placeAd(1,'slate.news/slate') Print E-mail Discuss Newsletters ... About Us Search Slate Advanced Search placeAd(3,'slate.homepage/slate') placeAd(6,'slate.homepage/slate'); press box Media criticism. Lord of the Pigs? The New York Times violates its code to cheap-shot director Peter Jackson. By Jack Shafer Posted Monday, June 27, 2005, at 11:51 AM PT My precious! My precious! The wildest cinema heists, as " The Hollywood Economist " columnist Edward Jay Epstein coolly demonstrates in Slate and his book The Big Picture , are not committed by fictional, gun-toting robbers but by real-life accountants, lawyers, and studio executives packing fountain pens. Today's (June 27) New York Times untangles a recent Hollywood lawsuit filed by the director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson, against Time Warner's New Line Cinema subsidiary, in " The Lawsuit of the Rings ." Jackson's suit charges that New Line defrauded him out of millions by the way it sold the rights to merchandise, books, and DVDs related to his first installment of the trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring . The studio used "pre-emptive bidding" to sell some of the rights to other Time Warner subsidiaries rather than accepting open bidding. This suppressed the gross receipts, the suit contends, and because Jackson's deal with New Line was for a percentage of the gross, he may have been underpaid by $100 million for all three movies, according to his lawyers. | |
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