Posted on 11/20/2006 11:37:38 PM PST by MadIvan
He is the flamboyant director whose The Lord of the Rings trilogy picked up 17 Oscars. But Peter Jackson has been cast out of Middle Earth after a row over profits from the $4 billion-plus (£2.1 billion) franchise.
Fans of the fantasy films were dismayed by an e-mail, detailing a dispute between Jackson and the New Line film studio, which the New Zealander sent to a website devoted to matters Tolkien.
It contained explosive news that the most lucrative franchise in Hollywood history after Star Wars will return with a Lord of the Rings prequel. A big-budget version of The Hobbit is also set for production.
But Jackson, a devoted Tolkien fan who battled to bring his vision of Rings to the screen, will not be involved. The director said that he had been removed from the project by New Line. “We have always assumed that we would be asked to make The Hobbit and possibly this second film, back to back, as we did the original movies,” Jackson’s e-mail to TheOneRing.net fansite read.
Meetings with executives were planned. But Jackson said that last week New Line called his manager to tell him that the company “would no longer be requiring our services on The Hobbit and the prequel”.
New Line was “actively looking to hire another filmmaker for both projects”. This outcome was “not what we anticipated or wanted”, he added. Jackson said New Line would not allow him to make the films unless he first dropped a lawsuit demanding a greater share of the trilogy’s profits.
Matt Dravitzki, Jackson’s assistant at Wingnut films in New Zealand, confirmed that the e-mail was genuine. New Line declined to comment last night, but industry sources said that the company was seeking alternative directors.
Jackson, who earned $200 million from the franchise, according to his lawyers, believes that he is due millions more from merchandising, video and computer games sales income.
According to the Jackson e-mail, the film company used the lure of directing two new Tolkien films as leverage to put the lawsuit to one side. He wrote: “Our manager, Ken Kamins, got a call from the co-president of New Line, Michael Lynne, who in essence told Ken that the way to settle the lawsuit was to get a commitment from us to make The Hobbit, because ‘that’s how these things are done’.
“Michael Lynne said we would stand to make much more money if we tied the lawsuit and the movie deal together, and this may well be true. But it’s still the worst reason in the world to agree to make a film.”
Jackson refused to tie the making of The Hobbit to a settlement of the lawsuit. He said: “Deciding to make a movie should come from the heart — it’s not a matter of business convenience.” Any compromise on his part would ensure that the Hobbit film was “doomed”.
Jackson said that his removal was due to New Line only having rights to make the new films within a limited period. Almost 40,000 fans have signed a petition urging the film-makers to sign Jackson for The Hobbit. But while they will mourn his departure from the project, the prospect of a Rings prequel remains mouthwatering.
Jackson revealed the existence of a “proposed film . . . covering the events leading up to those depicted in LOTR”. There was speculation that it could utilise the Tolkien writings compiled after his death by son Christopher, such as The Silmarillion. A large amount of background material was published in The History of Middle-earth.
But a prequel, without Jackson’s guiding hand, presents difficulties. It may not receive such a warm welcome from the New Zealand authorities, who made location filming in the country’s spectacular locations cost-effective.
The Hobbit tells how Bilbo Baggins stole from Gollum the ring battled over in the later books while on an adventure in the Misty Mountains with Gandalf and an array of dwarfs.
Money Matters
£10,000 price for which Tolkien sold film rights in 1968
$281m Rings trilogy budget
$2.95bn box-office gross
$1.2bn DVD, merchandise, TV rights gross
$1bn New Line profit
$200m Peter Jackson’s cut
Source: Internet Movie Database; Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan
I don't see the movies as depicting Frodo as a victim or a failure. He stood strong against the alluring power of the ring, and he succeeded in throwing it into the fire even in the face of Gollum's final attempt. Frodo was the perfect symbol of strength foiling the desperate, conniving acts perpetrated by the perfect symbol of weakness, Gollum.
He (Christopher) sounds like a stuck-up, pseudo-intellectual elitist.
That's pretty much what I think he is :~)
Tolkien probably did not have great business acumen, Quix. I think it may not have been important to him. For instance, when The Hobbit was a success as a children's book, his publisher requested a sequel. Tolkien came up with the sequel all right, but 16 years later, after WWII, and as an adult's book!
At some point, in the 50's I think, or early 60's, he sold the movie rights for a couple hundred grand (if memory serves), which, as a college professor of philology, he probably regarded as a handsome sum. Plus, I'm sure he had no idea that so many millions would eventually be made from either his books or the movies.
He did express a wish that the movie not be made by Disney.
Christopher may well be a stuck up elitist, but he did at least serve as an RAF pilot during WWII, I have read. Don't know exactly what that may have entailed, but it sounds dangerous.
Any active pilot during WWII was no woos. Kudos and thanks to him for serving.
I have to stick up for Jackson here. It's the principle of the thing. Hollywood is notorious for stiffing actors and directors of the cut. Alot of them will take a reduced salary in exchange for a cut of the profits. It's a risk for them because if the movie tanks, they don't get paid. But then the studio will use creative accounting to pretend there are no profits.
A studio exec takes a college buddy out to lunch, and that goes against the "profits" of the picture. Security guards at the studio where it wasn't filmed get charged to the movie. All sorts of creative ways to screw the talent. If Jackson signed a contract for a cut of merchandise etc and they stiffed him, they should pay him. Period.
Interesting.
I thought I heard once that his estate withheld movie rights until they were convinced it would be done well.
Ah well, what do I know! LOL.
Thanks.
Blessings this Thanksgiving to you and yours.
I bet they are in talks with Uwe Boll.
Wouldn't that be something?
mmmmm... disheartening. Well, I hope it works out. And I hope that whoever does it, does it right. The books are classics and they don't deserve to be hollyweirded.
...Jackson, who earned $200 million from the franchise, according to his lawyers, believes that he is due millions more from merchandising, video and computer games sales income.
"Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know."
Latest news indicates that indeed Sam Raimi has been approached about making The Hobbit...
....any plans to read the books on your own??
Not a chance. Got better things to read.
I think one of the most famous incidents of this is Forrest Gump, which, IIRC, made no profit. The writer made nothing.
For the record, I really worry about Peter Jackson directing The Hobbit. It has to be of a very different tone. Even with some of the problems with Jackson's presentation (and I think by the time they were doing film 3, they could have added a scouring of the Shire version to a special DVD edition) it was a labor of love. He wasn't just a guy doing a movie.
Well, speaking of tone differences. The narration was light and breezy in the hobbit. The tone itself just in the books was alot different. The narrator of the hobbit is playful, like telling a yarn about the days long ago. Even though there are battles and the like, it's more sweet spirited and positive.
Exactly. This is the way The Hobbit has to be, much more of a children's story. Jackson could do the wonder of it, but it should be a real children's film: fast-paced and no grand vistas.
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