So Little Time, So Many People to Sue
There are a couple of unfortunate lawsuits in the news right now.
Just as The Hobbit was headed smoothly toward two profitable (and most likely excellent) movies under the directorship of Guillermo del Toro, the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien has sued New Line Cinema for over $150 million plus punitive damages, claiming that they didn’t get enough money from the blockbuster trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Fine.
How does this affect The Hobbit films? The estate also seeks the right to take other Tolkien works (The Hobbit included) elsewhere. I am sure the movie(s) will eventually be made, but if anyone other than New Line takes the helm, it will introduce delays and the chance that the finished product won’t have the same tone as the LOTR.
In other news, Fox has sued Warner Bros., seeking to halt plans to release a 2009 film version of Alan Moore’s (most definitely excellent) graphic novel Watchmen.
It’s the usual chain-of-ownership confusion, but in a nutshell, Fox believes that they have held the film rights since the late 80s and now want Warner Bros. to compensate them appropriately - or halt production.
Via /Film and SuperHeroHype
