Tolkien estate sues over Lord of the Rings movies

The charity that manages the estate of British writer J.R.R. Tolkien has sued the studio behind the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, saying it hasn't been paid a cent for granting the rights to the story.

The Tolkien Trust and publisher HarperCollins filed suit against New Line Cinema in a Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday.

The suit is claiming $150 million US in damages and threatens to revoke New Line's right to make The Hobbit, another Tolkien tale, into a film.

The suit claims New Line has not paid any part of the 7.5 per cent of gross receipts from the films it promised in return for rights to film the story.

Tolkien, who died in 1973, is the world-renowned author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit.

The filing estimates return from the three Lord of the Ring films — The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King — at $6 billion US, but says New Line has not allowed it to audit the last two films of the series.

"New Line has brought new meaning to the phrase 'creative accounting,'" Bonnie Eskenazi, U.S. counsel for the Tolkien Trust, said in a statement.

"I cannot imagine how on earth New Line will argue to a jury that these films could gross literally billions of dollars, and yet the creator's heirs, who are entitled to a share of gross receipts, don't get a penny."

The last of the films had its commercial release in 2003 and the Tolkien Trust says it has taken every other avenue to try to claim its money before coming before the court.

Peter Jackson, who directed the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, has signed on as executive producer for The Hobbit.