The Hollywood studio behind a film based on The Hobbit and trustees for the estate of author J.R.R. Tolkien have settled a lawsuit that paves the way for a blockbuster based on the book, according to Reuters. Tolkien’s classic tale about Bilbo Baggins is the precursor to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was turned into a trio of box-office smashes directed by Peter Jackson. In February of 2008, the trustees of Tolkien’s estate filed a lawsuit against New Line (which, along with Entertainment Weekly, is a division of Time Warner), seeking $150 million in profits from the Rings movies, which it claimed it was owed. The suit also sought to block the filming of The Hobbit, which will be made into two films and will be directed by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth). Financial details of the settlement were not disclosed, but the author’s son, Christopher Tolkien, said in a statement, “New Line may now proceed with its proposed films of The Hobbit.”
Sep 8
2009
04:11 PM ET
Legal settlement paves way for 'Hobbit' movie
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Hopefully it will be better than the cartoon!
I liked the old Rankin and Bass movie. It wasn’t perfect and suffered from some cheap animation, but if it wasn’t for that movie I never would have read the book.
Good! Now bring on the casting announcements!
money money money, must be funny, in a rich man’s world.
Anything will be better than the cartoon I once saw. Yeah for new LOTR movies!
God bless us, everyone! This is great news for us LOTR fans!
YAY. Can’t wait to hear the casting announcements soon!
It’s about damn time. I’ve not really read the books, but the movies have been fantastic up to now. As for the cartoon movies of the book; if you watch them, they are not really that bad. Well, extremely funny with such crappy animation. I could really care less who’s in it at this point. I’m just glad the movie is back on.
Umm… why did Tolkien’s estate want money from the LOTR movies? Didn’t Tolkien sign away movie rights?
O.K Everybody sing-a-long “The- Great’est-adven’ture…”