There Are New “Lord Of The Rings” Movies In The Works
The new Lord of the Rings television series for Amazon Prime Video is already expensive as all can fucking be so obviously even more resources need to be devoted to the franchise. It seems that during an earnings call at Warner Bros. Discovery, the CEO David Zalsav announced there were going to be “multiple” new films based on the books coming down the line. Just when you think Hollywood refuses to examine any new ideas for narratives, they prove to you they really absolutely never will.
Variety says that on the call, it was revealed that studio heads, Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, brokered a deal with Embracer Group AB, the owner of the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. The first Peter Jackson-directed films earned almost $3 billion globally, and so did the following three The Hobbit films that also came out; so those rights don’t come cheap! Not to mention the movies also were nominated for 30 Academy Awards and won 17 of them, including Best Picture for the final of the original trilogy, Return of the King.
No filmmakers have been attached to the projects as yet, but in a statement to Variety, Jackson and his main Lord of the Rings collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens said Warner Bros. and Embracer “have kept us in the loop every step of the way.”
“We look forward to speaking with them further to hear their vision for the franchise moving forward,” Jackson, Walsh and Boyens said.
Freemode, a division of Embracer Group, made the adaptive rights deal for books including The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The pact will be billed under the name Middle-earth Enterprises.
Notably, De Luca and Abdy left MGM last year to take the helm of Warner Bros. Their exit followed the acquisition of MGM by Amazon — the tech giant owns the TV rights to Lord of the Rings and produced a single season of television at the gut-busting price of over $450 million in 2022.
“Following our recent acquisition of Middle-earth Enterprises, we’re thrilled to embark on this new collaborative journey with New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures, bringing the incomparable world of J.R.R. Tolkien back to the big screen in new and exciting ways,” said Lee Guinchard, CEO of Freemode. “We understand how cherished these works are and working together with our partners at New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures, we plan to honor the past, look to the future, and adhere to the strongest level of quality and production values.”
De Luca and Abdy recalled that New Line had previously “took an unprecedented leap of faith to realize the incredible stories, characters and world of The Lord of the Rings on the big screen… but for all the scope and detail lovingly packed into the two trilogies, the vast, complex and dazzling universe dreamed up by J.R.R. Tolkien remains largely unexplored.”
Honestly, are we really doing this again–we’re about to get nine more hours of mythical people with British accents using fantasy terms I will not understand until maybe midway through the second movie? And I wonder what story is left untold from Middle-Earth. I’m probably not going to be interested unless it’s some kind of rom-com about an Uruk-Hai who learns to speak English so he can flirt with an elven maiden who keeps trying to kill him. I don’t think J. R. R. Tolkien would consider that canon, but still! Shake things up a little with something unexpected!
Pic: Warner Bros. Discovery