However, a group of JRR Tolkien heirs called the Tolkien Trust has decided to sue the Lord Of The Rings studio for a slightly more pressing matter – it's claiming that New Line owes it $150 million in unpaid royalties.

Of course, $150 million is a lot of money, and if New Line is forced to pay it to the Tolkien Trust, one of its upcoming films might gave to be cancelled. So, if it's the sequel to The Golden Compass, everybody wins.

The Lord Of The Rings trilogy has so far made about $6 billion in box office and DVD receipts – a staggering amount of money, especially when you realise that it was generated by three pain-inducingly long films about a wizard and a midget walking across the side of a mountain and occasionally watching Liv Tyler babble on in a made-up language. 

And when something makes that much money, there will always be people trying to claw themselves a share of it. Peter Jackson sued New Line over cash in 2005, 15 actors from New Zealand sued New Line over Lord Of The Rings cash last year, and now some people who are probably a bit related to Lord Of The Rings author JRR Tolkien are suing New Line for a wedge of the cash, too.

Back in 1969, members of the Tolkien Trust signed a contract with United Artists that guaranteed them 7.5% of the gross receipts of any Lord Of The Rings movies, a contract which passed down to New Line when it inherited the movie rights in 1998. Cue angry poshos, courtesy of the New York Times:

In a complaint filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, trustees of the Tolkien Trust, a British charity, joined trustees of a private family trust of Tolkien heirs and the British arm of HarperCollins Publishers in suing New Line Cinema for breach of contract. Charging “unabashed and insatiable greed,” … in the complaint, the plaintiffs argue that New Line has “clearly engaged in the infamous practice of creative ‘Hollywood accounting,’ ” by excluding certain revenue from calculations and racking up costs that have so far prevented the studio from paying out a single dime.

However, as much as you're probably naturally predisposed to stick up for the tiny underdogs tugging at the shirt-tails of a $6 billion machine, know this – if the Tolkien Trust is successful it wants to hoik away New Line's rights to make the long-anticipated Hobbit movies as well. And since they're likely to be among the top-grossing films of the next decade, New Line has every reason to be worried.

Imagine what the world would be like if the Hobbit movies didn't get made. Imagine how dreadful it'd be not to go and spend £10 of your hard-earned money to watch an offensively long movie about a midget walking to a dragon's house  for no other reason than because the months and months of relentless hype have bullied you into it. Twice. Imagine how dreadful that'd be. Dreadful.

Read more:

Tolkien Heirs Sue New Line Over Millions From ‘Rings’ – New York Times 

No doubt this is the angle New Line intends to play with the new Hobbit movies that are finally moving forward. 'Surprise! The ring's not really destroyed, its just been resting next to a planet sized colon.' Real juvenile New Line! We'll not reward such nonsense with our money! Or our Mom's money! Sure, it's free from the government, but it's because she's disabled! Grow up New Line Cinema!

In more surprising news, Peter Jackson is definitely going to be attached to the film. He and New Line settled their disagreement allowing things to progress. He's not going to direct though. He's going to play King Kong who now conveniently has to destroy the ring the rest of the way. Seriously, it says so on page 12 in the book 'The Real Tolkien volume III,' which we wrote.

Which we intend to write. Maybe next week. We intend to write a Tolkien book maybe next week.

Peter Jackson, who is still fat but uses CGI to look thin, is going to have his hands in the new Hobbit movies. We've heard the new films will have more of a Transformers feel to them, which of course means that they will be about Frodo desperately trying to save humanity by pushing an electric square into Voltron's chest or something. We've seen the storyboard and it looks gripping.

Jackson and his wife will executive produce the new movies, but won't direct them because they are far too busy finding ways for dragons have a meaningful dialogue about race or something. According to Reuters:

"The makers of the smash hit "Lord of the Rings" films said on Tuesday they settled a legal dispute and agreed to make two movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," but most likely without Peter Jackson directing. Oscar winner Jackson, however, has signed on as executive producer along with his wife and producing partner, Fran Walsh, who also was instrumental in making the three "Lord of the Rings" films that earned $3 billion at global box offices."

The first Hobbit movie is said to be titled Gollum: The College Years, and will mostly feature Andy Serkis winning a bet by making an ugly girl popular, winning a sport against incredible odds and/or getting mad and tossing around several drafting tables.

Like we already said, it seems quite gripping.

Read More:

Master of ‘Rings’ to Tackle ‘Hobbit’ – New York Times