The heirs to the estate of author JRR Tolkien are suing the producer of 'The Lord of the Rings' movies, New Line Cinema, over profits from the blockbuster trilogy.
The trustees of the writer's British charity, The Tolkien Trust, and the original publishers of 'The Lord of the Rings', HarperCollins, have cited a failure to pay a contractually agreed 7.5% of gross profit for the three films based on 'The Lord of the Rings' novels.
They are seeking in excess of $150m in compensatory damages, unspecified punitive damages and a court order giving the trust a right to terminate New Line's rights to make more films based on the author's writings, including 'The Hobbit', according to the statement.
The suit follows 'Lord of the Rings' director Peter Jackson's lawsuit against New Line for underpayment that was settled in December. When that deal was finalised, Jackson signed on to be executive producer of 'The Hobbit'.
New Line, a division of global media conglomerate Time Warner Inc, declined to comment on the new suit.
A statement from the trustees said: "New Line has not paid the plaintiffs even one penny of its contractual share of gross receipts despite the billions of dollars of gross revenue generated by these wildly successful motion pictures."
"To make matters worse, to date New Line has even prevented the plaintiffs from auditing the last two films of the series."
The trustees were paid an upfront fee of about $62,500 in an "upfront sequel fee" and nothing more, trustee spokesman Lonnie Soury said.
The three movies, 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring', 'The Lord of the Rings: The Twin Towers' and 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King', took in nearly $3bn at worldwide box offices.
