KEY POINTS:
New Zealand Lord of the Rings actors have followed director Peter Jackson's lead in suing New Line, one of Hollywood's most powerful studios, for spin-off profits.
Mark Ferguson, who played Gil-Galad in the trilogy, is one of 15 Kiwi actors getting litigious over money the actors claim is owed to them from merchandising sales.
Ferguson told the Herald on Sunday that when he opened his personal royalties statement, he was astounded to see that US$9 million ($12m) of merchandising revenue - from the sale of everything from LOTR lunchboxes to T-shirts bearing the image of his character - somehow equated to a US$400,000 ($540,000) loss.
Ferguson says those figures were for his character alone. "I had a small part. God knows what the figures were on Frodo's [statement]." A series of unexpected deductions - such as a 50 per cent distribution fee the actors say they were never told about - supposedly explained the losses recorded on their statements.
The contracts of actors featured on merchandising stated they would get 5 per cent of total "net merchandising revenue", and this would be split among them, depending on the prominence of their characters. Bruce Hopkins, who played Gamling in the films, said yesterday he first approached entertainment lawyers a year and a half ago about the discrepancy.
"It annoys the hell out of me."
He worked to get more actors on board, and on Wednesday, attorney Henry Gradstein filed a lawsuit at the Los Angeles Superior Court on the actors' behalf.
The other actors named in court documents were: Noel Appleby, Jed Brophy, Ray Henwood, William Johnson, Nathaniel Lees, Sarah McLeod, Ian Mune, Paul Norell, Craig Parker, Robert Pollock, Martyn Sanderson, Peter Tait and Stephan Ure.
Ferguson did not wish to speculate on how much he believed he should have received. But he said the studio had either used a "very creative accounting process" or was "just not that good with money".
He said the legal action was about retaining transparency and good faith, a statement echoed by Hopkins, who said that if the actors won the case, it would hopefully raise the standard of contracts made here.
"For me it will be the sort of money where I can buy myself a better car. There might be a couple who could look at a house."
There was a perception that Kiwi actors accepted contracts of the lowest standard, something that needed to be changed so that local thespians "who struggle at the best of times to make a living" wouldn't get walked all over by overseas studio bigwigs.
A spokesman for New Line - involved in a similar dispute with Wellington director Peter Jackson over profits from the fantasy trilogy - has refused to comment on the matter.
