Rings Suit Needs Rounding Out
The lawyers need to shore up their offense or this lawsuit could be headed for the fires of Mordor.
A Los Angeles judge ruled Tuesday that certain parts of the suit filed on behalf of J.R.R. Tolkien’s charitable trust against New Line Cinema overwhat else?a royalties dispute must be revised with further details before the case can move forward.
As is, the allegations “support nothing more than a breach of contract” and have not made a case for fraud or breach of fiduciary duty, L.A. Superior Court Judge Ann I. Jones wrote in her decision.
The plaintiffs allege in their complaint that New Line, which produced the Oscar-winning The Lord of the Rings trilogy, cheated Tolkien’s trust out of at least $150 million. According to attorneys representing the trust, a contract the late British author inked in 1969 with the studio that originally owned the rights to his classic series stated that his estate was to receive 7.5 percent of gross receipts from any films and related merchandise.
The trilogy, which kicked off in 2001 with LOTR: The Fellowship of the Rings, took in nearly $3 billion at the box office worldwide.
Tolkien’s legal fellowship is asking for both compensatory and punitive damages for its troubles.
Viggo Talks ‘The Hobbit’
We’ve heard from Ian McKellan about wanting to be in the new Hobbit movies, now Viggo Mortensen has thrown his hat into the ring - the ONE ring, that is! - as well:
Mortensen also said he would like to replay the “Lord of the Rings” part of Aragorn in future “Hobbit” movies that have been announced by “Rings” director Peter Jackson. “I’d rather not have another actor play the part I started out playing for Peter Jackson. And I had a lot of friends from that experience,” he said.
It would be so amazing if they could get as much of the original cast back for the prequels! Viggo was amazing, as were the rest, and I can’t quite picture anyone else playing the roles.
Don’t screw this up, or you’re bound to piss a lot of people off!
Edward Norton Likes Lord Of The Rings
Edward Norton has said that if it were not for The Lord of the Rings trilogy he may not have taken on the role of Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk.
He says, “I remember when I heard they were making The Lord Of The Rings, I was like, ‘God, if they cheese those out, I’m going to be so disappointed.’
“(But) those films were inspiring to me in terms of deciding to take The Incredible Hulk.”
Norton was known for taking on ‘good movies’ such as American History X and Fight Club, so a comic book adaptation was a bit of a risk for him, and we will soon see if it paid off.
In other Hulk news, director Louis Leterrier spoke to MTV about the possibility of the Hulk being the villain in The Avengers. Click here to read what he had to say!
M Night Shyamalan Talks The Last Airbender
M Night Shyamalan has been doing limited press to promote his new film The Happening, and has been talking about his big screen adaptation of the popular Nickelodeon Anime-influenced animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender.
When the hostile Fire Nation threatens to enslave the Water, Earth, and Air Nations, a reluctant and irresponsible twelve-year-old named Aang, who must forgo his selfish wandering to learn to master his latent powers and face his destiny as the Avatar, the Chosen One who can restore the world order. Night describes the film to SciFiWire:
“It has martial arts and spirituality and the supernatural, and it has Buddhist philosophy and Hindu philosophy–really, everything I talk about–all in one movie,” Shyamalan said. “It has a mythology. It’s Shakespearean. It’s all this incredible stuff, and it has a balance. All these movies are plays on magic, whether it’s Lord of the Rings or The Matrix or Star Wars even, and each one of them relates to me in a different way, in its belief system.”
Not that Night would compare the film to any of the previously mentioned films.
“I wish I could put my finger on what it is like to say, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings,’ but it’s not really like that,” Night told RopesofSilicon. It’s its own thing. We have been striving to find the right balance between a fantasy world, and anchoring it in a reality you can’t quite put your finger on, but you know it’s real.”
Night also confirms The Last Airbender will be completely live-action and possibly even PG-13.
“It will be tough to keep it PG from PG-13. It will be tricky. I don’t know how to make a PG movie so that’s going to be much harder, because with R, everything was no problem,” Shyamalan told ComingSoon. “The great thing about it is it’s almost like they don’t ever really touch each other based in this world. They kind of do a form of manifesting something and then it comes at the other person and they manifest something. It’ll be great to do it as extensions of what the characters are feeling, and there’ll be much more CG.”
And Night insists in his interview with ROS that you’ll be amazed at the depth and realism that he will create with CGI:
“I feel more confident that I can make the CGI something that when you see it, like when you see two years from now and you see the trailer for The Last Airbender you will go, “Wow,” because you instinctively know that there is depth and reality to that moment of CGI.”
Shyamalan is currently deep into the design process and set construction will begin in August. I have yet to watch the animated series, but have heard a lot of great things about the series (shockingly from people you would never expect to be watching cartoons on Nickelodeon). The mix of asian philosophy, magic, and mythology has certainly gotten my interest. The Last Airbender is being targeted for a July 2nd 2010 release.