As reported by Variety, Hollywood is about to dook it out for the film, games, and merchandising rights to all things Middle Earth, including Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The film production company, Saul Zaentz Co is selling the rights to Tolkien’s most coveted work, putting them up for auction. The rights include films, games, TV shows over eight episodes, live events, merchandise, and even theme parks based on the franchise. It’s unknown who is has their eye on the rights, but whoever they go to will most likely need to have at least $2 billion in their pocket as that’s the expected sale price.
Saul Zaentz Co. was originally founded by legendary film producer Saul Zaentz, who passed away in 2017. Zaentz is best known for his work on Oscar-winning films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus, and The English Patient.
Lord of the Rings is a particularly hot commodity at the moment, as anticipation for Amazon Prime’s upcoming series on the books is only increasing by the day. Amazon’s Rings of Power is due to release on September 2 of this year so the timing of the sale looks to be a strategic plan. Perhaps, Amazon is eyeing up the gaming rights for Middle Earth as well.
Another Tolkien-themed project in the works is Daedalic Entertainment’s recently announced The Lord of the Rings: Gollum game. The upcoming game is a partnership between Deadalic and Middle Earth Enterprises, the latter of which owns Tolkien’s literary rights. The action-adventure game has a current release date of 2022 and will be available across all consoles and PC.
With an in-depth new TV series and a Gollum game in the works, it is certainly a good time to be a Lord of The Rings fan. Let’s hope whoever snatches up the rights to Middle Earth does right by Tolkien’s work.
