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Someone Call Gandalf: The Fellowship of the Ring Gets Sued!

It's time to work some of that ancient magic...

By Monica Gaza, Entertainment News Editor

12th of February 2008, 14:08 GMT

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Quick, someone call... I mean, send a messenger pigeon or something to Gandalf! I think Frodo and company are in trouble again! Only this time, I doubt any amount of heroic determination will be enough to solve the matter peacefully and without any casualties. No ring... or rings, no matter how powerful, ancient, cursed or otherwise endowed can allow humans to conquer other humans in court - especially when the dispute revolves around gold... I mean, money - without at least some serious damage. But I was thinking that since Gandalf is all-powerful now (or at least he was at the end of the movie), he can make a quick comeback from his peaceful retirement and try to work his magic so that the creators of the movie won't be left completely broke at the end of the trial they have just been hit with.

The legal action I'm talking about was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. New Line Cinema, the film studio who brought the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy to life, is being sued by representatives of JRR Tolkien's estate, who claim the studio conveniently "forgot" to pay them any royalties. Now that's quite a big slip, I dare say, seeing that New Line reportedly made around six billion dollars from the world-famous blockbusters and only paid Tolkien's estate $62,500 - which, in this context, amounts to pretty much spare change. Tolkien's estate teamed up with with publisher HarperCollins and The Tolkien Trust charity and have claimed compensation and punitive damages, as well as a court order that would allow them to "terminate any rights the studio has to make films based on other Tolkien works" - including "The Hobbit".

Now this could be a problem for New Line - and quite a big one, for all that matters, seeing that the studio had already signed up Peter Jackson to make a two-film prequel to the Ring story, which would have been scheduled for release in about two years from now. A lawyer for the Tolkien Trust, admitted that his organization had "unsuccessfully tried to resolve their claims out of court. 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" he added. Well, then, fingers crossed for the Ring gang and stay tuned for more news - or else pray that a miracle elfish army comes to the defense of the studio. Stranger things have been known to happen...

TAGS:

New Line Cinema | Movie Studios | Lord of the Rings | JRR Tolkien | civil trial

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