will there be more Middle Earth movies?
I know there are rights issues but I am sure there is something they could adapt.
shareNone of the books outside of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings fall within the film rights that are owned by The Saul Zanetz Company. However, there is background material within the books, and especially in the LotR Appendices, that could form the basis for new, original movies.
Early in the development of the Hobbit movies there was an intention of producing a 'bridge film' that would have connected the story of Bilbo's adventure with The Lord of the Rings. Some of those ideas, such as including the story of Gandalf and the White Council versus the Necromancer of Mirkwood, ended up in the final trilogy. Something like the tale of young Aragorn's great journeys and errantries could be a movie all by itself. There are also the battles in the North during the War of the Ring, when forces from Dol Guldur were attacking both Lothlórien and the Woodland Realm, and both Dale and Erebor were being assaulted by Easterlings.
The Appendices also touch on the rise and fall of Númenor, the War of the Elves and Sauron, and the history of Eriador and Gondor.
"Hell hath no fury like that of the uninvolved." - T. Isabella
Young Aragorn's adventures would make a better TV series than a movie. He can have adventure after adventure, and have a season-long arc in Rohan and another in Minas Tirith or Harad or the far east that we've never seen or start hunting for Gollum, etc. But since the most important events of his life are covered in different films, a film about his early days would seem to lack importance. (Same for "The Hunt for Gollum", what kind of happy ending would it be if we know the wood-elves are going to lose the little pest as soon as Aragorn's back is turned?)
Anyway, IMHO a remake of either LOTR or TH is far likelier than a new story set in middle-earth. It's not just the copyright issues, it's the Hollywood is desperate for sure things with built-in audiences. And face it, it wouldn't be hard to make a better version of "The Hobbit".
“Seventy-seven courses and a regicide, never a wedding like it!
look at how they are making spin offs set in the universes of Star Wars and Harry Potter. I can see the same thing here.
sharelook at how they are making spin offs set in the universes of Star Wars and Harry Potter. I can see the same thing here.Yes, but Disney now owns Star Wars outright and the Potter-verse spin-offs are being made with the cooperation of J.K. Rowling. There is no such cooperative relationship between the rights holders of the Middle-earth movies and the Tolkien Estate. At least for the time being, filmmakers are limited to what can be directly derived from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings without infringing on the copyrights of other works. I'm not even sure that they would be able to create wholly original stories under the existing contracts.
"Hell hath no fury like that of the uninvolved." - T. Isabella share
look at how they are making spin offs set in the universes of Star Wars and Harry Potter. I can see the same thing here.
Only films based on the material in The Hobbit or LOTR can be made - and "based on" leaves plenty of room for augmentation (fanfiction, in essence)of themes and stories sketched out or adverted to in those works.
But no one has either film or book rights to create anything new in Tolkien's "universe," i. e. stories set in Middle Earth, the Shire, Gondolin, Numenor etc. A legal case that has some similarities to the Tolkien one involved the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. As will (most likely) be the case with the works of JRRT, Conan Doyle's writings entered the public domain over a period of years, not all at once, and they were public domain in Europe and the UK before they were in the USA, due to the same Copyright Term Extension Act that affects JRRT's posthumous published writings.
Efforts were made by writers for both print and TV to produce new Sherlock Holmes stories but they were restrained by court order until almost all of Conan Doyle's literary corpus was in the public domain. The various copyright holders did license some productions but not others and the whole story of the ownership of the copyrights reads like a soap opera. You can read the headache-inducing details in this account:
http://www.arthurconandoyle.com/copyrights.html
This less-technical article explains the ramifications that are still in force, and one can easily see parallels to Tolkien productions in future:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/film/mr-holmes/sherlock-copyright/
This one explains the legal details fairly clearly:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150524/17521431095/sherlock-holmes-case-never-ending-copyright-dispute.shtml
In the Tolkien case, there's not the background complication of who owns the copyrights and to what. JRRT created the corporate Tolkien Estate before his death and did not leave any of his literary properties to his children individually, so they are all under one corporate ownership. It's likely, barring further changes in copyright laws, that after TH and LOTR become public domain in the USA as well as elsewhere, filmmakers and writers will be free to write new Middle-Earth stories so long as they don't infringe upon material still under copyright, such as the Silmarillion.
The film licensing agreement allows filming of LOTR and TH and has provision for games and sequels based upon them, but importantly says that "everything not specifically included is excluded" which means that Tolkien's world and his characters are still protected. That clause is also a part of the contentious lawsuit currently going on between Harper Collins, the Tolkien Estate, Warner Bros. and Saul Zaentz co, respecting the development of online gambling using LOTR, among other things definitely not "specifically included" in the agreement, which did have a later codicil added to deal with games but not online gambling. Board and video games developed to promote the films were the critical additions.
To sum up, while the TE will not provide the same drama and litigiousness exhibited by the Conan Doyle copyright brouhaha, the result will probably be similar. Only films or books approved by the copyright holders will be permitted until the major works are in public domain, and the "universe" of the author is not free for the taking.
share
Even if it were legally possible to make spinoff films based on LOTR or The Hobbit, would you really want to see them though? I think we've seen the result of trying to stretch too little of Tolkien's work across feature films.
I've heard many people mention the young Aragorn story as the best candidate for a new ME film. Personally I just don't find it to be engaging enough on its own.
If they were to do a new Middle-Earth film without access to The Silmarillion or Tolkien's other works, I'd rather see a completely original idea set within the world. Something without the world-ending high stakes that featured in The Hobbit and LOTR. A small-scale horror film set around the barrow-downs, for example.
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit
www.maple-films.com/the-hobbit-fanedit
Even if it were legally possible to make spinoff films based on LOTR or The Hobbit, would you really want to see them though? I think we've seen the result of trying to stretch too little of Tolkien's work across feature films.That would depend on how much care and faithfulness for the spirit of the original work went into the project. I agree that it would probably be a mistake to take a couple paragraphs or so out of Tolkien's Appendices and attempt to stretch them into a trilogy.
I've heard many people mention the young Aragorn story as the best candidate for a new ME film. Personally I just don't find it to be engaging enough on its own.Which is funny because a film about the young Aragorn would be just the sort of project you describe, with lower stakes and an ending to the immediate story (with Aragorn and Arwen reunited in Lothlórien and the young Ranger now prepared to take a larger role in the world).
If they were to do a new Middle-Earth film without access to The Silmarillion or Tolkien's other works, I'd rather see a completely original idea set within the world. Something without the world-ending high stakes that featured in The Hobbit and LOTR. A small-scale horror film set around the barrow-downs, for example.
"Hell hath no fury like that of the uninvolved." - T. Isabella share
Which is funny because a film about the young Aragorn would be just the sort of project you describe, with lower stakes and an ending to the immediate story (with Aragorn and Arwen reunited in Lothlórien and the young Ranger now prepared to take a larger role in the world).
Part of what turns me off to the young Aragorn idea is that we already know his story, more or less. The most interesting part of his life is the part Tolkien actually wrote about in LOTR. There's also going to be an issue with casting...it will be easy enough to recast Viggo Mortensen since Aragorn will be so much younger, but Arwen is an immortal elf! Liv Tyler doesn't look the same as she did in 2001, so they'll have to recast her role as well.
Again, I just think a totally original story with new characters would be a better route for future ME films (if any).
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit
www.maple-films.com/the-hobbit-fanedit share
Again, I just think a totally original story with new characters would be a better route for future ME films (if any).That's not necessarily a bad idea, but I don't know if the existing film rights would allow for a completely original story to be produced. It might have to at least be grounded in a story idea that Tolkien actually included as part of the Appendices or the main text of either TH or LotR. It might not be enough just to say, "Well, the Barrow-wights were in The Lord of the Rings so let's just make a movie about some young Bree-landers lost in the Barrow-downs."
"Hell hath no fury like that of the uninvolved." - T. Isabella share
And that's why it would make a poor movie, and a great TV show.
If they made an animated show about Young Aragorn, like those animated "Clone Wars" and "Rebels" Star Wars show, they wouldn't even have to worry about casting. Honestly, I don't see why someone hasn't done this.
“Seventy-seven courses and a regicide, never a wedding like it!