Or no Hobbits at all...

[davem]

Originally Posted by Sauron the White

Will a check get them to back off on claimsto strip NL of rights? Or is it in the interests of the Estate to tie this up in years of litigation hoping to stop the films altogether?

Hmm....'Cash or kudos' as Humphrey Carpenter had it...

The Estate could accrue a lot of money from more movies - except they may not trust NLC to pay it. Its a gamble. If the only way they could get profits out of NLC for a Hobbit movie & sequel is to go through this kind of , er, hassle all over again they may feel they don't want to bother & stop NLC producing any more movies & try their luck with whoever leases the rights from Zaentz next.