[MJZ]

Things seem to have gotten worse:

Originally Posted by Cinema Blend

The whole controversy between Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema is spinning even further out of control. The victims? You, me, and anyone who had hoped to see a good version of The Hobbit on screen. Moviehole reports that New Line head Robert Shaye is throwing a crazed hissy fit, and has completely banned Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson from New Line’s lot. Permanently.

Shaye tells SciFi.com, “He got a quarter of a billion dollars paid to him so far, justifiably, according to contract, completely right, and this guy, who already has received a quarter of a billion dollars, turns around without wanting to have a discussion with us and sues us and refuses to discuss it unless we just give in to his plan. I don't want to work with that guy anymore. Why would I? So the answer is he will never make any movie with New Line Cinema again while I'm still working for the company.” Notice he doesn’t say they’ve paid Peter what they owed him, he just thinks they’ve paid him enough. Well buddy, the amount doesn’t matter. You owe him what you owe him.

Peter Jackson won’t work for New Line as long as Shaye does? Then somebody need to fire him. Seriously, what kind of company pisses off and bans the guy who made them more money than any director has in history? The guy who made New Line Cinema one of the real big players? How many Oscars did Peter Jackson win again? Maybe Robert Shaye should count them. If you’re the New Line board of directors, don’t you give someone like Robert Shaye the heave-ho? The guy’s petty personal feelings are now costing you money. Worse, he’s about to screw up your next big movie.

As if to get revenge on PJ, New Line Cinema is now rushing their version of The Hobbit into production without Peter. If you thought dollar signs were a bad reason to make a sequel, how about blind revenge? Yes, let’s rush The Hobbit and put a shitty version of it out there, just to show Peter Jackson. Does Robert Shaye really believe that’s in anyone’s best interest? It doesn’t sound like he cares. Shaye rants, “I don't care about Peter Jackson anymore. He wants to have another $100 million or $50 million, whatever he's suing us for. He doesn't want to sit down and talk about it. He thinks that we owe him something after we've paid him over a quarter of a billion dollars.”

So for any of you who had hope that Peter might make up with New Line and get The Hobbit done, forget it. The only hope we LOTR fans have now is that New Line’s board realizes who badly Shaye is screwing them over and kicks him out, or that MGM (who owns the North American rights to the film) plays tough with New Line and refuses to let them make it. If they delay them long enough, the rights to back to Saul Zaentz, who has vowed to give the movie to PJ. But, that seems unlikely to happen. MGM doesn’t want to lose the rights to Zaentz any more than New Line does, they’d miss out on a lot of money. They’re likely to let New Line screw the whole thing up, in the hopes that they’ll make a quick buck off their rush-job, revenge pic travesty. The Hobbit is well and truly screwed.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/New-L...Life-4257.html

Originally Posted by Cinema Blend

If you missed the story from earlier today, New Line Cinema head honcho Bob Shaye publicly blasted Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. Shaye told SciFi.com he will not work with Jackson, who is currently suing New Line over an issue of accounting for Fellowship of the Rings (and presumably the other two LotR films as well). Shaye stated that Jackson will not be involved in any film for New Line as long as he is still working for the company, and thus crushed all fanboy hopes of a Jackson led Hobbit adaptation.

Well, Jackson and WingNut films have replied to Shaye’s public tirade. As usual, Jackson and company reply with a focused voice that attempts to state the facts rather than dive into personal remarks like banning someone from future company endeavors. Courtesy of Ain’t It Cool News, WingNut’s official response is:

"Our issue with New Line Cinema has only ever been about their refusal to account for financial anomalies that surfaced from a partial audit of The Fellowship of the Ring. Contrary to recent comments made by Bob Shaye, we attempted to discuss the issues raised by the Fellowship audit with New Line for over a year but the studio was and continues to be completely uncooperative. This has compelled us to file a lawsuit to pursue our contractual rights under the law. Nobody likes taking legal action, but the studio left us with no alternative.

For over two years, New Line has denied us the ability to audit The Two Towers and The Return of the King, despite repeated requests. Film auditing is a common and straightforward practice within the industry and we don't understand why New Line Cinema has taken this position.

In light of these circumstances, I didn't think it was appropriate for me to be involved in New Line Cinema's 40th Anniversary video. I have never discussed this video with any of the cast of The Lord of the Rings. The issues that Bob Shaye has with the cast pre-date this law suit by many years.

Fundamentally, our legal action is about holding New Line to its contractual obligations and promises. It is regrettable that Bob has chosen to make it personal. I have always had the highest respect and affection for Bob and other senior management at New Line and continue to do so."

Jackson’s remarks about the LotR cast members stems from Shaye’s remark that Jackson and the cast refused to work on a project celebrating New Line’s 40th anniversary. This shouldn’t come to anyone as too surprising who has been following this developing story. Several of the cast members have publicly gone on record with loyalty toward Jackson directing The Hobbit. The idea that they would side more with him than New Line makes perfect sense, regardless of whether Jackson told them to or not.

This story is certainly far from over. Eventually this lawsuit will be settled and New Line will almost certainly have to open the books for that to happen – which seems to be what Jackson really wants. Whether Shaye will still be standing when that ends and whether he’ll stick to his guns about the Jackson ban or not will be interesting to see.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Peter...Line-4260.html