Search the Community

In August, the vacuum cleaner Embracer Group announced that it was taking over Middle-Earth Enterprises, giving the Karlstad company the right to the brand The Lord of the Rings. And in the latest quarterly report, the mouthpiece has been put in the blowout end, because there we are told that five - yes, five - Lord of the Rings games will be released in the financial years 2023 and 2024. The games are made by external studios, and these are not five completely unannounced titles. And just in case, a film is also being made. "There are currently five games in production by external partners, to be released in financial year 2023/24. There is also one film in production by an external partner. Freemode continues to make selective key recruitments in various parts of its business to strengthen the organization. It is not said which games are involved, but most likely the delayed Gollum is one of them. It should be released before October this year. We will probably have reason to return to the others shortly. In short: throw away the toe-razor.

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum definitely has potential, even if what has been shown has not received a resoundingly positive reception. Everything from the graphics and Gollum's design to the game mechanics have received skeptical comments, and the latest we heard from developer Daedalic was that the game is being delayed (for the second time) indefinitely instead of releasing as planned on September 1st. However, Daedalic are hopeful and believe that the game may show the world what they are capable of creating in Tolkien's world, which they hope will lead to them telling another story there. In an interview with Gamesindustry , Jonas Hüsges says that a success with Gollum could lead to them tackling another part of the universe and telling a new story. But of course it depends on the game's reception and, above all, how well it sells. One should also bear in mind that Swedish Embracer is in the process of buying up Middle-earth Enterprises and thus many of the rights connected to Tolkien's works.

Not many productions are known for being “the world’s most expensive TV series ever”… but how much has Prime Video spent per episode? After the first two episodes of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” have now officially been released, viewers have finally had a chance to take part in a series that most people at least seem to think looks very lavish. And anything else would be very strange, considering that the series is, after all, the most expensive television series ever created. But how much has the first season actually cost Prime Video per episode? There are slightly different sums that have been thrown around over the years, ranging from a billion dollars to 465 million and then we have the fact that just the rights to the characters and the environments themselves cost a whopping 250 million dollars. First season: Roughly $58 million per episode! The Wall Street Journal states that production costs for the first season have cost $465 million, which does not include the rights of $250 million. Without that, you are up to approximately 715 million dollars so far. However, with plans already in place for a full five seasons, the series is expected to have cost the company $1 billion soon. And now we haven’t included any overheads at all for the huge promotion that Prime Video did for the premiere of the first season – where, for example, they let masses of fans watch the first two episodes for free in cinemas in some countries. When “Game of Thrones” released its final season, it had a really lavish budget of a whopping $15 million per episode, “”House of the Dragon” is said to be slightly above this but at least “under $20 million per episode”. “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”, on the other hand, had a budget per episode, during the first season, of roughly 58 million dollars . The upcoming “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” seasons, on the other hand, will manage to get away considerably cheaper, considering that the rough work could be done before the first season. And they have also moved the production from New Zealand to the UK as of the start of the filming of the second season. After all, much of everything from props, costumes and different environments will be able to be reused in the future. But the budget in the coming seasons will probably end up well above the sums that the biggest competing streaming services Netflix (“The Witcher”) and HBO Max (“House of the Dragon”) will be able to afford. The first two episodes of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” are now available on Prime Video. The first season will consist of a total of eight episodes, with a new episode released every Friday.

The streaming service had grand, Marvel-inspired plans for Tolkien's Middle-earth, with new TV series about Aragorn and Gandalf. JRR Tolkien's relatives have been quite protective of the rights to his books and characters. After Peter Jackson's film trilogies, it took a long time before Amazon was allowed to record "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" which we have been able to stream this fall. But Amazon was far from the only streaming service trying to get its paws on the precioussss rights. A major article published by THR reveals that both HBO and Netflix were involved in the bidding war. HBO's plan was a remake of the "Lord of the Rings" movies, something Tolkien's family wasn't too keen on. And even though Netflix actually offered "hundreds of millions more" than Amazon, they got the nod. The reason was Netflix's gigantic pitch, where they wanted to take on Midgard with several new television projects. Among other things, "a TV series about Gandalf and a drama about Aragorn" are mentioned. "They wanted to do like Marvel and it scared the crap out of Tolkien's family," says a source. Amazon were the ones who ultimately came up with the winning idea, but still had to shell out well over $200 million for the rights. Since this summer, the Swedish game group Embracer has been managing the rights, and they have already talked about the availability of several new films, series and games. Who knows, maybe Netflix will get the opportunity to dive into Middle-earth after all?

Daedalic and Nacon have finally nailed a date for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, and the release is just over three months away. On September 1, the stealth adventure will be released for various consoles and PCs. Various consoles" unfortunately do not include Switch, whose players will have to wait until later in 2022. Since the Gollum game was unveiled in 2019, the information has been scarce, but we got a first gameplay trailer last spring and a more cinematic variant last winter (which you can find just below). The adventure takes place between the Hobbit saga and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which means that it can tell its own story and avoid being chained to book shackles. However, JRR Tolkien's legacy must be preserved:

The movie rights for "Lord of the Rings" are for sale Some of Hollywood's most coveted movie rights are about to be sold. These are the books "The Lord of the Rings", "The Hobbit", "Silmarillion" and the author J.R.R. Tolkien's other works on the fantasy world Middle-earth. The rights include not only new feature films but also games, amusement parks, promotional items and toys as well as live events. The current owner Saul Zaentz Co. will auction off their rights during the week. They are expected to raise at least $2 billion, according to Variety. Which studio or streaming service is entering the auction remains to be seen, but a potential buyer is Amazon, which is said to be a top candidate. Amazon Prime Video has already entered Tolkien's worlds with the TV series "Rings of Power" which will be released this autumn - thanks to a loophole that applied to TV series, they were able to set up a deal directly with Tolkien's estate. The most famous film adaptations of Tolkien's work are Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy (2001-2003) and the "Hobbit" trilogy (2012-2014). But more is on the way: Warner Bros. is working on an animated film entitled "The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim".