Peter Jackson, director of the commercially (over $870 million in box office) and critically successful
Lord of the Rings film trilogy is suing New Line Cinema for a greater share of the licensing profits the film generated; among a number of other issues, a specific grievance listed was New Line's failure to pay for the script and song lyrics used in a licensed Electronic Arts video game based on the films.
The specific game or games under dispute was not mentioned, but on of the candidates seems to be 2004's
Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, which was a standalone game based on the entire trilogy. However,
The Two Towers and
The Return of the King also made heavy use of access to the film's resources and assets, as well as input from Jackson, and the latter seems to have included 'Into The West', the Annie Lennox song which includes lyrics by Fran Walsh, Jackson's partner.
Jackson, alongside Walsh and their company Wingnut Films, listed 18 other allegations against New Line other than nonpayment from the game profits. Neither New Line nor Stanton Stein, the entertainment lawyer hired as the pair's attorney in the suit, would comment, but Peter Nelson, another attorney for Jackson's Wingnut Films, commented in an official statement that they "attempted to resolve our differences with New Line Cinema through the normal auditing process. That has proven unsatisfactory thus far."
