The Middle-earth Cinematic Universe
The potential of further Lord of the Rings films
Following the conclusion of The Hobbit trilogy, Peter Jackson acknowledged the possibility of more films set in Middle-earth, indicating within a few years he may be willing to direct — or produce, as he originally intended with The Hobbit — more films based on Tolkien’s mythology. Exploring Middle-earth beyond the events of The Lord of the Rings has already proven fertile ground for video games, and in the wake of Star Wars and Game of Thrones developing spin-offs exploring events outside their main narratives, Warner Bros. should give serious consideration to allowing other filmmakers to explore the history of Middle-earth.
First, some legal history. The Tolkien copyright is split between the Tolkien Estate, which owns his essays, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and other derived works, and Middle-earth Enterprises (formerly Tolkien Enterprises), owned by the late Saul Zaentz who bought the film, stage and merchandising rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in 1976 from United Artists, who had been sold them by Tolkien in 1969.
Despite the films’ success, the Tolkien Estate has a negative attitude towards them, and are unlikely to sell the rights to more of Tolkien’s stories. Tolkien gave an extremely basic overview of The Silmarillion’s…
