News Lord of the Rings IP Goes Up for Sale

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Zachary

Zachary

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Sep 23, 2009
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Hard to know how much of a theme park story this is yet, but it certainly has the potential to be an enormous one. The rights to use the Lord of the Rings IP in movies, games, theme parks, and more are going to the highest bidder.

One imagines that, at the very least, Disney and Comcast/Universal are going to be at the table here.

variety.com

‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’ Film and Gaming Rights Up for Sale (EXCLUSIVE)

Hollywood is about to stampede into Middle Earth. An array of movie, merchandising, gaming and live event rights to “Lord of the Rings,” “The Hobbit” and other titles from a…
variety.com variety.com
 
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Merboy said:
Holy (and I cannot emphasize this enough) moly. The Tolkien Foundation has jealously protected the rights to the IP forever. This is wild.
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Yeah this is not something I expected to see ANY time soon. I guess after the wonderful success of the hobbit movies they figured what's the use /s
 
To be fair, I can't really see the Universal or Disney parks buying the IP anytime soon unless they already have somewhere to use it.

Universal already has transitioned from Merlin to Harry Potter, doubt they'd have a use for yet another wizard/fantasy property.

Though Disney had sorcerer Mickey as the wizard, which isn't really a concern, my guess is their whole Star Wars and Marvel IPs are going to keep them going for a long time to come.

Edit: to counter myself, they could also buy simply to add it to the list of other IPs they control for either future use or as a speculative venture in the probability another party is interested in licensing it.
 
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This is one I could see someone unexpected jumping on. Maybe someone with minimal US footprint that wants to break in.
 
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Amazon will win in any bidding war. Then later they will lease out the theme park rights, or possibly buy out some chains and take over that market too. I feel like it's either them or Disney.
 
Cedar Fair should jump all over this and dump their Peanuts theme. They could retheme kids areas around the Shire and incorporate other parts into their events particularly the Halloween events.
 
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Zachary said:
Hard to know how much of a theme park story this is yet, but it certainly has the potential to be an enormous one. The rights to use the Lord of the Rings IP in movies, games, theme parks, and more are going to the highest bidder.

One imagines that, at the very least, Disney and Comcast/Universal are going to be at the table here.

variety.com

‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’ Film and Gaming Rights Up for Sale (EXCLUSIVE)

Hollywood is about to stampede into Middle Earth. An array of movie, merchandising, gaming and live event rights to “Lord of the Rings,” “The Hobbit” and other titles from a…
variety.com variety.com
Click to expand...
Seems the focus is on the Hobbit and the trilogy: "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers", and "The Return of the King". Keep in mind those books/movies cover the last 80-100 years of the Third Age of Middle Earth.

When Sauron was defeated, the one ring destroyed, and Aragorn is crowned king of Gondor, that is the end of the Third Age of Middle Earth and the Start of the Fourth Age. It is also the end to the "Lord of the Rings" storyline. But that storyline starts over 1000 years ago in middle earth . With Sauron's arrival to Middle Earth in the Second Age. His creation of the rings for men, dwarfs, and elves. Finally, the one ring to control them all.

Amazon Prime has the rights to make the "Lord of the Rings" streaming series based on Sauron's arrival in Middle Earth and the creation of the rings in the Second Age. Not sure if anything in the First Age is covered or not. There are already previews of the 1st season showing up on Amazon Prime. Keep in mind that the series does not premier until September 2022. This project is massive in that the series will be made over 4-5 years. I thought I saw there will be 8 episodes per year. The article stated season one is in post production and season two is finishing up primary filming.
 
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