15 LOTR actors sue New Line

[Sauron the White]

straight from VARIETY

New Zealand actors sue New Line
'Rings' players question merchandising revenue
By LINDSAY CHANEYFifteen Kiwi actors who appeared in various installments of "Lord of the Rings" got a lesson in Hollywood accounting when they opened royalty statements from New Line and found that despite millions of dollars in sales of lunchboxes, T-shirts, caps and other LOTR gimcrack, there was -- gasp! -- zero "net merchandising revenue."
The actors contacted attorney Henry Gradstein, who filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court to recover money the actors figured they are owed under paragraph 11 of their contracts.

Based on the paragraph, the actors believed they would receive 5% of "net merchandising revenue" split among all actors whose characters are portrayed on the merchandise.

What the actors didn't realize is that gross merchandising revenue apparently became "net merchandising revenue" after certain unexpected expenses were deducted.

The biggest of these was a 50% distribution fee that the actors had never seen mentioned anywhere in their contract, according to the lawsuit.

There were also other payments and fees that the actors felt were not "related to the generation of the relevant merchandising revenue."

After looking at all the fees that were being deducted from the gross revenues, the actors figured it would be impossible to ever have any "net merchandising revenue" no matter how much merchandise was sold.

Actors filing the lawsuit are: Noel Appleby, Jed Brophy, Mark Ferguson, Ray Henwood, Bruce Hopkins, William Johnson, Nathaniel Lees, Sarah McLeod, Ian Mune, Paul Norell, Craig Parker, Robert Pollock, Martyn Sanderson, Peter Tait and Stephan Ure.

A New Line rep said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

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Sheds a bit of light and understanding on the complaints of one Peter Jackson does it not?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

The more things chenge, the more they stay the same.....

Kind of makes you wonder how Hollywood studios have stayed in business all these years, since according to them no movie has ever made a profit, not never.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Lessee: Jed Brophy was the leader of the wolfriders, Bruce Hopkins was Gamling, and Craig Parker was Haldir. How about the rest?

[Sauron the White]

William - here is the info you requested

Noel Appleby: Everard Proudfoot
, Jed Brophy: Snaga/Sharku
, Mark Ferguson: Gil Galad
, Ray Henwood: Man from Rivendell
, Bruce Hopkins: Gamling
, William Johnson: Old Noakes
, Nathaniel Lees: Ugluk
, Sarah McLeod: Rosie Cotton
, Ian Mune: Bounder
, Paul Norell: King of the Dead
, Craig Parker: Haldir
, Robert Pollock: Mordor Orc
, Martyn Sanderson: Gatekeeper (Bree)
, Peter Tait : Shagrat
and Stephan Ure: Grishnakh/Gorbag

Hope that helps put faces to the names.
__________________

[Elmo]

Come on was Gil-Galad even in the film?

[The Might]

Of course...look at FotR, right in the beginning.
Gil-Galad is shown fighting against Sauron.

[MatthewM]

Pretty interesting. There are action figures of Ugluk, Gamling, Haldir, Shagrat, Gorbag, King of the Dead, and Gil Galad. The mentioned and the rest were pictured on the trading cards. This must be what they are sueing for? What else would it be?

[Elmo]

Greed

[Sauron the White]

And you would define GREED how? Perhaps feeling that you are entitled to what the contract agreed you would get? Sounds to me that is more like justice.

[Knight of Gondor]

Originally Posted by The Might

Of course...look at FotR, right in the beginning.
Gil-Galad is shown fighting against Sauron.

Never saw him fighting Sauron, dude. Elendil and Isildur were mainly shown doing that. Gil-Galad was just shown stabbing someone. For such a pivotal character, he got precious little screen time. And he looked so cool too.

[Boromir88]

Knight, well Gil did say Gil-galad was fighting against Sauron, not that he fought Sauron...there's a difference.

Well, Gil, I would call it GREED, but GREED upon the part of Newline not the actors. Corps do this quite a bit. If the actors claim is true than they were guaranteed a certain cut from the profit off merchandising (and if it is Newline using their faces to make 'money' off of, then I can't blame the actors) and it seems as if they were cheated from their proper cut.

It all depends upon the contracts though...as the World Poker Tour (WPT) is facing a lawsuit from several professional poker players saying pretty much the same thing as the actors of LOTR. The WPT is using their faces to make money and they want to see some of that money. The key difference is there is nothing in the pro poker players contracts that guarantees they get a cut of the profit...in fact it directly states that the WPT may use the pro players faces for merchandising all they want because in return the poker pros are getting their face on TV and taking a chance of winning millions. So, it was them who signed themselves over to the 'devil' so to speak. Where the LOTR contracts it seems like it specifically states these actors were guaranteed part of the profit and they never got their cut.

[sallkid]

Originally Posted by Knight of Gondor

Never saw him fighting Sauron, dude. Elendil and Isildur were mainly shown doing that. Gil-Galad was just shown stabbing someone. For such a pivotal character, he got precious little screen time. And he looked so cool too.

The point of the lawsuit is the merchandise though, and gil-galad has been merchandised. There was an action figure, i believe he was in the card sets and he was in the GW game.

[Knight of Gondor]

I know there was a Gil-Galad action figure, because I have it.