Despite the belief by many devoted fans of the LOTR books that there would be no further movies made about Middle-Earh, aside from the possibility of a “Hobbit” movie, now comes word that the studio is very interested in pursuing further movies in the universe created by the mega-smash LOTR trilogy. At this time they are open to either a series of prequels or sequels to the existing trilogy, hopefully with Peter Jackson at the helm, although I’d guess he would want to move on to other projects.
Anyway, I figure that the prequel idea would have more basis in Tolkein’s world seeing how he mapped out an entire chronology of the world of Middle Earth, but with precious little about what happened afterwards. It’d be interesting to see who they would get to film new movies if Jackson passes in any case. I can see the Hobbit being a reality by 2007, with a further series of LOTR movies perhaps in 2011-2013.
A non-Tolkien sourced movie set in Middle Earth? How could you do that without the Tolkien estate coming down on you like a ton of bricks?
If you remove the major characters, historical context and basic chronology you wind up with elves, dwarves and the other random abominations that movies like Dungeons & Dragons offer up.
Not gonna happen.
There will be a live action Hobbit because Tolkien already sold the movie rights to that book, but there is no way in hell the Tolkien estate would allow a Middle-Earth story not based on the books.
The only way ANYONE would get away with it in court would be a James Bond-type solution, claiming the movie is a “retelling” of the LOTR or the Hobbit, and I doubt that would go over well anyway.
More likely are movie series based on other fantasy series or worlds, such as Dragonlance or something.
I follow the industry pretty closely, and this is the first I’ve heard anything like this. It’s inevitable that when a movie makes as much money as the LOTR movies have, the Gucci-loafered slime demons slither out of their holes looking for a piece of the pie, but their speculative rumormongering rarely has anything to do with actual reality. Can I get a cite on your source?
New Line only has the rights to make movies based on LOTR. It does not own the rights to make a movie based on the Silmarillion, or on any prequel/sequel stories Tolkien wrote that are not contained in LOTR. The current Tolkien estate has made it clear it has no interest in selling the rights to those stories…not even for dumptrucks full of cash.
New Line does, however, own the rights to the material in the Appendices to LOTR. So it could, for example, make a movie based on the life of Aragorn as a young man. (Concievably New Line could also make up entirely new stories using Tolkien’s character, so long as they did not impinge on copyrighted Tolkien works they do not own the rights to.)
Spin-offs are unlikely to happen any time soon, though. Jackson is very unlikely to agree to work on any Tolkien spin-off other than The Hobbit. It’s going to be very hard to get any of the LOTR stars back without Jackson. And without Jackson or the stars, the value of the LOTR/Tolkien name on the movie is much diminished.
This all sounds like a negotiation tactic. New Line is mired in a rights battle with United Artists over distribution rights for The Hobbit. New Line seems to be saying, “if you don’t sell us distrubution rights to The Hobbit, we’ll make our own Tolkien movies anyway and leave you out in the cold.”
It’s not a terribly credible threat, though, since a non-Hobbit/non-Jackson spin-off would probably earn only a fraction of what a proper Hobbit adaptation would do at the box office.
Well, they could take short portions out from the book. Luthien and Beren will make a good movie, so will the fall of Numenor and the fall of Gondolin (sp?). Legions of balrogs! I would want to see that!
I hadn’t thought of that. Does anyone know what the situation IS? If you have the film rights to a book, does that typically give you the rights to make further movies ‘inspired by’ but not based directly on the book, eg. set in the same world? What about in this case?
In another thread someone was speculating that hidden clauses in the contract required the film to be true to the book in some ways; if so, it would seem unlikley it would allow a future entirley made up film.
Of course, I have a really bad premonition about LOTR fan-fiction being on screen, but there you go.
Let us hope the Tolkien estate protects Middle Earth. If Hollywood slimeballs want to cash in there’s always the “work” of Terry Brooks. I could go on but I think I’d be repeating what Grey said quite well in the 1st reply.
The story of Beren and Tunuviel with a brief history of the Simarils would be fantastic on film, and could be tied into the LotR through Galadriel. It was her rejection of Feanor that got the whole ball rolling anyway As well, Fingolfin’s challenge to Morgoth and the siege of Angband would be amazing to see as well. The Witch King’s “scary” performance would look like a marionette in comparison.
I was under the impression that the Silmarillion was off-limits due to Tolkien’s son owning the rights. Tolkien himself sold The Hobbit and LoTR, but the Silmarillion wasn’t finished. I can’t find the quote now, but his son has put it in some fairly harsh words what he feels about a movie being made of the material.
Yes, they are. Apparently Tolkien only did sell the movie rights for the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. As for the Hobbit, I believe that the movie right lies with New Line, but the distribution rights lie with Warner Brothers, or some other company. That’s where the tangle is, I believe, unless New Line somehow manage to get the Distribution Rights too.
Quite bad, in general. Christopher Tolkien hated the movies, and even disowned a grandson who praised the movie (I believe he appeared in a cameo in Return of the King - but I’m not sure if it is the same guy). Also, PJ is trying to set up a museum to house all the props used in the movie, but the Tolkien estate doesn’t agree. PJ even says the Tolkien Estates are making life difficult for them regarding the museum.
Throughout the entire making of the movie, the Tolkien Estate repeatedly insist they have nothing to do with that and at one time even complain that the recently movies bring unwanted attention to the family members, and they hated that.
So to be realistic, I doubt we will see any more of Tolkien’s work on the silver screen. Actually, Farmer Giles of Ham would make a goold children’s movie…
I know Christopher Tolkien would never sell the Silmarillion rights, but who knows what will happen once he’s dead. I doubt anyone can say with any certainty what kind of attitude the Tolkien estate will have toward adaptations and dumptrucks full of money once he’s out of the picture. Personally, I’d like to see the adventures of young Aragorn – travels in the south and east, young Denethor, tutoring sessions from Gandalf and Elrond – it could be great if it were well cast and had decent production values. I’d much rather see invented stories in that vein than post-LOTR stuff.
As well, Fingolfin’s challenge to Morgoth and the siege of Angband would be amazing to see as well. The Witch King’s “scary” performance would look like a marionette in comparison.