Lawsuits everywhere... Is THE HOBBIT in jeopardy? What about WATCHMEN?

From AICN, Is THE HOBBIT the new Don Quixote? Is it a cursed project? Bob Shaye finally works out his deal with Peter Jackson and then he's hit with another lawsuit, this time it's an even bigger one... from the Tolkien estate... technically it's the Tolkien Trust, a British charity that manages the estate.

Why did New Line find it so hard to live up to their contracts regarding RINGS? It seems they owe the Tolkien Estate 7.5 percent of the gross from the movies and didn't pay anything.

Ordinarily we wouldn't cover stuff like this, but instead of New Line just being hit financially the lawsuit that has been filed is also trying to terminate any further development of other Tolkien properties, including THE HOBBIT. Probably especially THE HOBBIT.

Now that doesn't mean THE HOBBIT is dead or even stumbling. It's quite possible this will be settled out of court or even if New Line is found completely guilty, it's possible the judge won't grant that part of the suit. And if they do, what does that mean for MGM? Would they be sole owners of the property then or will the Tolkien estate get full rights to JRR's works again? Lotsa questions... It's not good, but nothing's fucked yet.

The other big suit that hit today was filed by 20th Century Fox against Warner Bros, claiming they and they alone have the rights to make a film based on WATCHMEN. Umm... wouldn't it have been a good idea to let WB know this before they shot the damn movie?

It's a long, complicated claim (Read the details here), but I can't help but wonder how this went so far without Fox realizing it. I don't know what exactly they want, but it reads like they're trying to stop any further movement of the movie. Scope this:

"...restrain (Warner Bros. Pictures) from taking actions that violate Fox's copyrights and which stand to forever impair Fox's rights to control the distribution and development of this unique work."


I hope something can be worked out because I'm really psyched to see Zack Snyder's version of this universe, especially after seeing how awesome the publicity stills have been so far.