Lawsuits on WATCHMEN and THE HOBBIT. Are both movies doomed?

Two movies that for years looked like they would never actually get off the ground and actually roll for camera's have been struck with lawsuits, both of which could potentially block either films from ever being released. Yes that includes WATCHMEN, which has been filming for at least four months.

First up, The Hollywood Reporter say that 20th Century Fox has initiated a legal battle against Warner Bros. over the rights to develop, produce and distribute a film based on the classic Alan Moore graphic novel WATCHMEN, claiming they own the exclusive production rights to the book. Which is kinda bizarre because the film is about 40% through it's production with much of the film already shot. Do the guys at Fox not read the trades everyday? Everyone on the web knows that a WATCHMEN movie was being made during the summer, this lawsuit should have been filed months ago. You can read the boring legal stuff HERE but I personally don't think this lawsuit has a change in hell of becoming anything. It's too late in the day to bitch and moan because you could never get a movie based on WATCHMEN off the ground.

Ok, the other lawsuit and the one that really made me sit up and take notice was the one filled against THE HOBBIT. This project is cursed! Variety say that The Tolkien Trust filed a $150 million lawsuit against New Line Cinema yesterday claiming "the trust has not received any of its gross profit participation payments for the three films based on the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy". It's not just the money they are after but a stop on the upcoming HOBBIT movie for compensation. This one seems one to worry about. We've heard about New Line and their shoddy way of paying out to actors already, none of this news surprises me in the least. Here's what the head of The Trust had to say...

"New Line has brought new meaning to the phrase 'creative accounting.' 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 Trust are arguing a breach of contract which was apparently put in place back in the 70's where the Tolkien Estate would gross a 7.5% taking from the final earnings of the picture. They have so far received zero payouts, and are accusing New Line of under-reporting the home-video revenue of the film, the destruction of key documents and the unwillingness to allow an audit on the where the money went on the last two LOTR movies. I would worry about this one folks. If The Tolkien Estate win their lawsuit then that's $150 million that New Line Cinema can't really afford to lose. That's the budget for the new film, gone out of the window and the studio may not have the finances to go ahead with THE HOBBIT regardless of whether the Judge blocks production on it or not as part of the legal decision. I can't imagine he would do that, but the money loss might and probably would be detrimental. The Trust case seems strong to me. It's baffling how they haven't received anything from a multi billion dollar franchise. This doesn't sound good to me. With the track record of THE HOBBIT, it's hard to believe it will recover from this.