Everything is not so comfortable these days in the Shire.
Peter Jackson, Oscar-winning director of the “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy, is suing Time Warner subsidiary New Line Cinema, the company that financed and distributed the three movies, for at least $100 million in connection New Line Cinema’s handling of revenues from the “Fellowship of the Ring” movie in the trilogy.
In essence, Mr. Jackson is claiming in the lawsuit that New Line did not offer the subsidiary rights to such things as “Lord of the Rings” books, DVD’s and merchandise to the open market and, thus, sold them to affiliated companies for far less than fair market value. And in typical Hollywood style, the gloves are already off in the litigation, as the following quote about the portly Mr. Jackson from one of New Line’s lawyers reflects:

A litigator for New Line, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is working on this lawsuit, said the money paid to Mr. Jackson so far is in line with the contract he signed.
“Peter Jackson is an incredible filmmaker who did the impossible on ‘Lord of the Rings,’ ” this lawyer said. “But there’s a certain piggishness involved here. New Line already gave him enough money to rebuild Baghdad, but it’s still not enough for him.”

Mr. Jackson has received about $200 million to date from the Rings trilogy, which was produced for about $285 million and has produced over $4 billion in retail sales from worldwide film exhibition, home video, soundtracks, merchandise and television showings. New Line has made over $1 billion in net profits from the trilogy.