Ahoy, squirts! Quint here again with the response out of Wingnut about this whole mess that Bob Shaye made when he publicly attacked Peter Jackson today. This is all starting to get into a side of the business that I really hate and AICN rarely covers. I felt comfortable posting the Bob Shaye comments because that seriously affected the future HOBBIT movie. I'm posting this because it's only fair to print Jackson's response, although I don't think he needed to respond. I think Bob Shaye did more damage than good for himself with his comments.

Some pretty crazy shit's going down. I had a theory that I posted in the talkback to the previous article and reading the below makes me believe it even more.

Someone sued Paramount over COMING TO AMERICA in which the books on that film were opened and audited. That lawsuit resulted in Eddie Murphy, having nothing to do with the lawsuit, getting a crazy amount of money and never having to go to court. The studio was cheating everybody, so they were forced to pay everybody, not just the person who sued.

It sounds to me like New Line isn't risking just having to pay Jackson what they owe him, but if the books on all 3 movies are made public, they could owe so many more people money. Or they could have completely fulfilled their contractual obligations to everybody, but then why would they deny access to a contracted party? And why would they do everything they could to make it go away, roll it in with that deal for Jackson to direct HOBBIT? It's looking more and more like New Line cooked the books a bit and shortchanged at least Jackson, if not more we don't know about.

The seedy underbelly of Hollywood... I hate dwelling on this stuff, so unless any further comments are directly related to Middle Earth, or a kiss and make-up party happens, this'll be the last I post on this topic.

Here's the official statement from Wingnut:

"Our issue with New Line Cinema has only ever been about their refusal to account for financial anomalies that surfaced from a partial audit of The Fellowship of the Ring. Contrary to recent comments made by Bob Shaye, we attempted to discuss the issues raised by the Fellowship audit with New Line for over a year but the studio was and continues to be completely uncooperative. This has compelled us to file a lawsuit to pursue our contractual rights under the law. Nobody likes taking legal action, but the studio left us with no alternative.

For over two years, New Line has denied us the ability to audit The Two Towers and The Return of the King, despite repeated requests. Film auditing is a common and straightforward practice within the industry and we don't understand why New Line Cinema has taken this position.

In light of these circumstances, I didn't think it was appropriate for me to be involved in New Line Cinema's 40th Anniversary video. I have never discussed this video with any of the cast of The Lord of the Rings. The issues that Bob Shaye has with the cast pre-date this law suit by many years.

Fundamentally, our legal action is about holding New Line to it's contractual obligations and promises. It is regrettable that Bob has chosen to make it personal. I have always had the highest respect and affection for Bob and other senior management at New Line and continue to do so."