Geek Entertainment News and Commentary

Christopher Tolkien to New Line, “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!”

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 10:21 am by Jami

New Line’s accounting practices may bite them in the ass yet again. Christopher Tolkien, son of Lord of the Rings and Hobbit scribe JRR Tolkien, is taking New Line to court to stop The Hobbit and sequel movies. According to a 1969 deal that JRR Tolkien signed for a 7.5% share of profits when he sold the movie rights to his works, Christopher Tolkien claims that New Line owes the family £80 million (approximately $156 million USD) for profits from the LOTR films. Tolkien takes New Line to court on June 6.

Well fuck.

Jackson won his day in court for similar fuck upery with New Line’s accounting. And if the judge upholds the 1969 agreement, and I can’t see why it wouldn’t still be valid, New Line is again screwed. It’s clear that Chris won’t settle for a simple pay day. He wants the movies shut down.

I don’t get it. I mean, I get the money part. That sucks. New Line should fucking well pay up. But it’s clear that the LOTR movies are well loved by new and old Tolkien fans alike. There’s so much anticipation for The Hobbit, so much excitement surrounding the pairing of Del Torro and Jackson, so much money to be made (devastatingly HUGE amounts of money). Why the attack on fandom? Why deny fandom something so potentially amazing? If anything, fandom has kept Tolkien’s works alive. Plus, Chris is 83 fuck years old! The hell is he going to do with all that money?

Ugh. We’ll just have to wait and see.

[Via Times Online]

7 Responses to “Christopher Tolkien to New Line, “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!””

greg
Posted: May 28th, 2008 at 10:26 am

Idunno what he’s going to do with it, but I should look into his having 20-something female relatives who might be in line for the inheritance!

Leto
Posted: May 28th, 2008 at 2:17 pm

From what I’ve heard, Christopher’s claim is really a last ditch effort that doesn’t hold much water. The Hobbit is still going to be made unless the judge disregards all the huge legal and financial rammifications. New Line may have to pay up, but I don’t think the kill order for Hobbit will go through.

Taellosse
Posted: May 28th, 2008 at 2:40 pm

Given when the original movie rights deal was signed, it’s really unlikely Christopher has any say in the movies being made at all–most film rights based on book properties in the 60s were like that–the seller generally retained zero creative control, so long as they were paid, and depending on how the wording was handled, maybe not even then.

But from all I know of him, which admittedly isn’t much, Christopher Tolkien is basically a jerk, which is probably why he’s being quite this pissy. I agree, he ought to get paid his due, but this goes beyond that.

Of course, if JRR had retained the rights and were still alive today, it is doubtful he’d ever sell them at all–he did it then for the cash, not because he would want his stories made into movies. From what I know of him, he was basically a luddite before the term was coined–he wouldn’t approve too much of the movies, no matter how well done they are, because they support a high-tech lifestyle he advocated against.

Kunoichi
Posted: May 29th, 2008 at 6:36 am

While the movies use a lot of tech - most of the best effects are low-tech. I’m not sure Tolkien would have been against the movies near as much as Christopher is. After all, he *did* give Christopher Lee his blessing to play Gandalf if a movie was ever made. Given how passionate Christopher Lee is about LotR, I somehow doubt he would participate in a movie that he believed would violate Tolkien’s wishes. Also, given that he wrote LotR to be a new tale of the world (like Gilgamesh and Roland and the like), and wanted very much for it to be a familiar text to all, I think he might have recognized that current society just isn’t much for reading until they get inspired to by movies and the like.

Christopher is a curmudgeon who likely hates living in his father’s shadow, yet knows he can’t really create anything half as good and so clings viciously to his father’s work.

Rafa
Posted: May 29th, 2008 at 8:34 am

‘From what I’ve heard, Christopher’s claim is really a last ditch effort that doesn’t hold much water.’

That’s Mr. Tolkien to you, and you’ve heard wrong. The movie rights for ‘The Hobbit’ are much murkier than those for the Lord of the Rings… and there is a small chance the Tolkien Estate could win them back.

‘Christopher is a curmudgeon who likely hates living in his father’s shadow, yet knows he can’t really create anything half as good and so clings viciously to his father’s work.’

No offense to Jami or this blog, but shut your hole. Try doing some research before shooting your mouth off about a man you know nothing about.