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The Wall Street Journal, reporting on New Line Cinema’s settlement with Peter Jackson (he of “Lord of the Rings” trilogy fame), noted the following in their December 19, 2007 edition:

“After more than two years of acrimonious litigation over profits from the ‘Lord of the Rings’ franchise, filmmaker Peter Jackson and studio New Line Cinema have settled the lawsuit and agreed to return again to Middle-earth for a two-movie installment based on
J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit.’

“The settlement, for an undisclosed amount, comes at an
important juncture for New Line, which has struggled to establish new
franchises that can fill the void left by its successful ‘Rings’
franchise. News of the agreement comes on the heels of the
disappointing U.S. box-office performance of ‘The Golden Compass,’ New Line’s latest attempt at franchise gold. In its first 10 days, the film
— which cost as much as $180 million to make — has brought in only
$42 million domestically.

“The studio, a unit of Time Warner Inc., was hoping ‘The Golden Compass,’ the first installment of British author Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy, would be the
beginning of another blockbuster series of films akin to ‘Lord of the Rings.’ ‘Rings’ grossed almost $3 billion world-wide.

“Now, with the tepid domestic performance of ‘Compass,’ New Line co-heads Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne say no decision has been made about a sequel, which was once considered a near certainty.”

Perhaps Tolkien and Lewis are not the talent-starved dead white men that fans of Mr. Pullman’s film led us to believe.