Elijah Wood as Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring. Photo / Supplied
Elijah Wood as Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring. Photo / Supplied
Warner Bros Pictures and New Line Cinema have announced they’re heading back to Middle-earth.
The studio has struck a multi-year deal with Swedish gaming company Embracer Group – which currently holds the rights to produce JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings into films, games, merchandise, theme park attractions and liveproductions.
Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav revealed the deal this week, explaining that new studio bosses Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy had negotiated to make “multiple” films based on the hugely popular books, which will be developed through New Line Cinema.
Amazon still holds the TV rights to Lord of the Rings, and released the first season of its blockbuster budget The Rings of Power series on Prime Video last year. Filming on its second season is currently underway in the United Kingdom.
Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in The Rings of Power. Photo / Supplied
It’s currently unclear what the new films will be focused on: Amazon’s new series tells stories from the lesser-known Second Age, while Peter Jackson’s original LOTR trilogy was set in the Third Age, when most of Tolkien’s most famous characters lived.
The announcement that Tolkien’s beloved works will be revamped in cinemas comes 20 years after director Jackson’s LOTR trilogy wrapped up with 2003′s Return of the King.
The three films collectively raked in US$3 billion ($3.27b) at the box office, pulled off 17 Oscar wins from a whopping 30 nominations, attracted widespread critical praise and reshaped the movie-making landscape with its special effects.
Jackson later returned to direct The Hobbit trilogy – released between 2012 and 2014 – which received less favourable reviews than its predecessor but still proved a financial slam dunk at the global box office with a US$2.93b ($3.2b) profit.
Following the new announcement, Jackson and his LOTR collaborators, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, released a statement to Variety stating that Warner Bros. had “kept us in the loop every step of the way”, adding that they “look forward to speaking with them further to hear their vision for the franchise moving forward”.
