CEO David Zaslav announced just that at an investors call on Thursday, saying that the company has struck a new, multi-year deal with the movie rights holder to J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories.
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What will the new ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies be about?
It’s very early days for this new development, so there are no details on what the movies might cover.
Warner Bros. already does have one ‘Rings’ film in production –– ‘The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim’, set 183 years before the events portrayed in ‘Fellowship’ and follows the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan.
Warner Bros. Pictures bosses Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy said,
“Twenty years ago, New Line took an unprecedented leap of faith to realize the incredible stories, characters and world of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ on the big screen. The result was a landmark series of films that have been embraced by generations of fans. But for all the scope and detail lovingly packed into the two trilogies, the vast, complex and dazzling universe dreamed up by J.R.R. Tolkien remains largely unexplored on film. The opportunity to invite fans deeper into the cinematic world of Middle-earth is an honor, and we are excited to partner with Middle-earth Enterprises and Embracer on this adventure.”
Lee Guinchard, CEO of Embracer Group’s operative group Freemode commented,
“Following our recent acquisition of Middle-earth Enterprises, we’re thrilled to embark on this new collaborative journey with New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures, bringing the incomparable world of J.R.R. Tolkien back to the big screen in new and exciting ways. We understand how cherished these works are and working together with our partners at New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. Pictures, we plan to honor the past, look to the future, and adhere to the strongest level of quality and production values.”
Peter Jackson is, as of yet, not involved. He probably feels like he’s done his duty with regards to Tolkien’s work.
Morfydd Clark as “Galadriel” in Prime Video’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.’ Credit: Ben Rothstein/Prime Video. Copyright: Amazon Studios.
This is, of course, entirely separate from Amazon’s big-budget series ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’, which is set many years before the ‘Rings’ movies (even ‘Rohirrim’).
Those are produced for Prime Video and as thus, won’t crossover with the movies.
There are no details yet on when any new movie might hit theaters, but we’d be surprised if anything was ready before 2025 at the earliest.
Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn Elessar in director Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.’
The Disney+ documentary series covers the making of the Beatles‘ 1970 album ‘Let It Be,’ and uses new footage originally filmed for Michael Lindsay-Hogg‘s 1970 documentary of the same name. ‘The Rooftop Concert’ centers on footage from the end of the documentary, which highlights Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr in their final concert together as a band.
But the Beatles are no strangers to appearing in movies, having starred in several feature films, an animated movie, and countless documentaries. There have also been several fictional films made about members of the band, as well as movies that celebrate the music and legacy of the group.
In honor of the new IMAX concert movie, Moviefone counts down the top ten Beatles movies of all-time! For this list, we are including not only movies starring the Beatles, but also films about the band and their musical influence around the world.
Released in 1967, the film was written, directed, and starred the Beatles at the height of their psychedelic phase. The movie follows a group of people on a bus tour who begin to experience strange and magical encounters, and was inspired by Ken Kesey’s own bus, Further, and his work with the Merry Pranksters.
The movie marks the third outing for the band starring in their own narrative film, and while it is probably the least appealing of any of the movies that the Beatles have appeared in, it does feature a performance of “I Am the Walrus’ with the band wearing animal masks.
This documentary directed by Oscar-winner Ron Howard focuses on the Beatles’ touring years between 1962 and 1966, from their first gig in Liverpool to their final concert at Candlestick Park in 1966.
The highlight of the documentary is 30 minutes of unseen footage from the band’s 1965 Shea Stadium concert, which had its sound remastered by Giles Martin, son of Beatles producer George Martin.
Filmmaker Sam Taylor-Wood made her directorial debut with this 2009 film about John Lennon’s teenage years, based on a biography written by Lennon’s half-sister Julia Baird.
The film stars Aaron Johnson as a young Lennon and follows his complicated relationship with his Aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) and his mother (Anne-Marie Duff), as well as the creation of his first band, The Quarrymen, which eventually became the Beatles. Johnson gives a quiet and beautiful performance as Lennon, which gained a lot of attention from Hollywood and basically launched his career.
This 1970 documentary about the making of the band’s final album ‘Let it Be’ marked the last original film the Beatles would release before breaking up. The movie documents the interpersonal relationships between band members and illuminates some of the turmoil that would eventually lead to their dismantling.
The highlight of the documentary is an impromptu rooftop performance, which sadly would become the last time the Fab Four ever played in public. Unused footage from the making of this documentary is what Peter Jackson utilized for ‘The Beatles: Get Back.’
The story follows a struggling musician (Himesh Patel) who through a series of events now finds himself the only person on the planet who has ever heard of the Beatles and plagiarizes their music for his own gain. In addition to Patel, the film also stars Lily James, Kate McKinnon, and in a hilarious cameo, Ed Sheeran.
Directed by Julie Taymor (‘Frida’) and based on an original story by Taymor and screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, the film utilizes over thirty songs composed by members of the Beatles.
The movie also uses characters from Beatles songs like Lucy (‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’), Jude (‘Hey Jude’), Max (“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’), Sadie (‘Sexy Sadie’), Jo-Jo (‘Get Back’), and Prudence (‘Dear Prudence’). The film features an excellent cast that includes Evan Rachel Wood,Jim Sturgess, Logan Marshall-Green, Dylan Baker, Bill Irwin, Eddie Izzard, Salma Hayek, Joe Cocker, and Bono.
This 1994 movie directed by Iain Softly, centers on the Beatles original bass guitarist Stu Sutcliffe (Stephen Dorff) and his relationship with Astrid Kirchherr (Sheryl Lee), which led to him leaving the band before they had worldwide success. In addition to Dorff and Lee, the film also features Ian Hart as John Lennon, Gary Bakewell as Paul McCartney, Chris O’Neil as George Harrison, and Scot Williams as Pete Best, the band’s original drummer.
But the best part of this movie might be the soundtrack, which featured an all-star band performing songs that the Beatles played in their early days. The musicians include David Pirner from Soul Asylum, Greg Dulli from The Afghan Whigs, Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth, Mike Mills from R.E.M., Henry Rollins from Black Flag, and Dave Grohl from Nirvana.
The Beatles second film, ‘Help!’ follows the group as they struggle to record a new album and try to protect Ringo Starr from an evil cult out to steal one of his rings. Directed by Richard Lester (‘Superman II’), the film’s plot is boarder-line ridiculous but does mark the last time the band’s pre-psychedelic years were captured on film.
The highlight of the movie is that the Beatles were just being themselves and having fun, which is a stark contrast to their disillusioned behavior by the time they made ‘Let it Be.’
The first of their many movies, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ follows the band at the height of Beatlemania. What I like about this movie is that it is just a “slice of Beatles life,” and brings the audience behind the scenes to see what it would have been like to be a Beatle.
They mostly just avoid fans, make TV appearances, and try to manage Paul’s “crazy” grandfather, played by Wilfred Brambell. Directed by Richard Lester, the movie was nominated for two Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay and ranked 88th on the British Film Institute’s greatest British movies of the 20th century list.
Not only is ‘Yellow Submarine’ the best of Beatles movie of all-time, it’s one of the best animated movies of all-time. Directed by Charles Dunning, the film marks the fourth movie released by the Beatles. While the band technically doesn’t appear in the film or even voice their own characters, they do perform the music, which includes ‘Eleanor Rigby,’ ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,’ ‘Nowhere Man,’ ‘All You Need Is Love,’ and of course, ‘Yellow Submarine.’
The “totally trippy” movie begins in Pepperland, the home of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, where the music-hating Blue Meanies have just attacked. Young Fred (Lance Percival) is tasked with fleeing Pepperland in a Yellow Submarine to find help to battle the Blue Meanies, eventually returning with Paul (Geoffrey Hughes), John (John Clive), George (Peter Batten), and Ringo (Paul Angelis), to save the day. The animated film also acts as a great gateway for parents who want to introduce their kids to the music of the Beatles.
Amazon Prime’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’
Everything about Prime Video’s planned ‘Lord of the Rings’ TV adaptation, ‘The Rings of Power’ has been huge so far, from the $250 million the company spent to buy the rights from the Tolkien estate to the reported $456 million that it has lavished on the first season alone. It makes sense, then, that the initial drop of character posters would be suitably epic, with more than 20 arriving at once.
In keeping with the veil of secrecy that the company has draped across the show so far, the posters don’t specify which characters are on each, though sharp-eyed fans are already hunting for clues.
So far, all we really know in terms of characters is that Clark is playing a younger version of Galadriel (as brought to life by Cate Blanchett in Peter Jackson’s two movie trilogies).
And all we’ve seen of the show is one picture and the impressive opening sequence, which, it was later revealed, was created entirely practically.
This new adaptation of Tolkien’s sprawling fantasy novels comes courtesy of J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, who have writing credits on movies including ‘Star Trek Beyond’. ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’s JA Bayona is involved as an executive producer and director along with fellow director Charlotte Brändström.
The Rings of Power, according to the showrunners, unites all the major stories of Middle-earth’s Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Númenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. “Until now, audiences have only seen onscreen the story of the One Ring — but before there was one, there were many… and we’re excited to share the epic story of them all.”
The “Second Age” refers to a long period in the history of Middle Earth that ends with the defeat of Sauron and precedes Tolkien’s book and Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie trilogy, which take place during the Third Age. The titular Rings of Power were forged in this era and 19 of them were given to elves, dwarves, and humans to incentivize them to support Sauron’s reign. The One Ring, which figures so heavily into the plot of the original trilogy is the most powerful of the 20 (it’s what Frodo and the gang travelled all that way to destroy, after all). The official description mentions an evil even greater than Sauron, which probably points Morgoth, a god-like creature who tried to rule Middle-earth – and that had Sauron serving as his general.
And Prime Video clearly has confidence in the series – though you can imagine it’s also looking for more return on its massive investment – as Season 2 has already been commissioned and will shoot in the UK. (Season 1 shot in New Zealand, which seems fitting given that’s where the movies filmed).
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ will launch on Prime Video on Friday, September 2 this year, with new episodes dropping weekly.
Courtesy of Prime VideoCourtesy of Prime VideoCourtesy of Prime VideoCourtesy of Prime VideoCourtesy of Prime VideoCourtesy of Prime VideoCourtesy of Prime VideoCourtesy of Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ premieres September 2nd.
Amazon has revealed the official title of its upcoming, multi-season series based on the beloved books of J.R.R. Tolkien and it will be called ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.’
The series, in a sense, will act as a prequel to director Peter Jackson’s Oscar winning ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit‘ trilogies, as the story will focus on the forging of the original rings of power, which allowed Sauron to spread evil throughout Middle Earth.
In a statement released by Amazon, showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay discussed the new title and upcoming series. “This is a title that we imagine could live on the spine of a book next to J.R.R. Tolkien’s other classics. ‘The Rings of Power’ unites all the major stories of Middle-earth’s Second Age: the forging of the rings, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the epic tale of Númenor, and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. Until now, audiences have only seen on-screen the story of the One Ring, but before there was one, there were many… and we’re excited to share the epic story of them all.”
The studio also released a teaser trailer for the series that explains the origins of the rings. While the teaser does not utilize any actual footage from the series, it features the title being “physically forge in a blacksmith foundry, pouring fiery molten metal into hand-carved wooden ravines shaped to the letterforms,” with lines from Tolkien’s “Ring Verse” being spoken in voice over.
“Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne, In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.”
You can watch the full teaser below:
Here is the full synopsis for the series:
Prime Video’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit‘ and ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and one of the greatest villains that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness.
Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared reemergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the farthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.
Joining showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay as executive producers on the series are Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, J.A. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado, as well as producers Ron Ames and Christopher Newman. J.A. Bayona, Charlotte Brandstrom, and Wayne Che Yip are all scheduled to direct episodes of the series.
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ is set to premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime Video beginning Friday, September 2nd, with new episodes dropping each week.
Call him “Lord of the Ringo” — Peter Jackson‘s next directing project will focus on the Beatles.
Jackson will direct a feature documentary based on 55 hours of never-released footage of The Beatles in the studio while making the album “Let It Be.”
The studio sessions, shot in January 1969, produced the Grammy Award-winning album with the Academy Award-winning title song. “Let It Be” ended up being the iconic band’s final album; it was released in May 1970, several months after the Beatles had broken up.
The video footage and 140 hours of audio are the first of its kind, as they reveal the Beatles’ creative process. Most footage of the band is of concerts, interviews, and movies.
“I was relieved to discover the reality is very different to the myth,” says Jackson. “After reviewing all the footage and audio that Michael Lindsay-Hogg shot 18 months before they broke up, it’s simply an amazing historical treasure-trove. Sure, there’s moments of drama — but none of the discord this project has long been associated with. Watching John, Paul, George, and Ringo work together, creating now-classic songs from scratch, is not only fascinating — it’s funny, uplifting, and surprisingly intimate.”
Since directing “The Hobbit” trilogy, which concluded in 2014, Jackson has taken a bit of a break from filmmaking. He returned last year to direct the World War I documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old.”
“The Return of the King” came out 15 years ago, which seems pretty crazy when you think back to how excruciating the wait between “Lord of the Rings” sequels seemed. Celebrate the 15th anniversary of one of the most popular fantasy sequels of all time with these interesting facts about “Return of the King.
1. Because post-production work didn’t wrap until the last minute, director Peter Jackson didn’t actually see the final version of “Return of the King” until its official premiere.
2. Both Elijah Wood and Andy Serkis were given One Ring props as gifts after filming wrapped, and both believed they were given the only copy.
WB/New Line
3. According to Philippa Boyens, Pippen’s song was only added into the movie after she experienced Billy Boyd’s singing voice during a night of karaoke.
4. While the climax of the film features Aragorn battling a troll, the original intent was to have him face a reborn Sauron. The Extended Edition DVD features a rough animatic that shows what this sequence might have looked like.
WB/New Line
5. Gimli actor Jonathan Rhys-Davies often broke out in rashes because of his makeup and prosthetics. On his final day of filming, he relished the chance to throw his mask in a fire. (But did he keep his AX?!)
6. The Oliphaunt carcass Legolas kills during the Battle of Minas Tirith is an actual, physical prop and is reportedly the single largest movie prop ever created.
WB/New Line
7. In English, the song Viggo Mortensen sings translates to, “Out of the Great Sea to Middle Earth I am come. In this place I will abide, and my heirs, unto the ending of the world.”
8. Jackson had to enlist the aid of the New Zealand army for the Black Gate sequence, both to serve as extras and to sweep the area for leftover landmines.
WB/New Line
9. “Return of the King” cemented the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy as the most Oscar-nominated franchise in history at the time. It also tied the record for the most Oscar wins that year.
10. Denethor actor John Noble played himself on an episode of “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” with the time-travelling superheroes recruiting Noble in the midst of filming “Return of the King.”
The CW
11. Elijah Wood was hospitalized after the prop of Shelob’s stinger actually caused a puncture wound.
12. This movie, at the time, became only the second film in history to cross one billion dollars in global box office. Quite a few blockbusters have followed suit in the 15 years since.
WB/New Line
13. While “Return of the King” is often criticized for its multiple endings, there was actually even more material that didn’t make the final cut. Jackson originally planned to include an epilogue sequence — narrated by Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel — that detailed the eventual fates of the various Fellowship members.
Peter Jackson‘s World War I documentary, “They Shall Not Grow Old” will hit the big screen in the US on December 17 and December 27.
Tickets for the Fathom Events-sponsored showings go on sale November 16.
Jackson had access to more than 600 hours of BBC archival interviews in assembling the documentary, which he painstakingly restored and colorized.
“We have transformed 100-year-old film footage to see the Great War as the soldiers themselves saw it,” Jackson says in the trailer.
He recorded a special introduction to the film for the Fathom Events screenings.
Fathom Events CEO Ray Nutt told Variety, “Putting this documentary on the big screen… will allow moviegoers to see the impressive visual detail of the restored footage as though they were a part of that moment in time.”
In the UK, the documentary airs on BBC on November 11, which is Armistice Day in Europe, the day when WWI hostilities ceased. (We celebrate it in the US as Veteran’s Day, of course.)
Fans of the “Mortal Engines” books have started a petition to keep heroine Hester’s facial disfigurements, instead of the less drastic scarring we see in trailers featuring Hera Hilmar as the character.
The books describe Hester as “a portrait that had been furiously crossed out…. Her mouth was wrenched sideways in a permanent sneer, her nose was a smashed stump, and her single eye stared at him out of the wreckage, as grey and chill as a winter sea.”
The petition states that they don’t want Hester to merely have a nasty facial scar, but to be the rare heroic film character with a severe disfigurement:
“Hester Shaw is ugly. She is disfigured, with facial paralysis resulting in a ‘permanent sneer, and only a snub of a nose’… I can live with her having two eyes for dramatic effect. What worries me is erasing her scar, and with it, her disability…. Disfigured characters are rare in Hollywood. Disfigured female characters are rarer. And in both cases, they are almost always villains. Hester Shaw is important representation for people with scars and disfigurements, and her journey is important to them.”
The disfigured villains they refer to include Dr. Poison in “Wonder Woman,” as noted in this Teen Vogue article.
Peter Jackson, who is producing the film, and his protege Christian Rivers, responded to these concerns. Rivers told EW, “I think people just need to see the film and hope they enjoy the film and understand the decisions that we made and why we made them.”
Rivers’s explanation is not winning him any points with critics so far. He tells EW that if Hester were as disfigured in the book, the hero (Robert Sheehan) would hardly fall in love with her, now would he?
“It’s fine in the book for Hester to be described to be ugly, hideous, and have lost a nose ‘cause, even that, you reimagine it in your own mind as, ‘Okay, yeah, she’s ugly, but she’s not really ugly. Tom falls in love with her… and film is a visual medium. With a book you can take what you want and reimagine it in your head and put together your own picture. But when you put it on film, you are literalizing it. You are making it a literal thing, so it was just finding a balance where we need to believe that Tom and Hester fall in love. And her scar does need to be disfiguring enough that she thinks she’s ugly — it can’t just be a little scratch — and I think we’ve struck a good balance of it.”
He says that the scar is still significant: “It’s there and it’s in every shot in the film and it’s a deep wound that you just know, ‘F—, that would’ve hurt. It’s not a nice, clean knife streak…”
Jackson added that they didn’t want the scar to “totally overwhelm the character.”
Rivers elaborated that audiences would be “put off the film” if it were more true to the books. “They probably wouldn’t want to admit that, but they would [be put off] to the point where Tom and Hester stop bonding. You actually just wouldn’t react [in the same way],”e said. “It’s kind of a PC thing to say, but it is the reality of film being a cinematic medium.”
Peter Jackson surprised attendees at New York Comic-Con by showing the first 24 minutes of “Mortal Engines,” an epic fantasy film in which giant mobile cities crush smaller, weaker towns.
Deadline described the footage as “a widely original concept that played exceptionally well to the crowd at Madison Square Garden,” while noting that the venue was “only half-full.”
According to Gamespot, the movie feels like “a classic fantasy/sci-fi adventure film from the ’80s. The mobile towns and cities and overall feeling of this world are reminiscent of something Terry Gilliam would have come up with [in] “Time Bandits.”
Based on the first of four steampunk novels by Philip Reeve, the film stars Hera Hilmar (“Da Vinci’s Demons”) as scarred assassin Hester Shaw and Robert Sheehan as Tom Natsworthy, an apprentice historian who joins the resistance. They’re trying to defeat villain Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving), who was responsible for the death of Hester’s mother.
Andy Serkis moderated a panel with cast and crew, calling the movie “another extraordinary exercise in world-building.”
Jackson (who is producing, but not directing the movie) said that the film is not technically set in a post-apocalyptic world. “The story is set 3,000 years from now. So it’s post-post-apocalyptic.”
In this desolate future, war has “cracked the surface of the world. Volcanoes burst out. The war redefines the surface of the world,” Jackson explained. There are no countries or borders any more, just “cities [that] rise from the rubble and end up on wheels chasing each other.”
We also have a new trailer and new character posters for the movie, including South Korea-born singer-songwriter Jihae as Anna Fang, “a dangerous outlaw with a bounty on her head.” (Yesterday, Universal released a featurette introducing her badass character.)
“Mortal Engines” opens December 6, 2018, according to Universal’s Twitter, but December 14 according to their YouTube account.
There’s still no creative team attached to Amazon’s big-budgeted “Lord of the Rings” series, but that hasn’t stopped the streaming service from setting a (tentative) release date for the project.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Jennifer Salke, the new head of Amazon Studios, gave an update on the project, which was officially greenlit back in November. According to the executive, the goal is to begin production on the series in two years, and have it begin airing on the streaming service sometime in 2021 (though Salke did say that some Amazon staffers are hoping to beat that, and make it 2020 instead).
First, however, a lot of work needs to be done, and that begins with nailing down a story, and a creative team to tell it. According to Salke, Amazon has been meeting with multiple teams of writers who all have different pitches in mind for where to take the Middle Earth-set story. Though she declined to discuss any of those potential plot points (including the rumor that the show will focus on a younger version of Aragorn, played in the film series by Viggo Mortensen), the exec said that Amazon was “very excited” to “move forward … very soon” with the project.
“There have been a lot of informational meetings about the material and about the scope of what we can do,” Salke told THR. “My hope would be to put together a group of talented people, which will obviously have a leader who can embark on this big ambitious endeavor.”
As for someone who’s already explored the ambitious world of J.R.R. Tolkien, Peter Jackson, Salke said that the Oscar winner’s involvement in the series — which the director himself has denied in the past — is currently an open-ended question.
“We’re in conversations with him that I think are very amicable about how much involvement he wants and what kind,” the exec told THR. “We haven’t figured out exactly what that is yet. He may say he is involved or he’s not involved. We’re still very much in conversation with him about what kind of involvement he would propose.”
Regardless of whether or not Jackson joins the series, in whatever form that may take, it sounds like Amazon is determined to get it right. Stay tuned to see if it makes Salke’s 2021 deadline.
There’s still no creative team attached to Amazon’s big-budgeted “