Lord of the Rings fans, rejoice: Warner Bros. has reached a settlement with the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien over who owns the film rights to the story, and now production can start on The Hobbit, the prequel to the series that has been a massive success both as a series of books and as a series of movies.
The trouble started in February of 2008 when Tolkien's heirs sued Warner Bros.' New Line Cinema arm, accusing the company of shortchanging the estate on royalties. The suit sought in excess of $150 million and sought to rescind the studio's right to make Lord of the Rings movies. Bonnie Eskenazi, an attorney for the Tolkien estate, told the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) that while $150 million was the initial claim, "that demand increased after we got closer to a trial because discovery revealed additional financial impropriety."
It's very, very, very unusual for a lawyer to make a substantive comment about a case -- especially one that hints at financial terms -- after a case has been settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. New Line cinema gave a more appropriate "no comment" and expressed excitement about the continuation of the series. I somehow doubt that they're overly pleased with Ms. Eskenazi.
On the other hand, her comments are helpful for followers of the Lord of the Rings legal drama. The implication would seem to be that the settlement involved a material amount of cash but, of course, we'll never know just how much.
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