Ben Whitney February 26th, 2023 - 1:44 AM
Warner Bros. Pictures is set to add more editions to the “Lord of the Rings” film franchise. On a Thursday earnings call, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced that newly-installed studio leaders Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy have brokered a deal to make “multiple” films based on the beloved J. R. R. Tolkien books. The projects will be developed through WB label New Line Cinema. The first “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, helmed by Peter Jackson, grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide; Jackson’s follow-up trilogy based on Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” matched those grosses.
No directors have been attached to the projects as yet. Still, Warner Bros. did tell Variety, “Jackson and his main, “Lord of the Rings,” collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens said Warner Bros. and Embracer “have kept us in the loop every step of the way….” “…We look forward to speaking with them further to hear their vision for the franchise moving forward.”
De Luca and Abdy left MGM last year to lead Warner Bros, and their exit followed the acquisition of MGM by Amazon. The tech conglomerate owns the Television rights to “Lord of the Rings” and produced a single television season at an astronomic cost of over $450 million in 2022. The end of the year will bring Timothee Chalamet, first in “Dune: Part Two,” then in the origin story “Wonka.” The musical “The Color Purple” will close out in 2023, as will Jason Momoa’s “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.”
Projects and timelines for LOTR were not disclosed. The first trilogy, Directed by Peter Jackson, starred Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, and Cate Blanchett. The films were nominated for 30 Academy Awards and won 17 Oscars, including a best picture wins for 2003’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.”
