Warner Bros. Discovery has announced that it plans to head to Middle-earth with a new series of Lord of the Rings films.
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During its quarterly earnings call on Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced that the company is planning a new series of Lord of the Rings films. No timeline or creatives have been announced for the project as of yet. All the company could say for now is that it has brokered a deal for ‘multiple’ films based on the J.R.R. Tolkien books.
Variety spoke with Peter Jackson who directed the Lord of the Rings films, and he confirmed that he and his collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens have spoken with the studio about the project. He said that they “have kept us in the loop every step of the way.” He went on to add, “We look forward to speaking with them further to hear their vision for the franchise moving forward.”
Freemode, a division of Embracer Group, currently holds the film and game rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit novels. All work on these properties will happen under the name of Middle-earth Enterprises.
“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,” Lee Guinchard, CEO of Freemode, said in a statement. “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.”
Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, co-chairs of Warner Bros. Pictures, said that the studio “took an unprecedented leap of faith to realize the incredible stories, characters and world of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ on the big screen … 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.”
This is a separate deal from the current Rings of Power series streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video service, and no word on if there will be any attempt to make the stories connect.
