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[AJUMP23]

Embracer Group Acquires IP Rights To ‘Lord Of The Rings’ And ‘The Hobbit’

The deal means Embracer Group will own all rights relating to 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'Hobbit' franchises.

deadline.com

Swedish video game company Embracer Group has acquired Middle-earth Enterprises, a division of The Saul Zaentz Company, which owns the intellectual property catalogue and worldwide rights to The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. But the deal means Embracer Group will pick up the motion picture, video game, board game, merchandising, theme parks and stage production rights relating to The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit franchises as well as matching rights in other Middle-earth-related literary works authorized by the Tolkien Estate and HarperCollins, which have yet to be explored.

“I am truly excited to have The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, one of the world’s most epic fantasy franchises join the Embracer family, opening up more transmedia opportunities including synergies across our global group,” said Lars Wingefors, Founder and Group CEO Embracer Group. “I am thrilled to see what lies in the future for this IP with Freemode and Asmodee as a start within the group. Going forward, we also look forward to collaborating with both existing and new external licensees of our increasingly stronger IP portfolio.”

I saw Randy Pitchford was excited to do something with the rights, and Gearbox is Embracer group. I asked him to please not do anything.

 

[jufonuk]

Remember those sci-if movies with the mega corps controlling all aspects of life. Glad they got it wrong.

 

[Con_Z_ǝdʇ]

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/embracer-group-acquires-lord-of-the-rings-and-hobbit-ip.1640291/

 

[AJUMP23]

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/embracer-group-acquires-lord-of-the-rings-and-hobbit-ip.1640291/

I searched saw nothing. thanks for the heads up. MOds please lock and or delete.

 

[poppabk]

What does this mean for Amazon?

 

[jufonuk]

What does this mean for Amazon?

Bezo’s can buy them out

 

[AJUMP23]

What does this mean for Amazon?

Nothing they own different set of rights, to the appendices and stories prior to the main novels.

 

[Pagusas]

What does this mean for Amazon?

Nothing, all previous licensing agreements have to be honored. Just like how Universal Studios has the theme park rights to Marvel super heroes, even though Disney bought (most) of them over the last decade, Disney has to honor the previous licencing deals so Universal gets to keep using them.

 

[poppabk]

Nothing, all previous licensing agreements have to be honored. Just like how Universal Studios has the theme park rights to Marvel super heroes, even though Disney bought (most) of them over the last decade, Disney has to honor the previous licencing deals so Universal gets to keep using them.

I was thinking more in the future, it felt like Amazon had big plans but this:
"rights relating to The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit franchises as well as matching rights in other Middle-earth-related literary works"
Makes it sound like Amazon will be very limited in what they can do.

 

[AJUMP23]

I was thinking more in the future, it felt like Amazon had big plans but this:
"rights relating to The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit franchises as well as matching rights in other Middle-earth-related literary works"
Makes it sound like Amazon will be very limited in what they can do.

They have always been very limited in their scope.

 

[nightmare-slain]

wtf i didn't read the actual detail and just thought it was right to video games. they have the rights to LOTR/Hobbit movies? As in they could make new movies to go against Jackson's? Holy shit.

I'm always up for more LOTR but if they do make more movies they will be hard to top jackson's movies (at least the LOTR ones not Hobbit) and if they are going to do it then they better fully support it and not cheap out.

 

[Bragr]

I was thinking more in the future, it felt like Amazon had big plans but this:
"rights relating to The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit franchises as well as matching rights in other Middle-earth-related literary works"
Makes it sound like Amazon will be very limited in what they can do.

That's why the new show is a lot of made-up nonsense, they only got a small part of the lore.

 

[AJUMP23]

Randy replied to me.......

 

[PrCat88]

Who owns the rights to The Silmarillion?

 

[Fbh]

So does the Tolkien Estate have any sort of supervision or does Embracer just have complete creative control to do whatever they want ?
Are we in for Disney Star Wars level of milking? Shitty sequels to the trilogy, shitty prequels, shitty "origin stories"?

 

[AJUMP23]

Fbh Those details have not been released.

 

[Javthusiast]

LotR Kart racer. Let's go!

 

[NecrosaroIII]

So does the Tolkien Estate have any sort of supervision or does Embracer just have complete creative control to do whatever they want ?
Are we in for Disney Star Wars level of milking? Shitty sequels to the trilogy, shitty prequels, shitty "origin stories"?

Rights to Hobbit and LotR are complicated. JRR Tolkien sold movie rights to those two books back in late 1960s in order to pay a tax bill. It went to Saul Zaentz, who had then been licensing it to various companies (WB, most notably) under the company name Middle Earth Enterprises, which is a seperate entity from the Tolkien estate. From what this article says, it looks like Embrace bought out Middle Earth Enterprises.

So with regards to movies based on Hobbit and LotR, the Tolkien Estate never had any say