Friday, August 25, 2023

Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim Release Delayed

Warner Bros. has announced that The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim has been delayed from April 12, 2024 to December 13, 2024. The delay is a domino effect from an over all schedule change to their release schedule Dune: Part Two has been bumped from later this year to March 15, 2024 which led the film that was occupying that spot, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire being moved to April 12.

The Dune 2 delay was caused by WB not wanting to release the film without the cast participating in marketing the film which they will not be able to do due until the strike ends. The change is probably for the better as all the previous Lord of the Rings films were released for the Christmas season to great success. On paper, the movie's competition for that weekend is a new Karate Kid movie (not related to Cobra Kai TV series), but that film's production was delayed due to the strike so chances are high the movie could get released without any meaningful competition.

The War of the Rohirrim is an anime movie directed by Kenji Kamiyama that is essentially the origin story of Helm's Deep, the stronghold of the epic fight scene in The Two Towers. It is set 183 years before the Fellowship of the Ring when Helm Hammerhand (voiced by Brian Cox), king of the Rohan, must make a last stand of Horburg (aka Helm's Deep) against a vicious attack of their enemies led by Wulf. The story is taken from the Lord of the Rings appendices with multiple people behind The Lord of the Rings trilogy working on the film including Philippa Boyens as executive producer, and creative minds Alan Lee, Richard Taylor and long time Tokien illustrator John Howe helping with the look of the film. WB has released nearly nothing about the film besides some voice cast info, the summary and release date.

Friday, July 14, 2023

LOTR: The Rings of Power Season 2 Complete Filming

Just ahead of the beginning of an actor strike, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season two completed principle photography. Filming for the season started last year with the show-runners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay leaving the show in early May due to the writers' strike as they are part of the WGA (Writers' Guild of America). The complete of filming ends just hours before the actors' strike begins, marking the first time both guilds have been on strike at the same time in 60 years. At this point the season will move into post-production which could take up to an additional year due to all the visual effects the series requires. End result is do not expect to season 2 until at least the middle of 2024.

Wednesday, June 21, 2023

Lord of the Rings Rights Sold "Cheap"

When it was announced back in August 2022 that The Saul Zaentz Company sold the movie rights of The Lord of the Rings books to the Embracer Group, that those rights sold for around $750 million after the company tried to sell them for as high as $2 billion. Turns out they got the rights at a realtively cheap price of $395.6 million. Heck of a deal considering this includes a cut of all revenue and merchandising generated from Peter Jackson directed Rings and Hobbit trilogy of films, any future films, TV shows (such as Rings of Power), video games, board games, and more from those books. Chances are they will re-coup that spend within a few years.