Jeff Bezos & J. R. R. Tolkien’s Estate Hit With $250 Million Lawsuit Over Amazon’s ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Series
April 17 2023, Published 2:30 p.m. ET
Jeff Bezos & the estate of J. R. R. Tolkien are being accused of ripping off a screenwriter’s work for their $1 billion series, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, a writer named Demetrious Polychron filed a $250 million lawsuit against Bezos, several Amazon Studio execs, and J. R. R. Tolkien’s estate. The suit accuses the defendants of copyright infringement.
In 2022, Amazon released The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which was a fantasy series set thousands of years before the events in The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings.
In the lawsuit, Polychron said he created, wrote and published an original book entitled The Fellowship of the King and conceived an entire seven-book series, The War of the Rings.
The writer said he obtained a copyright for the book in 2017. His work was heavily influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien’s books.
In November 2017, the writer claimed he sent a letter to Tolkien’s grandson explaining his love of the Lord of the Ring books, and told him about his books. Polychron claimed he asked if Tolkien’s relative would review his book.
However, he said he received no response.
Two years later, he hired a lawyer to reach out to Tolkien’s estate. However, he said they responded by rebuffing any attempt at collaboration.
Polychron claimed he left a copy of his manuscript at Tolkien’s grandson’s home in 2019. He said he was never contacted.
The writer said the estate then signed a $250 million deal with Amazon to create the series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. He said the show “copied largely from” his book.
Polychron said while his book was inspired by Lord of the Rings, his work had separate and distinct characters and storylines from the LOTR series.
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His suit claimed, “These wholly original distinct and separate characters and storylines compose as much as one-half of the 8-episode series as released and published by Defendants. In many cases, Defendants copied exact language” from his book.
“In other instances, Defendants copied images that match the book cover and descriptions as created in the book as authored by Polychron,” the suit read.
Polychron has demanded $250 million in damages for the alleged copyright infringement.
