The Lord of the Rings is one of the deepest and richest fantasy franchises in the world, with many developers having had the chance to turn its story and setting into video games. Fans often fantasize about what their favorite developers would be able to do if given the keys to the franchise. This week, chances are that developer might be wondering the same thing.
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books written by J.R.R. Tolkien between 1937 and 1949 became some of the best-selling, most beloved books of all time, thought by many to be the quintessential fantasy series. It is no surprise then that when movies and video games came along the rights to transfer these stories and the world of Middle-earth into a different medium were quickly bought up.
But now that chance has come around again as the current property holder, Zaentz Co. has decided to auction off its Tolkien holdings. Now is a prime opportunity to sell the property as Amazon’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series is set to premiere in September this year, drumming up interest in the franchise. The property is expected to sell for a sum in the billions as the sales process is carried out this week, but it is unknown, yet which studio will buy it.
Warner Bros. has had huge success with the property in the past making the massively popular The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies of films under New Line Cinema. WB also has multiple video game studios, so it could really make the most of the property again. However, Warner Bros. owned the rights last year, the rights only reverted to Zaentz Co. because WB weren’t actively developing a new Lord of the Rings title. Warner Bros. may not want to shell out billions to get back what it already had and wasn't using.
Warner Bros. does still own some rights to the Lord of the Rings license however, specifically those of the 2 trilogies of films directed by Peter Jackson, made by its subsidiary New Line Cinema. Warner Bros. last year announced plans for a new anime feature set in the canon of these films, The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim. Whoever buys the rights to make Lord of the Rings video games or films will have to make their own version of the Middle-earth described in Tolkien’s books, the designs, and characters specific to the films still belong to Warner Bros.
The buyer of the rights will most likely be a Hollywood studio focused on developing a film or TV series with the property, but many studios have subsidiary connections to various video game developers. Although, the video game industry is no stranger to billion-dollar buyouts lately and the Lord of the Rings has been hugely successful in gaming from the Shadow of Mordor games to Lord of the Rings Online.
Source: Variety