as much as I hate s**t like this thing we call money, give people credit for important stuff before you do this.

i hate hollywood.

I can't imagine how New Line thought they would get away with this. I would think that there would be a contract in place BEFORE development even started! I'd be very, very interested to hear New Line's side of this story... but I imagine they'll decline to comment at all.

Damn you Disney!

I don't see how they waited this long to file suit. I applaud their faith in New Line, I would not have been able to do that. And yes, I would definitely like to hear what the heck New Line was thinking, they didn't pay Jackson the amount he was promised either.

New Line's gotta be the greediest studio in Hollywood ... and that's saying something.

I hope they get taken to the cleaners...and then thrown into the fires of Mt.Doom...

what a scuzzy bunch of scuzzwhores.

Most likely the time was being taken up with letters to and from various lawyers and negotiations (or lack thereof). They probably were offered X as a settlement and rejected it for a Y counter offer. Rinse. Repeat. Once all avenues had been exhausted, they filed suit.

The act of filing a suit is bad for BOTH sides, not just New Line. I am certain that this was the absolute final last resort and they tried over the past years to get it resolved without filing.

The Tolkien Trust has also applied for permission to revoke New Lines rights to make further movies based on their fathers work. In other words, The Hobbit which was due to be started later in the year for a 2010 release.

According to The Hobbit Movie this is the last straw for Time/Warner who own New Line and heads are about to roll.

New Line have made a right hash of things right from the moment they got involved in the LOTR.

They have been sued by the company they aquired the movie rights from, by the person who made them the movies (Jackson), by movie extras and now by the authors family.