Clash of the Empires

Clash of the Empires, also released under the title Lord of the Elves, is an American fantasy-adventure film from The Asylum, directed by Joseph Lawson. The cast includes Christopher Judge, Bai Ling, and Sun Korng. The project was originally named Age of the Hobbits and was slated for a direct-to-DVD release on December 11, 2012. Following a trademark infringement lawsuit filed by Warner Bros., a temporary restraining order blocked that release.

The plot follows a prehistoric conflict between a community of Homo floresiensis—referred to as "hobbits"—and their cruel oppressors, the Java Men (also called "Java Men"). These hobbits form an alliance with early humans to fight back. According to The Asylum, the story centers on a young hobbit named Goben, who must team up with neighboring human giants to free his enslaved people and defeat the flesh-eating, dragon-riding Java Men.

The cast includes Christopher Judge as Amthar, Bai Ling as Laylan, and Sun Korng as Goben. Kyle Morris provides Goben's voice, Jon Kondelik voices Gelling, Joseph J. Lawson voices Koto, and Kelly P. Lawson voices the Java Witch Queen.

Warner Bros., the studio behind *The Hobbit* film series, sent a cease-and-desist letter to The Asylum on August 31, 2012. The Asylum responded by modifying some promotional materials but refused to remove the word "hobbit" from the title. In November 2012, Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, MGM, and *The Hobbit* producer Saul Zaentz sued The Asylum over *Age of the Hobbits*, accusing the company of "free-riding" on the marketing campaign for Peter Jackson's upcoming films. The Asylum defended its film, arguing that its hobbits were based on the real-life human subspecies *Homo floresiensis*, discovered in Indonesia in 2003 and commonly called "hobbits" in scientific circles, not on J. R. R. Tolkien's creations. The federal judge overseeing the case ruled that the film violated the "hobbit" trademark and was likely to confuse consumers. This made *Age of the Hobbits* the first Asylum film to be blocked from release. A hearing was set for January 28, 2013, to decide whether the restraining order would become a preliminary injunction.