After months of duking it out with New Line in the courts (and in public), it appears as if a path may have finally been cleared for Peter Jackson to return to Middle-earth.

We aren't going to get heavily into the details here -- we are only humble gossipmongers without law degrees, after all, and the court case between Jackson and New Line involves armies of attorneys and roughly $300 gazillion -- but this week, a judge rapped the studio on the knuckles for failing to provide key documents. New Line now must pay a $125,000 sanction, and has until Tuesday to turn over internal audits relating to disputed profits from the Lord of the Rings movies.

It sounds like a perfectly boring detail from a big ol' lawsuit, but it's potentially meaningful for Lord of the Rings fans, because the judge's decision could very well open up negotiations for a settlement between Jackson and New Line...and, in the process, set wheels in motion for The Hobbit. As Entertainment Weekly puts it:

At this writing, no agreements have been announced and details of the negotiations are sketchy (neither New Line nor Jackson's camp would comment to EW on any aspect of this story), but sources close to the talks tell us that they're detecting a lot less frost in the air, and that a deal may be reached that could help usher J.R.R. Tolkien's maiden Middle-earth masterpiece to screens before the end of the decade.

''There has been a détente,'' says one insider. "There is now the beginning of a discourse between Peter Jackson and New Line that's running parallel to the litigation proceedings.''

There's a lot more to the story, obviously -- but luckily for you, to read a fairly comprehensive, five-page rundown of the whole thing, all you've got to do is click on the link below. Get clickin'!

Source: Entertainment Weekly