Who Owns The Lord of the Rings?

Who owns the Lord of the Rings? Amazon with their Rings of Power? Peter Jackson with the Warner Bros LOTR trilogy? The Tolkien Estate? What about LOTR games like Gollum and Return to Moria? LOTR board games like War of the Ring? Will there be a Silmarillion movie? What’s all this about the Embracer Group?

Well, the answer to all this is complicated.

So come with me on an adventure into the wild world of film rights, licencing agreements, and lots and lots of legal challenges as the War for the Rights to The Lord of the Rings carries ever on and on…..

00:00 – Concerning Hobbits – JRR Tolkien, HarperCollins, and United Artists
02:13 – A Journey in the Dark – Saul Zaentz, Ralph Bakshi and Rankin/Bass
05:03 – The Ring Goes South – Peter Jackson, Miramax and New Line Cinema
07:06 – The Gathering of the Clouds – The Hobbit, Warner Brothers, and the LOTR game lawsuit
10:05 – A Long-Expected Party – Amazon and The Rings of Power
12:02 – Ever on and on – Embracer Group and the status quo

Pentex’s Lord of the Rings video essays playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGKyAwPbirg9kJb2zp6b7zCJgt0iVHHT9

The Scouting of the Shire (How the Hobbiton Movie Set was Built): https://youtu.be/_4exEKAbeSg
The Russian Lord of the Rings Movie is Weirder Than You Think: https://youtu.be/WUXjC9bq45g
The Russian Hobbit Movie is Weirder Than You Think: https://youtu.be/ACcsqU3sjn0

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PentexP

MUSIC

Early Avril, Unicorn Heads, Youtube Music Library
Icelandic Arpeggios, DivKid, Youtube Music Library
“Tranquil Fields” by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
"Half Mystery" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
“Straight” https://www.bensound.com/free-music-for-videos
Rolling Hills, Sir Cubsworth, Youtube Music Library

SOURCES (Video)

Lindsay Ellis, The Battle of the Five Studios: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElPJr_tKkO4

Folding Ideas, A Exhaustive History of Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr_rb_pitHk

Shadowman, Evolution of the Lord of the Rings Games (1982-2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F56HqoqwB7k

John Boorman’s LOTR screenplay: https://www.reddit.com/r/lotr/comments/fecmix/john_boormans_infamous_the_lord_of_the_rings/

SOURCES (Research)

Overviews
https://www.middleearth.com/history.html
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/lord-of-the-rings-a-chronicle-of-legal-disputes-20131213-2zcxp.html

Rankin/Bass and Bakshi:
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/27/archives/will-the-video-version-of-tolkien-be-hobbit-forming.html
https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/08/archives/bakshi-journeys-to-middle-earth-to-animate-lord-of-the-rings-in.html?searchResultPosition=1

LOTR public domain:
https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2011/10/one-public-domain-to-rule-them-all/

Tolkien Estate vs New Line and historical context:
http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2008/06/14/29016-clearing-up-misconceptions-regarding-the-tolkien-vs-new-line-lawsuit/#more-29016
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/feb/13/lordoftherings.jrrtolkien
Tolkien vs New Line: https://variety.com/2008/biz/features/tolkien-estate-sues-new-line-1117980703/

Hobbit drama:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB107663549136929113
Warner Bros vs Tolkien Estate (gaming rights): https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/warner-bros-claims-tolkien-estate-428390/
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/03/movies/tolkien-estate-and-warner-bros-settle-lawsuit-over-licensing.html#:~:text=July%203%2C%202017-,Warner%20Bros.,%E2%80%9D%20and%20%E2%80%9CThe%20Hobbit.%E2%80%9D
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/warner-bros-tolkien-estate-settle-80-million-hobbit-lawsuit-1018478/

LOTR rights sale by Saul Zaentz Company
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/lord-of-the-rings-hobbit-tolkien-zaentz-rights-sale-1235176036/
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/lord-of-the-rings-the-war-of-the-rohirrim-release-date-1235181646/

Amazon:
https://deadline.com/2017/11/amazon-the-lord-of-the-rings-tv-series-multi-season-commitment-1202207065/
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-show-465-million-cost-season-1-2021-4?IR=T

Embracer Group:
https://www.polygon.com/23311153/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-hobbit-film-game-rights-embracer-group
https://embracer.com/release/embracer-group-enters-into-agreement-to-acquire-ip-rights-to-the-lord-of-the-rings-and-the-hobbit-literary-works-by-j-r-r-tolkien/

Видео Who Owns The Lord of the Rings? канала Pentex Productions