The IP rights “The Lord of the Rings” “The Hobbit”J.R.R. Tolkien’s characters are moving. Embracer, a Swedish gaming company, announced Thursday that they had entered into a deal with Tolkien to acquire the legendary fantasy series.
“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,”Lars Wingefors is the founder and Group CEO Embracer Group. Statement. “I am thrilled to see what lies in the future for this IP with Freemode and Asmodee as a start within the group.”
After acquiring the rights from J.R.R.’s estate and heirs, The Saul Zaentz Company acquired the rights to these titles. HarperCollins Publishers and Tolkien in 1976. (The latter retains the print publication rights for both titles.
The animated version was created by the Saul Zaentz Company. ‘The Lord of the Rings,’Directed by Ralph Bakshi, and released in 1978. In 1998, the company licensed the rights to New Line Cinema, which, of course, led to Peter Jackson’s live-action trilogies of both “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit.”
“We at the Zaentz Company have had the honor over the past half century of stewarding the Tolkien rights so that Lord of the Rings Hobbit fans worldwide could enjoy award winning epic films, challenging video games, first rate theatre and merchandise of every variety. We could not be more thrilled that it is Embracer now taking up the responsibility and we are confident their group will take it to new heights and dimensions while maintaining homage to the spirit of these great literary works,“ Marty Glick, COO of The Saul Zaentz Company, said in a statement.
Embracer will retain worldwide rights to all future movies, board games and video games as well as merchandising, theme parks, stage productions, and merchandising related to the topic. “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and “The Hobbit,” as well as matching rights in any other Middle Earth-related literary works that may come to be.
Embracer says “Other opportunities include exploring additional movies based on iconic characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum, Galadriel, Eowyn and other characters.”
