Gandalf is going to give it another go with more Tolkien adaptations in the works. Photo: AFP / Warner Bros
The Warner Bros movie studio is developing new instalments in the blockbuster The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchises based on the J.R.R. Tolkien novels set in the fictional world of Middle-earth, company executives announced today.
Warner Bros, owned by Warner Bros Discovery, said it had reached a multi-year agreement to collaborate on new films with Middle-earth Enterprises, a unit of Embracer Group AB .
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy filmed in New Zealand, which began in 2001, won 17 Oscars. Three Hobbit films were released starting in 2012.
The six films, directed by Sir Peter Jackson, hauled in more than US$6 billion at global box offices.
"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," Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy said in a statement.
The Amazon streaming TV series also exploring Tolkien's creations The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premiered last year. The first season was filmed in New Zealand, but production for future series was moved to the UK.
- Reuters/w RNZ