As we mentioned last year, the heirs of author J.R.R. Tolkein sued New Line Cinema after they were stiffed over $150 MILLION from the profits of the Lord of The Rings films.
New Line Cinema purchased the rights in 1978 and promised to give Tolkein’s trust 7.5% of the profits. But since that never happened, the heirs and HarperCollins took the issue to court.
And finally there’s some good news.
Both sides reached a settlement yesterday according to a statement from Warner Bros.
The statement obviously didn’t mention how much the settlement was for, but we’re guessing New Line had to pay out some big bucks.
As for the Tolkiens, one of the heirs, Christopher Tolkien, stated, “The trustees regret that legal action was necessary but are glad that this dispute has been settled on satisfactory terms that will allow the Tolkien Trust properly to pursue its charitable objectives.”
Good news for them and good news for the movie execs since they’ve been planning on releasing two new films based on The Hobbit.