Beyond the Tolkien Estate

[Mister Underhill]

Well, it's tough to know what to believe. It seems that Jackson, at least, thinks the museum was blocked by Christopher:

Director Peter Jackson said today (Tuesday) that he has been blocked by Christopher Tolkien, son of the late Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien, from building a museum in New Zealand that would display the thousands of costumes, props, and sets used in the movie trilogy. Jackson told The Australian newspaper that New Line studios, which produced the film, "don't have the legal authority to allow [the museum] to happen. That's kept by the Tolkien estate, and so the Tolkien estate so far have refused."

But I'm not a lawyer, I don't know any of the parties in question, and I haven't seen any contracts and/or legal papers.

It looks like I was dead wrong about the shiremail one, though -- apologies for propagating misinformation on that one.