New Line founder Bob Shaye shows no signs of yielding in the company’s legal squabble with Peter Jackson over profits from “The Lord of the Rings.” In a conversation at AmPav on Tuesday with Variety editor-in-chief Peter Bart, Shaye said the company had already paid Jackson and his wife, Fran Walsh, $250 million in profit participation. The clash happened because “one of us has gotten poor counsel,” Shaye said, without elaborating. Co-chief Michael Lynne struck a more upbeat note. “We do want to settle our dispute and I think we will.” A “Hobbit” pic is still in the plans, both execs were coy about reports that Sam Raimi is being lined up to direct. “There’s never been any announcement,” Lynne said. “Like a lot of people, he might,” Shaye added. [More]
Category: Hobbit Movie
The Royal Shakespeare Company productions of King Lear and The Seagull — both starring Ian McKellen and directed by Trevor Nunn — will arrive at the West End’s New London Theatre Nov. 12. News of the transfer comes just before the delayed press performance of McKellen’s Lear, which will be shown to the critics as a matinee, followed by an evening performance of The Seagull, in which McKellen plays Sorin. The Shakespeare and Chekhov plays will run in repertory at Stratford-upon-Avon’s Courtyard Theatre until June 23. The RSC made the decision to postpone the original April 3 press night of King Lear after Frances Barber, who plays Goneril, sustained a knee injury in a bicycle accident. [More]
Writer/director Sam Raimi confirmed to SCI FI Wire that he has spoken with New Line Cinema honcho Robert Shaye about helming The Hobbit, a Lord of the Rings prequel film based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s book, but only once and only informally. “I spoke to him once, so it’s a little more overblown, I think,” Raimi said in a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., over the weekend while promoting his upcoming Spider-Man 3. “That’s why I don’t want to pretend that it’s bigger than it is. I had one conversation about the possibility of it, and that’s really where it’s at.” As for his interest in the film, Raimi repeated that he would only sign on with the OK of Peter Jackson, the Rings director who has been blacklisted by New Line as a result of a lawsuit over Rings revenues. “I’d have to know that he was OK with it,” Raimi said. “It’s really his picture and Bob Shaye’s picture.” [More]
Today is Ian McKellen’s Birthday! Sir Ian was born on May 25th, 1939 in Lancashire, England. That makes him 68 years old today, happy birthday Ian!
Orlando Bloom seems to be shying away from playing the great elf Legolas in “The Hobbit,” that is unless his original “Lord of the Rings” helmer is behind the camera. “Who’s directing it, Peter Jackson?” he mockingly answered when asked about the possibility. Yes, we know that Legolas isn’t technically in “The Hobbit,” and to his eternal credit, Bloom knows this as well. But dedicated “Rings” fans know that Legolas is an elf from the realm of Mirkwood, a kingdom Bilbo Baggins and his dwarf companions get captured in towards the end of “The Hobbit,” imprisoned there by the Elvenking Thranduil. [More]