Tolkien Estates Transition: Christopher Tolkien Resigns as Director

[Valandil]

https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2017/11/christopher-tolkien-resigns-as-tolkien-estate-director/

[The Gaffer]

Hats off to Christopher Tolkein, who laboured long and hard to honour and amplify his father's creation. I hope he enjoys a long retirement. (Though he's 93!)

However, possibly related to this?

http://deadline.com/2017/11/amazon-the-lord-of-the-rings-tv-series-multi-season-commitment-1202207065/

Amazon has closed a massive deal — said to be close to $250 million — to acquire global TV rights to The Lord of the Rings
If true, that's a lot of money just for the rights.

So, are Amazon capturing LOTR as their Game of Thrones / Star Wars / Harry Potter franchise cash cow?

I suppose it might not be awful. Would give my best taters for a rip-roaring, big budget Silmarillion adaptation. Loads of good stuff in the Appendices too.

Though it has to be said, there is a sceptical, insistent little voice inside my head that's going:

https://i.imgflip.com/1n0c3o.jpg

[Snowdog]

I believe this deal involves the original movie rights sold by J.R.R. Tolkien in the late 60's to United Artists, who later sold them to Saul Zaentz in the mid-70, and that's when we saw the animated Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, RP games, etc come into being. I believe it was Saul Zaentz who got the PJ movies going too. These rights that sold back in the late 60's are only for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, which includes the appendices, a goldmine of historical Middle Earth summaries that would lend themselves well to a multi episode mini series format. (My money is on Appendix B) It would be interesting to see what exactly the clauses are for these movie rights that were sold. It obviously has something in there about the profits made.

The later publications are copyrighted by Christopher R Tolkien and Frank R Williamson, executors of the J.R.R. Tolkien estate, and knowing what Christopher's thoughts are on the PJ movies, will doubtfully ever let movie rights to his copyrighted material be sold. That said, he is 93, and who knows what his heirs will do.

That said, it is possible the two news headlines really don't have much to do with each other.

[Varnafindë]

If it was a case of the Tolkien estate starting to sell more rights, it would be a different kettle of fish altogether, and making it likely that the two news had something to do with each other - but these are just the old rights that Tolkien sold himself and have never been sold by the estate. I'm with Snowdog on this.

I also wonder what could legally be done with the Appendices - a multi episode mini series sounds like a good idea artistically speaking. Even without details from Silmarillion.

[The Gaffer]

Do we actually know that these are the same rights? I am sure I read somewhere (though can't find the source now) that it wasn't clear, that it could be a deal for other rights and that Silmarillion material could be included.

[Valandil]

I had heard about this also - the TV mini-series.

I hope the rights to The Silmarillion are included, but I doubt it at this point. Unless there's been a lot of negotiating behind the scenes - and a big payout on its way to Tolkien Enterprises.

While they COULD try to tell stories from the Silmarillion era, with notes from LOTR Appendices, it would get really awkward. Anytime they need to flesh out the story (always) - they would have to tell it differently than it's told in any of the published material they don't have the rights to, wouldn't they? It would become an entirely different version of the Silmarillion. And... God only knows where that would lead them.

[Snowdog]

I've been reading some of the original rights contract and its various extensions, and there is a clause in there about TV rights being implemented 5 years after the last original motion picture. As it's 4 years since the Hobbit, it fits. These original rights are held by Middle Earth Enterprises, Saul Zaentz's estate, and the royalties are negotiated with the Tolkien Estate per the original rights contract to UA. It was this part that caused such a stink between the Tolkien Estate, New Line, WETA, Peter Jackson, and Middle Earth Enterprises in the recent settled lawsuit. It is a tangled mess, but I'm sure the rights to Christopher Tolkien's works are still off the table for this latest Amazon venture. I hope for the best, and expect the worst.