The latest twist in the 2-1/2-year battle between director Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema over profits from "Lord of the Rings" is a $125,000 sanction against the studio for failing to hand over potential evidence. Jackson believes this ruling could help him prove that accounting tricks cheated him out of tens of millions of dollars in profits.

At the moment, the battle concerns only the first film of the Rings trilogy so, like Tolkien's epic, this case could run, and run, and run, and run, and......

Reuters