OXFORD author JRR Tolkien's estate is suing New Line Cinema, the film studio which made the Lord of the Rings trilogy based on his books.

The estate claims the company has not paid it a penny from the estimated $6bn (£3bn) the films have earned worldwide.

The legal action, filed on Monday in Los Angeles, claims New Line was required to pay 7.5 per cent of gross receipts to Tolkien's estate and other plaintiffs.

It includes original Lord of the Rings publisher HarperCollins, who claim they only received an upfront payment of $62,500 (£32,000) before production began.

The estate and the publishing firm are seeking more than $150m (£75m) in compensatory damages, unspecified punitive damages and a court order giving the estate the right to terminate any rights New Line may have to make films based on other works by the author, including The Hobbit.

A spokesman for Time Warner, which owns New Line, declined to comment on the legal action.

But, if successful, it could block the long-awaited prequel to the films, based on The Hobbit, which is expected to boost tourism in Oxford, where fans of Tolkien and his fellow author CS Lewis are offered special interest tours of the city.

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson has agreed to be executive producer on the prequel, which is due to begin production next year, with release planned for 2010.

The lawsuit says that JRR Tolkien established a trust through which he signed a film rights deal in 1969 with the United Artists studio.