New Line hit by another lawsuit over Lord of the Rings profits

The Oscar-winning producer of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy is suing New Line Cinema, accusing the studio of hiding its profits.

Saul Zaentz filed a suit Thursday in Los Angeles in order to compel New Line to disclose its accounting for the epic. This is Zaentz's second court battle with New Line.

In 2005, the company reached an out-of-court settlement with him, withZaentz arguing he was owed an additional $20 million US in royalties from the Lord of the Rings films. The terms of the deal have never been disclosed.

Zaentz's actions come on the heels of a similar lawsuit filed by the film's director, Peter Jackson, over profits from the first film.

Jackson's pursuit of what he believes are hidden profits caused New Line to drop him as the director of The Hobbit, a prequel to the series.

Courtactions against NewLinekeep lining up.

Last May,15 actors from New Zealand who appeared in the trilogy suedthe companyfor breach of contract, claiming they're still owed a percentage of an estimated $100 million US in profits from sales of movie merchandise.

The Lord of the Rings films spawned nearly $3 billion US in box office receipts around the world.The last film, The Return of the King, earned 11 Academy Awards, including best picture and best director for Jackson.

Zaentz acquired the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien'sLord of the Rings and The Hobbitnovels in 1976. He later licensed them to Miramax Film Corp., which later assigned the license to New Line.

Zaentz says the license specified that he receive a share of the adjusted gross receipts from the films as well as the right to audit New Line's books.

The battle over who gets to direct The Hobbit, though, is not over.

In 2008, New Line's rights to the film revert to Zaentz, and the producer recently toldthe German film magazine Cinema that Jackson would be shooting the film.

Zaentz is the producer of such Oscar-winning films as Amadeus, The English Patient and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.