The movie and video game rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are about to go on sale for an expected $2 billion – with Amazon first in line to buy.
The Saul Zaentz Company, which owns an array of movie, gaming, merchandising, live event, and theme park rights to various J.R.R. Tolkien properties, is selling them at auction later this week according to Variety.
Amazon is reportedly eager to gain the rights to go alongside its Lord of the Rings TV show, The Rings of Power, that releases on September 2 (with a first look coming at the Super Bowl).
The sale also includes limited matching rights if the Tolkien Estate, the legal body that manages Tolkien's work, makes movies or other content based on work published after the author's death.
Warner Bros. maintains some movie rights to The Lord of the Rings through its ownership of New Line Cinema, which produced the live-action film trilogy, but the Saul Zaentz Company believes the rights returned to them in 2021 as Warner Bros. was not actively developing new content. The actual owner of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film rights has been the subject of extensive legal action over the years.
With the Saul Zaentz Company believing it now owns those rights, combined with the excitement caused by Amazon's TV series, it has seemingly decided that now is the time to sell.
Amazon's upcoming TV series, The Rings of Power takes place during the Second Age and has an extensive cast list including Joseph Mawle and Robert Aramayo, and IGN gained an exclusive look behind the scenes of how its title reveal was created.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.
Continue reading...
The Saul Zaentz Company, which owns an array of movie, gaming, merchandising, live event, and theme park rights to various J.R.R. Tolkien properties, is selling them at auction later this week according to Variety.
Amazon is reportedly eager to gain the rights to go alongside its Lord of the Rings TV show, The Rings of Power, that releases on September 2 (with a first look coming at the Super Bowl).
The sale also includes limited matching rights if the Tolkien Estate, the legal body that manages Tolkien's work, makes movies or other content based on work published after the author's death.
Warner Bros. maintains some movie rights to The Lord of the Rings through its ownership of New Line Cinema, which produced the live-action film trilogy, but the Saul Zaentz Company believes the rights returned to them in 2021 as Warner Bros. was not actively developing new content. The actual owner of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film rights has been the subject of extensive legal action over the years.
With the Saul Zaentz Company believing it now owns those rights, combined with the excitement caused by Amazon's TV series, it has seemingly decided that now is the time to sell.
Amazon's upcoming TV series, The Rings of Power takes place during the Second Age and has an extensive cast list including Joseph Mawle and Robert Aramayo, and IGN gained an exclusive look behind the scenes of how its title reveal was created.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.
Continue reading...