A while back, new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO Davis Zaslav announced his company’s intention to focus on major franchises: your Harry Potters, your Game of Thrones, your Lords of the Rings. Now, Deadline reports that New Line Cinema (the folks that released Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies) has teamed up with Warner Bros Pictures (the folks that released Jackson’s Hobbit movies) and Embracer Group AB’s Middle-earth Enterprises (the folks that own a lot of screen rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit) to make new films set in Middle-earth.
“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 Embracer exec Lee Guinchard. “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.”
Warner Bros Pictures Group co-chairs and CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy weighed in as well: “Twenty years ago, New Line took an unprecedented leap of faith to realize the incredible stories, characters and world of The Lord of the Rings on the big screen. The result was a landmark series of films that have been embraced by generations of fans. 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 on film. The opportunity to invite fans deeper into the cinematic world of Middle-earth is an honor, and we are excited to partner with Middle-earth Enterprises and Embracer on this adventure.”
Nine years after The Hobbit and 20 after The Lord of the Rings, Warner Bros. will return to Middle-earth
It’s true that the mythology conceived by J.R.R. Tolkien is vast, but while there may be corners of the world not explored onscreen, Tolkien’s two most popular stories — The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit — have both been adapted to film. It makes you wonder what Warner Bros. plans to make this time…unless they just want to retell those stories.
The major Tolkien work that has yet to be adapted in any meaningful way is The Silmarillion, which tells the story of the First Age of Middle-earth, when elves were plentiful and Sauron was just an underling to Morgoth, the original Dark Lord. Meanwhile, Amazon beat out Netflix and struck a deal with the Tolkien estate to make a TV show based on Tolkien’s work; that would be The Rings of Power, which is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth. (The rights to Tolkien’s stuff are spread all over the place; it’s a mess.)
Meanwhile, New Line and Warner Bros Animation are working on an animated movie called The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, set 183 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings. Everything is coming up Middle-earth all of a sudden!
Maybe these new films will be fantastic, but I’m giving them the side eye. Despite the protests of the execs, they’re running low on source material and will probably have to make movies based on wisps of text from Tolkien’s books…again, unless they adapt The Silmarillion or just retell old stories, which I wouldn’t put past them. Our watchful peace begins.
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