Judge blocks Hobbit 'mockbuster'

A temporary restraining order has been granted by a California judge over a low-budget 'mockbuster' called 'The Age of the Hobbits'.

Warner Bros, makers of 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey', set in motion the legal proceedings against the film, produced by renowned mockbuster studio The Asylum, when the film emerged in the summer.

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The studio, MGM, New Line Cinema and producer Saul Zaentz brought the case which objected to the similarity of the project, in particular in name, to their own Peter Jackson-directed production.

It was claimed that the release could cause confusion between the two films.

Asylum used the fact that it had 'fair use' over the phrase 'hobbit', which refers to an actual human sub-species discovered in Indonesia in 2003 called homo floresiensis.

But judge Philip Gutierrez did not agree.

“Given that Homo Floresiensis received the nickname 'Hobbit' specifically because of its resemblance to Tolkien's fictional hobbits, the Court finds Asylum's argument that its movie is wholly unrelated to Tolkien's work because it is about Homo Floresiensis to be disingenuous,” he said in agreeing the injunction.

Asylum has some prolific form in the business of mockbusters.

Other dubiously similar titles have included 'Transmorphers', 'The Day The Earth Stopped', 'The Terminators' and 'Paranormal Entity'.