In a court hearing June 6, Christopher Tolkien will try to terminate the rights to ‘The Hobbit.’ The 83 year old son of J.R.R. Tolkien accuses New Line Cinema of ‘accounting chicanery,’ also known as ‘Hollywood accounting.’ He says the studio still owes his family $160 million of the $6 billion it made from the three pictures. They only received an upfront payment of $62,500, so he claims.

J.R.R. Tolkien, who thought his books were unstageable, is said to have sold the rights for a 7.5% share of profits when he had to pay a tax bill in 1969. And the Tolkien Trust, which is run by Christopher and his sister Priscilla have never been pleased with New Line Cinema’s adaptations. It’s not known how big of a threat this is for the $300 million ‘The Hobbit’ project. New Line Cinema and Time Warner declined to comment.