It looks lie the Tolkien Estate is in a selling mood. I bet Amazon/Bezos are not pleased with this competition. It still looks like The Silmarillion rights are still locked up, but that's probably just a matter of time. New 'Lord of the Rings' movie series in the works at Warner Bros. | CNN It is one of the most beloved movie series of all time, but Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy only scratched the surface of the rich world of Middle-earth created by J.R.R. Tolkien. And “multiple” new movies set in Middle-earth are in the works, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced on Thursday in an earnings call, after studio heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy signed a deal with Freemode, a division of Swedish entertainment company Embracer Group, which acquired the movie rights to Tolkien’s work in August last year. (Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent company of CNN.) Warner Bros. will produce the movies together with sister company New Line Cinema and Freemode, “expanding upon the much-loved world and characters of Middle-earth,” a statement released by Embracer read. Currently, New Line and Warner Bros. Animation are in production on an anime movie “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim,” a story set 183 years before the events of “The Lord of the Rings,” recounting the fate of Helm Hammerhand, a King of Rohan. Neither the cost of the deal nor the creative team were revealed, although Jackson and his collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens told CNN in a statement that Warner Bros. and Embracer have kept them “in the loop” and that they “look forward to speaking with them further to hear their vision for the franchise moving forward.”
Exactly. No idea why anyone would think this is good news... unless they're the easily pleased and relentlessly enthusiastic crowd? The originals are top-notch. Everything else will always pale in comparison. What's the point?
Let's not break LOTR like Star Wars. Also, let's not pretend the books are a great read. Just stop with that nonsense.
They are an entertaining read. If they weren’t I don’t think they would have been as widely read or made into movies.
Not interested in the slightest I can see a revisionist version coming, like the Amazon one, of the middle earth with black elves and all that global agenda stuff
I think it's good news but you can't judge it until it happens. IE, the movies and stuff haven't been made yet. I am hoping they are good.
I can't say I'm very excited, but I can't say Jackson's films should be definitive Tolkien either. The more I watch them, the worse they get. In the hands of a better director, there could be significant improvement.
Jackson's part 1 of LOTR was great and part 2 was brilliant. I fell asleep during part 3. The Hobbit was a travesty.
Well, I would agree if they keep rehashing source material from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The Silmarillion could make several great films of never before filmed Tolkien stories, in the right hands, but it has not been licensed yet so you get all of these retreads. As always, opinions will vary.
The way I look at them-Jackson, like Lucas “Star Wars” films got better than just got worse. there’s only so much material to work with.
The problem is that the original trilogy was done by a visionary, who spent about a dozen years being invested in the project, as an independent project with next to no interference from the studio whereas all of the other LOTR material is being done by studios more concerned with hype, woke messages such as diversity, and presentation than content, quality storytelling, great acting, etc. So again, unless these studios make the movies people *want* to see, the only people who gain are those in the crew who have a job for a few months. It otherwise is entirely pointless... IMHO, YMMV, etc.
It always warms my heart when movies are mentioned in the course of an earnings call. [insert vomit omoticon]
They may not be definitive Tolkien but they are definitive Jackson-it’s his version of the films. As to a ‘better director’ Improving them, I don’t see it. I can see a different interpretation. Say whatever you will about Jackson’s films but they were a passion project and it’s clear a Jackson loved the source.
I’m just a-wonderin’ what material is in play if Silmarillion is tied up? Reboots (essentially)? Won’t rush to judgement but not gettin’ good vibes….
I can't say I'm very excited by this. I love Tokien but I fear that the studios are going to run his legacy into the ground just like Disney did with Star Wars and Marvel. And not everything needs to be made into a film. Is it too much to expect people to actually read the freaking books?
