The ongoing battle between Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema took another turn as a judge issued a $125,000 fine against the studio for not turning over requested documents.
According to litigator Neville Johnson, who has had a number of battles with the studios in the past, this is a highly unusual step by the judge, in that it is a common practice for entertainment lawyers to play around with access to documents. He said, "It's almost unheard of. You rarely see sanctions, and you certainly don't see sanctions that high."
Along with the fine, the judge has also ordered the studio to turn over the documents by Tuesday, and also hire a retrieval service to scan the emails, documents and electronic filed connected to the case. That could add another $1 million to the costs.
Peter Jackson claims the studio used shady tricks to cheat him out of millions of dollars. This lawsuit is only addressing the first of the three films. If things start to go Jackson's way, and New Line offers a settlement, it'll more than likely have to cover the other "Rings" films as well, which Jackson has made identical claims on.
It looks like we won't be seeing any action on the Hobbit film until all this is resolved. It could go on for a long time unfortunately.
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