The Tolkien Estate and New Line Cinema have reached a tentative settlement in the court battle over money from “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy of films that have grossed around $3 billion. TheOneRing.net message board member Voronwë_the_Faithful has written to give us the absolute world-wide scoop. He managed to mine a great nugget of information from the L.A. Superior Court and has written the following:
“A tentative settlement has been reached in the case. The parties have filed a stipulation that explicitly states that ‘the parties have entered into a binding term sheet settling this matter, which term sheet is subject to certain necessary ratifications, which may take up to several weeks to obtain.’
“In other words, a settlement has been reached, but it needs to be approved by certain unnamed individuals/entities. I’m sure it is a complicated settlement, and I’m relatively sure that it includes specifications to ensure that payments are made on the Hobbit films, so I assume that one of the ratifications needs to come from Warner.
“Generally speaking, these kinds of “ratifications” are a formality and the settlement would not have been entered into unless they were pretty much sure that it would be ratified. I would shocked if the settlement did not go through. In all likelihood, this case is no longer going to provide any obstacle to the Hobbit films.
You can read an in-depth look at the case from 2008 here by our same legal “spy”.
For those unfamiliar, this poster has kept our message boards updated on this lawsuit, most often way ahead of the curve, and you can count on this information not as a rumor but as reported fact directly from the court.
