Exciting news for the millions of Tolkien fans worldwide: Warner Bros. working on a new series The Lord of the Ringsmovies. That has been announced by the boss of the American film studio The Guardian and other international media Friday. The films will be based on the work of the world-famous British writer, who The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and other parts of his legacy created the fantasy world of Middle-earth.
Warner Bros. does not reveal much about the new series yet. It is clear that filming will take several years and that the studio is in talks with Peter Jackson, the New Zealand director who The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit successfully filmed. Jackson has not yet promised his cooperation, but says in a response that he has been kept informed of “every step”.
According to Warner Bros. is the world of humans, elves and wizards that JRR Tolkien created so rich that new films can still be easily drawn from it. “Despite the scope and all the details lovingly wrapped in the two trilogies, most of the vast, complex and dazzling universe Tolkien conceived remains undiscovered on film,” said Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy of the film studio.
Successful series
Tolkien’s work has a large following of loyal fans. Published in the 1930s and 1950s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit sold hundreds of millions of copies, making them among the best-selling books of all time.
Twenty years ago, Warner Bros. together with Jackson the attempt to bring the fantasy world to the big screen. For a long time this was considered impossible due to the size and complexity of the world and storylines and the hard-to-imagine fantasy creatures such as dwarfs, ringwraiths and ‘oliphaunts’ (gigantic elephants with many tusks).
The film trilogy was a huge success. The third film in the series, The Return of the King (2003), won along with Titanic (1997) and Ben Hur (1959) most Oscars of all time; eleven. The film earned Warner Bros. more than 1.1 billion dollars (just under 1.1 billion euros) in ticket sales for cinemas worldwide.
The Hobbit
The three-part film adaptation of followed between 2012 and 2014 The Hobbit, again by Jackson. This time, the three films failed to cash in on any Oscar nominations, but delivered Warner Bros. nevertheless again a lot. In total, the six films brought in about $ 6 billion for the American studio.
Last year, streaming service Amazon Prime The Rings of Power out, a mixed-received series also set in Middle-earth. The series is based in part on the world Tolkien created in his notes and preliminary work on The Lord of the Ringsas his son bundled into after Tolkien’s death The Silmarillion (1977).