James Cameron Weighs In On Peter Jackson Vs. New Line

Interesting. How much money does Jackson think he's losing out on here?
Doesn't seem wise to go head to head with a studio when they're the ones that fund your films. But I guess when you've got a name for yourself like Jackson does you can pretty much go anywhere else. Still there are only so many studios and it appears that Cameron understand that.

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Peter Jackson has every right to make the Hobbit if not come say it in my face!!!!!!!!!!!

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Many people forget that Peter Jackson didn't just direct the movies, he spent 7 years of his life on this, planning, writing, providing the effects, the props, the PE DVDs, everything! He and his team deserve every penny! But I think New Line will never settle because if they owe PJ and co so much more, then NL probably owes all the actors money as well. Weren't the actors doing a separate audit of NL on their own?

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"Interesting. How much money does Jackson think he's losing out on here?"

You are missing the point of the lawsuit. Jackson is accusing New Line of deceptive accounting practices and is asking for them to submit to and audit. He is not asking for more money, he is asking them to submit to an audit. Something that most studios submit to automatically. (Read the previous article) The fact that they are unwilling to open their books and allow someone to look at them, indicates that New Line is the one that is hiding something.

There are a lot of studios out there besides New Line and Peter Jackson can just start his own studio, should for some reason he be blacklisted from all the others. However, the only one he has been blacklisted from in New Line. He has no shortage of work.

As for making of the Hobbit, its only a matter of two years before the rights revert back to Sony, who has already said that they plan on having PJ be the director of the Hobbit.

Its New Line that looks bad, and its New Line that looses out.

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can't wait til' New Line bombs out and goes bankrupt with The Golden Flop!

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I have always thought that the Hobbit was pretty boring and that even JRRT didn't much like it.
I think Jackson should do the Akallabeth instead which he has already started on in the Prologue to the Fellowship of the Ring.
That way he wouldn't have to deal with MGM or New Line or any of these people and could do something almost completely original.

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Regarding the Akallabeth... It is not possible for anyone to film anything from the Silmarillion at the present time because the rights remain with the Tolkien estate. If those rights became available, which is totally unikely, the downfall of Numenor would be interesting. Whoever does it would have plenty of wiggle room on the script, since there is nowhere near the wealth of detail on characters, plot, etc.

But don't sell The Hobbit short. It is totally untrue that Tolkien was "down with it". He loved the wider legendarium and was frustrated that he couldn't get an offer of publication. But most readers, at least casual readers, find LotR and The Hobbit much more approachable than the Silmarillion. And if you draw in other material from the early third age, which is what has been suggested, you could come up with two very good films.

As far as the Jackson/New Line argument stands, it goes beyond a question of dollars. New Line's refusal to submit to an independent audit does seem suspicious.

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Many will remember that LOTR brought New Line back from the brink of disaster. It is not unusual that many greedy unethical companies would keep back the monies that are due in order to help their company. I loved the movies as did much of America. It is sad that a man who masterminded one of the greatest success stories in movies has been cheated out of millions of dollars and now replaced. I for one will not rush to the theatre to see any future Tolkien movie minus Peter Jackson. I hope others will follow and show New Line that you can't just steal from the little guy and get away with it!

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Peter and his crew obviously have more integrity than the button pushers at New Line can muster. The whole thing reeks of extortion, despite the fact the studio made tons of money off LOTR.
Hats off to Peter for sticking to his principals and making these guys visible for the crooks they are.
Let's collectively vow to boycott New Line movies if they don't comply...its ridiculous to deny people who worked so hard their just rewards!

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