they considered to be a "flop B movie".

[Beetwasher]

4. Jackson Would Have No Right To Do That

Lucas owned Star Wars, it was HIS idea, story and everything. LOTR is NOT Jackson's, he only directed the films. The idea belongs to the Tolkien estate.

[aden_nak]

7. Entirely true. But something could have been arranged.

Especially for a cut in his base salary for producing the trilogy. Even if it had been limited to products sold that "reflected the version of the Lord of the Rings portrayed in Jackson's films". In other words, action figures, video games, collectors items, arkwork, props, and so on, but not the books themselves, or other non-movie-based Tolkein merchandise.

[Beetwasher]

9. I Only Breifly Glimpsed the Article

But I get the feeling that what happened is Jackson probably took some points on the merchandising and what's going on is he's claiming they are "hiding" some of the merch profits from him...It all depends on his contract terms and/or whether there IS some funny bookkeeping going on with the studio.

On edit: Yup, I was right, he's alleging some bookkeeping hijinks:

"Jackson and Ms Walsh make 19 allegations, among them that New Line improperly deducted costs relating to home video, used the wrong royalty rate to compute DVD sales, charged too much for subdistribution, did not pay for use of the film’s script and a song lyric written by Ms Walsh in an accompanying video game and incorrectly valued their cut from merchandise sales."

[joeybee12]

5. True--no one thought Star Wars was gonna be anything--New Line

was really backing LOTR. Now the big difference is merchandising is where the real money can be made, and studios always take that into account before green-lighting a pic.

[Archae]

3. Suing the studios for money...

It's getting to be a Hobbit. :P

[joeybee12]

6. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

;-)

[aden_nak]

8. Sadly, that joke Rings true.

[Fenris]

10. Well, you know what they say, Hollywood can be Mordor on your wallet.

[MissMillie]

11. I guess what he got in payment

was dwarfed by the actual profits.

[Beetwasher]

12. I Think Jackson is Just Acting Like a Sauron Puss

KILL ME BEFORE I PUN AGAIN!

[MissMillie]

13. Lots of directors Arwen they file these suits....

(Oh, c'mon... this is fun!)

[Beetwasher]

15. I Think It's Selfish, It's Always Gimli, Gimli, Gimli!

Ok, that's enough! ;-)

[MissMillie]

16. They're always wanting Moria!

(sorry, I can't help myself!)

[aden_nak]

14. Jackson should Golem on the phone and talk it out peacefully.