Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. says the second ‘Hobbit’ movie, set to be released on Friday, actually constitutes a remake.
The movie-making Weinstein brothers, in a bitter legal battle over film rights to “The Hobbit,” are mounting a scorched Middle-earth policy.
The cinematic siblings, in a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit, claim they’re entitled to a $ 75 million windfall over New Line Cinema Corp.’s decision to turn the beloved book into a series of three movies.
“This case is about greed and ingratitude,” fumed Miramax executives Harvey and Robert Weinstein in the first line of their lawsuit.
“Warner takes this position solely to deprive plaintiffs of their right to share in the revenues from two of the three filmed installments of ‘The Hobbit.’”
But a spokesman for Warner Bros., the parent company of New Line, said the Weinsteins were simply smarting from selling off the movie rights to the blockbuster films so cheaply in a 1998 deal.
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Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP
Harvey Weinstein has filed a $ 75 million suit against Warner Bros. for their “The Hobbit” series.
“This is about one of the great blunders in movie history,” said spokesman Paul McGuire. “Fifteen years ago, Miramax, run by the Weinstein brothers, sold its rights in ‘The Hobbit’ to New Line.
“No amount of trying to rewrite history can change that fact. They agreed to be paid only on the first motion picture based on ‘The Hobbit.’ And that’s all they’re owed.”
Everyone agrees the Weinsteins sold the film rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s books “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” to New Line Cinema Corp. The three “Rings” movies grossed close to $ 3 billion worldwide, while the first “Hobbit” installment earned more than $ 1 billion.
The brothers filed their suit just two days before the opening of the much-anticipated second installment, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.” The third movie is due in December 2014.
According to court papers, the pair had already invested $ 10 million in developing a film adaptation of the Tolkien books before the 1998 deal.
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Warner Bros. Pictures
‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ is the second in a trilogy of the film version of ‘The Hobbit,’ a book released in 1937.
As compensation, New Line agreed to pay 5% of gross receipts for the “first motion picture” based on “The Hobbit” — a 1937 novel by Tolkien.
The company says that means the Weinsteins are entitled to nothing from the next two movies — a position the combative filmmakers angrily dispute.
Time Warner and the Weinsteins’ Miramax LLC are already in arbitration over the issue, but the brothers opted to file their lawsuit anyway.
“Since the beginning . . . Harvey and Bob Weinstein have been a force in getting these books to the screen,” said a statement from the Weinsteins.
“Without these early investments, none of these pictures would have been made. We are shocked that New Line and Warner Bros. don’t recognize that fact.”
The two said they were confident that the courts would find in their favor.
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