Note: Today marks an online event for an independent film in harmony with TORn’s roots and ideals. You can find the invite right here and read background about the production below.
Jessica Mae Stover is a force of nature. She is something like a hurricane or a tornado; she is an unstoppable force fueled by her passion and her vision and her belief. She is a revolutionary, an artist, a filmmaker and she feels a strong kinship with TheOneRing.net, and the all-things-Tolkien projects we exist to cover. Continue reading “Unconventional filmmaker reaches out to TORn community”
LOS ANGELES — Members of “Lord of the Rings” creator J.R.R. Tolkien’s charitable trust won two victories in court Friday in their lawsuit against New Line Cinema claiming it is entitled to profits from the blockbuster trilogy. Trust officials allege the film company cheated them out of at least $150 million from the blockbuster movie trilogy based on the late British author’s books. The London-based Tolkien Trust filed its lawsuit Feb. 11, 2008. The most significant ruling for the Tolkien heirs during Friday’s status conference came when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ann I. Jones set a March 3 deadline for both sides to exchange documents. Deadline Issued to Produce Documents for LOTR Lawsuit
Guillermo Del Toro was recently in New York City as part of the New Yorker Festival and our good pal Anthony Moody from Indalo Productions caught up with him to talk all things Hobbit! In this first part of the interview GDT talks about his writing duties with PJ, Tom Bombadil and the possibility of a THIRD Hobbit movie(?!). Stay tuned for the second part of this interview next week! More follow later next week as well!
Kristin writes: In recent days there has been news of DreamWorks ending its distribution partnership with Paramount and signing a deal with Universal. That change is affecting both Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones and his collaboration with Steven Spielberg on the Tintin films. I’ve posted an entry on The Frodo Franchise laying out the little that is known at this point about what the effects will be.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge has barred the estate of “Lord of the Rings” author J.R.R. Tolkien from seeking punitive damages against the studio that brought the trilogy to the big screen. Tolkien’s heirs claim New Line Cinema has failed to pay any royalties from the estimated $6 billion they say the movie has grossed worldwide. The lawsuit is seeking more than $150 million in compensatory damages based on breach of contract, fraud and other claims. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ann I. Jones also ruled this week that the estate and Tolkien heirs have established a legal basis for the fraud claim against New Line. As part of that allegation, the lawsuit claims New Line sent millions of dollars to Time Warner Inc.’s AOL, improperly claiming they were for advertising expenses. The lawsuit also claims the studio built production offices and facilities in New Zealand and listed them as expenses for the “Lord of the Rings” films, although the heirs claim they are now being used for other New Line projects. Continue reading “Court: No punitive damages in ‘LOTR’ suit”
Universal LogoNikki Finke writes: I just heard that Universal has declined to exercise an option to co-finance DreamWorks’ Tintin with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson set to begin filming in October. The decision was quietly made a few weeks ago. So now DreamWorks will look only to owner Paramount for the rest of the moolah in the same way the two shared financing on Dreamgirls and Transformers. Unfortunately, Paramount is presently without an overall financing deal to mitigate risk, but is arranging it on a film-by-film basis. I say Tintin — to be played by Love Actually’s Thomas Sangster — sounds like an expensive but safe bet, considering that the beloved Belgian boy is a worldwide phenomenon, and that the two great filmmakers are directing and producing even though also participating as huge first-dollar-gross players. This latest wrinkle would be more interesting if, say, Uni’s decision hurt its about-to-become-closer relationship with DreamWorks. But it didn’t. As I already reported, GE’s Jeff Immelt and Uni’s Ron Meyer dined with Spielberg and Stacey Snider Thursday night while NBC Uni’s Jeff Zucker spent the better part of that afternoon with Steven planning out the rebuild of the fire-ravaged backlot.
Note: Today marks an online event for an independent film in harmony with TORn’s roots and ideals. You can find the invite right here and read background about the production below.
