Rings Actors Nearly Mutiny

[Lorien1]

Rings Actors Nearly Mutiny

Newsweek is reporting this week that the Lord of the Rings cast nearly staged a mini-mutiny against New Line, the studio that financed Peter Jackson's epic trilogy of movies, over the issue of bonuses. Early this year, the magazine reported, the studio offered some cast members an initial round of bonuses for The Two Towers. But though the movie was a bigger hit than the first movie, The Fellowship of the Ring, the bonuses were smaller and left far more cast members out in the cold, the magazine reported.

After failing to win assurances from New Line that there would be a more equitable offering in the future, 18 actors reportedly banded together and composed a letter to Time Warner chairman Richard Parsons pleading their case, Newsweek reported.

The actors never sent the letter, ultimately convinced that going over New Line's head to Parsons would harm relations with the studio. Instead, the actors made a "vigorous appeal" to New Line executive vice president Mark Ordesky. The studio eventually struck a more egalitarian deal for both The Two Towers and The Return of the King, paying cast members above and beyond their profit-participation deals and even rewarding the many actors with no deal in place at all, Newsweek reported. Return of the King, the last film in the trilogy, opens Dec. 17.

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After watching all the actors went through to bring the films to life, they deserve every dime and much more.