Just when it's about ready to rock, with Peter Jackson as executive producer and Guillermo Del Toro as helmer, The Hobbit has run into troubled waters. In the latest twist of events, the Tolkien estate is suing New Line Cinema for failing to pay a contractual share of the gross profits from the Lord Of The Rings trilogy films.
Apart from the $150 million in compensatory damages, the estate is also seeking a court order that would give it "the right to terminate any rights New Line may have to make films based on other works by the author, including The Hobbit."
Which means the fate of The Hobbit hangs in the balance right now.
Newline is in a state of Flux at the moment, so say all the trade and business magazines. Personally, if the Hobbit is never made, I won't be terribly upset. It's nothing like the LotR trilogy and I think the studio would have tried to shoehorn it into the formula for more $$$. I'd rather see del Toro make more personal and interesting projects for 1/4 of the money.
Couldn't agree more.
Absolutely. Give him the money to do another original project, or to actually film At The Mountains of Madness.
This whole two movie Hobbit idea sounded sketchy anyhow.
New Line using the old Hollywood accounting tricks.
IMHO i think the hobbit would be almost a kind of boring film. and yes, guillermo should get busy doing mountains and stop wasting time on other crap, however, i feel that carpenter should do mountains instead.