Shock: Hollywood Screws Peter Jackson Out of $100 Million

So he alleges, anyway.

He claims New Line didn't allow competitive bidding for some ancillary (merchandising) rights for the films but instead gave the rights to other companies in the Time Warner family in a bit of self-dealing.

Time Warner denies, saying that "most" rights went to outside companies.

"Most."

Sort of a problem.

I'd like to see Republicans screw Hollywood and do a general public service. Hollywood's accounting practices are notoriously shady. They should hold hearings on that and maybe pass legislation to clean up Hollywood's business practices.

For example, the original two guys who pitched the original Batman movie were given "net points" in the profits when the project was taken away from them. Everyone knows "net points" are a polite way of saying "fuck you," because Hollywood always claims that no film ever makes a net profit and thus net points are worthless.

But... Batman went on to gross over a billion dollars. You'd have to think in this one instance Hollywood would be compelled to admit that yes, they'd made a profit, and therefore they owe someone some cash, right?

Wrong. At least as of a few years ago, Warner Bros. was still claiming that the original Batman had not turned a profit. They have some system where they charge the costs of failed films against the costs of profitable films and thereby claim the profitable films really weren't profitable at all.

Which doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, and anyway, it's almost certainly total bullshit.

Hollywood is the Enron of the left. Why not force these people into more transparent and sensible accounting? It's only fair... and the studios would hate it.

Then again, the producers and stars and writers and directors might appreciate it, so who knows, there might be some influential people better inclined towards the Republican Party.

posted by Ace at 11:02 AM

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