If there is one thing better than being paid £100million, it is being paid £100million for doing absolutely nothing.
And that's the happy position film producer Saul Zaentz finds himself in. The Oscar-winner, who clearly has the magic touch when it comes to business as well as movies, produced a cartoon version of Lord Of The Rings nearly 30 years ago.
And he was clever enough to retain the worldwide film, stage and merchandise rights to the Tolkien trilogy.
That meant when Peter Jackson came along and turned the stories into a 17-Oscar-winning trio of films, Zaentz simply had to sit back and collect the royalties. There was the matter of a legal battle with Hollywood studio New Line Cinema but it eventually agreed to the payout.
Things have not always been so easy for the 84-year-old producer. He initially wanted to make a live action movie of the books but financial pressures meant he was forced to opt for an animated version.
After being beset by money problems-again, the films came to an abrupt end after the battle of Helm's Deep - part way through the second book.
As for New Line, which made more than £1.6billion at the worldwide box office, it seems to make court battles over the Lord Of The Rings money a bit of a Hobbit.
It also faces a claim by Peter Jackson, who says the firm withheld his share of profits from the first film.
