https://deadline.com/2024/05/first-film ... 235909812/
PREVIOUSLY: Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said this morning that the first of two new films based the Lord Of The Rings will be releases in 2026. The team is in early stages of script development on the project, he said during a post-earnings call.
Zaslav revealed last year that Warner. Bros. Pictures, led by Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca, will be revisiting the Lord of the Rings with new films based on the beloved books by J.R.R. Tolkien that became a highly lucrative cinematic franchise helmed by Peter Jackson. He will be back producing, with longtime collaborators Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. It’s repped a major piece of business for the studio with Jackson’s previous six LOTR films grossing about $6 billion worldwide — roughly $3 billion for each trilogy.
Zaslav didn’t reveal any plot points, saying the first film will focus on “storylines yet to be told.”
Warner Bros. Pictures has had a nice run this year but Zaslav says it can do more and better in the wake of “heavy lifting” by Abdy and Deluca — and James Gunn and Peter Safran at DC. Their efforts are not yet reflected in the studio numbers, he said, as the company continues to work through “the remainder of the slate that was in place when we took over the business.”
He said storytelling is the heart of the company “as we strive to return the luster to Warner Bros. Pictures.”
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2000); The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002); and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) were the first three films. They were followed by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug; and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, released, respectively, in 2012, 2013 and 2014.