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LOTRCU
Ha, made the same joke to my cohosts. (We are not sanguine.)
Here's the key part here:
Freemode, a division of Embracer Group, made the adaptive rights deal for books including “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit.” The pact will be billed under the name Middle-earth Enterprises.
Embracer, who have been hoovering up a LOT of things, took over the rights from the 'original' as such Middle-earth Enterprises, who cashed out about a year back after holding onto them for fifty years -- that was the company that Saul Zaentz organized when he got the Hobbit/LOTR film rights in the early 70s, after they were briefly held by UA directly. Everything you've seen since on a cinematic or staging front, plus various other merchandising things that fall under that general umbrella, ultimately were controlled/licensed from the Zaentz team, first as Tolkien Enterprises and then as Middle-earth Enterprises as noted, a name this new venture is now incorporating. (The Rankin-Bass adaptations were the weird stepchildren that fell into an unclear rights void.) Anyway, by this I mean Bakshi's film, the two Jackson trilogies, even the stage musical from the 2000s.
akm is correct on what these are or aren't supposed to be. They could, if they wanted to, go for remakes. They could do works derived from Hobbit/LOTR. Embracer made noises about doing separate films based on characters a while back. That they've partnered with Warner Bros rather than doing something separate does make a certain sense; WB would like to hold on to their franchise opportunities and Embracer doesn't have to build from the ground up. In ways, this is just a recalibration of the original Zaentz situation when it came to dealing with studios/producers interested in developing things.
If you're wondering about how the Amazon show exactly fits into all this: Amazon used a carveout in the rights specifically regarding TV. They can do whatever they want within the scope of that deal, but it applies strictly to Hobbit/LOTR material, nothing more, which is why so much of the first season was, in essence, invented nonsense.
It's worth further noting that all this is due to Tolkien himself agreeing to a rights deal back in the late 60s, which specifically only covered the two key works published at the time, Hobbit and LOTR. Everything else published since is the estate's to deal with, and Christopher Tolkien absolutely refused any further licensing or rights deals. His own son Simon is now the de facto head of the estate and they were willing to do the Amazon setup precisely because it gave them some space for negotiation themselves, as far as we can tell, but that was it, and none of the posthumous publications have had their rights sold, from The Silmarillion on. Until or unless that changes, anything further developed in this new deal has to essentially be, much like the Amazon series, invented fanfic, with vague head-nods towards canon as such.
BTW, the Mike De Luca mentioned in the Variety piece has his own history with New Line and WB. Frankly I'm not thrilled to see his name back here, per this 2011 piece. I remember when he was originally fired from New Line:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/confessions-mike-de-luca-161111/
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 23 February 2023 22:51 (one year ago) link
this time they can get some important things RIGHT
* more bombadil
* eagles carry the ring
• "one does not simply walk into mordor" (three-seat tandem)
• turning back roald dahl-style to the uncensored early texts, galadriel is a GNOME
― mark s, Saturday, 25 February 2023 23:12 (one year ago) link
two weeks pass...
one year passes...
i made my kid read the mere description for The Sword of Shannara and he was absolutely appalled.
i think the "Soon a Skull Bearer, dread minion of Evil, flew into the Vale, seeking to destroy Shea. To save the Vale, Shea fled, drawing the Skull Bearer after him...." actually angered him.
― omar little, Monday, 1 April 2024 16:38 (three weeks ago) link
Have enjoyed this twitter discussion this weekend
https://i.postimg.cc/zfFGD39T/IMG-9206.png
Keeping it to the Fellowship only, I agree with the main analysis that Frodo and Aragorn should swap; Frodo hasn’t got the arm for right field and you can hide him in left. I don’t think a hobbit should be shortstop, frankly, that should be Legolas.
Someone was saying “You can’t have a hobbit play second” to which someone responded “the Astros run out Altuve at second every day”. The hobbits are a problem for the infield, but you’ve got to play them. Boromir has to cover the hot corner to prevent it becoming a complete shitshow and you just hold your breath with the right side of the infield.
Durin’s Bane and Gandalf have an epic battle. DB keeps fouling off pitches, Gandalf keeps coming with the craziest shit you’ve ever seen. It’s a stalemate. Ultimately DB strikes out but Gandalf gets pulled due to pitch count. Who comes in, in relief? What???
Gandalf the White!— Tyson, Lewis’ Number 🍉 (@TyMoIsSecret) April 13, 2024
If you’re playing Legolas at shortstop that means a hobbit in CF unless you move Aragorn to centre but with Sam at first you need someone with range in RF cos otherwise everything’s getting hit that side, so you have Legolas at shortstop and hope his speed and athleticism means he can basically cover the whole middle.
I bet Gandalf throws filth.
― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Monday, 15 April 2024 10:39 (one week ago) link