WB Making New Middle-Earth Films With Peter Jackson Kept In The Loop About The Deal

Yesterday, it was announced in a joint press statement by Warner Bros. Pictures and Embracer Group that they’ve reached a brand new deal for New Line Cinema to continue to make feature films based on the work on Professor J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings. Expanding the existing cinematic universe, although, the announcement failed to mention what exact source material they’ll be adapting or what those new movies will look like. This comes after the studio is about to release an animated film The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim on April 12, 2024 and last year Amazon released their first of five seasons of their Middle-Earth streaming series, Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power. So, there was plenty of Middle-Earth material being released beyond live-action feature films.

The previous six feature films (set during The Third Age) were directed, produced, and co-written by filmmaker Peter Jackson. Interestingly enough, on the heels of the announcement Deadline was able to get a direct quote from Jackson, where he said that the two companies have kept himself alongside his producing/writing partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens in the loop about the deal.

“Warner Brothers and Embracer have kept us in the loop every step of the way,” the Oscar-winning trio said. “We look forward to speaking with them further to hear their vision for the franchise moving forward.”

I can’t really imagine that Jackson has the stomach to direct any more Middle-Earth adventures after he was forced to helm The Hobbit trilogy after Guillermo del Toro exited over scheduling issues to focus on Pacific Rim. However, potentially producing or writing new live-action films might be appealing as it would bring more business to Wellington, New Zeeland’s Stone Street Studios and Weta Digital/Workshop.

There is plenty of source material to pull from if they attempt to craft movies around the legends/tidbits that Tolkien sprinkled throughout his books or the expanded material published by his son Christopher Tolkien after his death. Personally, I could see tackling The Dark Lord Morgoth and The First Age (teased in The Rings of Power) as very much worthwhile adapting into a third trilogy of films unless the studio wants to move forward beyond with The Fourth Age. There are also other unexplored portions of the Middle-Earth mythology we haven’t seen on the big-screen like the two Blue Wizards and territories of the Easterlings.

SOURCE: WARNER BROS. & DEADLINE

Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital Renamed WetaFX After Tech Assets Are Sold For $1.625 Billion To Unity

In a massive deal, Peter Jackson has sold the tech assets and name of his effects company Weta Digital to Unity Software for a hefty $1.625 billion. This deal doesn’t mean that Weta won’t have an effects division as Jackson’s company will stay separate from the deal and has been renamed/rebranded as WetaFX.

Unity’s acquired company, the tech assets of Weta, will be titled Weta Digital, while Peter Jackson’s Weta visual effects business will remain separate under the banner of WetaFX.

On the tech side, with this transaction Unity acquires Weta’s 275 engineers and proprietary technology including Weta’s cloud service and tools including Manuka and Gazebo renderers, Barbershop hair and fur system, Loki physics-based simulation tool for water and smoke; and facial capture technology.

Weta Digital, now called WetaFX, has been a pioneer of digital effects alongside fellow VFX house Industrial Light & Magic. They’re known for working on films such as The Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit, King Kong, multiple pics in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and DCEU.

It’s nice to know that Weta’s effects division will continue under Jackson’s oversight and won’t stop doing visual effects for films/television, something that might have confused fans that maybe only read headlines about the deal.

Below is the original press release.

Unity (NYSE: U), the world’s leading platform for creating and operating interactive, real-time 3D (RT3D) content, announced today it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Weta Digital’s tools, pipeline, technology, and engineering talent. Ultimately, this acquisition is designed to put Weta’s incredibly exclusive and sophisticated visual effects (VFX) tools into the hands of millions of creators and artists around the world, and once integrated onto the Unity platform, enable the next generation of RT3D creativity and shape the future of the metaverse.


Weta Digital will join Unity’s Create Solutions focused on the continual evolution of Weta Digital’s dozens of proprietary graphics and VFX tools, such as Manuka, Lumberjack, Loki, Squid, Barbershop, HighDef, CityBuilder, and many more. In the future, with Unity’s deep expertise in real-time, these world-class artist tools will be available to creators through an accessible cloud-based workflow.

Weta Digital’s Academy Award-Winning VFX teams will continue to exist as a standalone entity known as WetaFX and is expected to become Unity’s largest customer in the Media and Entertainment space. WetaFX will still be under majority ownership by Sir Peter Jackson and helmed by CEO Prem Akkaraju.

SOURCE: WETA

‘House Of The Dragon’: HBO Adds Graham McTavish From ‘Hobbit’ Trilogy & ‘Outlander’ To ‘Game Of Thrones’ Spinoff

House of The Dragon is the next big installment of the Game of Thrones franchise from HBO and producer/creator George R.R. Martin, which is based on the prequel novel Fire & Blood that chronicles the Targaryens (House of The Dragon).

Based on George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, the series will tell the story of House Targaryen (a.k.a. the House that gave us the Mother of Dragons herself, Daenerys Targaryen) and take place 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones.

HBO has announced via The Hollywood Reporter that six more actors have joined the mature fantasy series with the standout being Scottish actor Graham McTavish, who had a supporting role in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy and might be better known for his role on the television series Outlander.

Check out the roles and character descriptions from HBO.

Ryan Corr (Holding the Man) as Ser Harwin ‘Breakbones’ Strong — ‘Breakbones’, Harwin is said to be the strongest man in the Seven Kingdoms. Ser Harwin is the eldest son to Master of Laws Lyonel Strong and heir to Harrenhal.

Jefferson Hall (Vikings) as Lord Jason Lannister — the Lord of Casterly Rock and twin to Ser Tyland Lannister. Jefferson Hall as Tyland Lannister — a crafty and calculating politician, twin to Lord Jason Lannister.

David Horovitch (Miss Marple) as Grand Maester Mellos — a voice of reason and trusted advisor to King Viserys.

Graham McTavish (Outlander) as Ser Harrold Westerling — Ser Harrold has served in the Kingsguard since the days of King Jaehaerys; he is a paragon of chivalry and honor.

Matthew Needham (Chernobyl) as Larys Strong — younger son of Master of Laws Lyonel Strong, brought to court by his father.

Bill Paterson (Fleabag) as Lord Lyman Beesbury — Lord of Honeyholt and Master of Coin on King Viserys’s small council.

Gavin Spokes (Hamilton) as Lord Lyonel Strong — Master of Laws to King Viserys and Lord of Harrenhal.

The rest of the cast consists of Paddy Considine as King Viserys Targaryen, Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, Emma D’Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen, Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon (The Sea Snake), Eve Best as Princess Rhaenys Velaryon, Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower (The Hand of the King), Sonoya Mizuno as Mysaria, Milly Alcock as Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, and Emily Carey as Young Alicent Hightower.

Martin recently signed a five-year deal with HBO and could see even more Game of Thrones projects being developed. There have been previous reports that George R.R. Martin’s Knight of The Seven Kingdoms will be turned a series, titled Tales of Dunk & Egg, along with other projects in development such as Sea Snake aka The 9 Voyages, 10,000 Ships, and three animated projects as one will focus on The Grand Empire of Yi Ti (a fantasy version of Imperial China).

A Flea Bottom show has been killed by HBO, we’ll likely see more projects not make the finish line. The Long Night/Bloodmoon was a prequel series about the origin of The White Walkers that only shot a pilot and didn’t get a series pick-up.

House of The Dragon will begin airing sometime in 2022.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Benedict Cumberbatch Not Terribly Interested In Playing The Live-Action Version of ‘Star Wars’ Villain Thrawn – “That’s A Straight No From Me”

In the last season of The Mandalorian, we saw Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano on a mission to find Grand Admiral Thrawn, a Legends villain that become part of Star Wars canon after appearing in Star Wars: Rebels. This leading many to assume that a live-action incarnation is likely coming in the very near future.

A big fan-cast contender has been Sherlock and Doctor Strange actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who has played villains in the past such as Star Trek’s Khan in the J.J. Abrams movies, The Hobbit’s Smaug The Dragon, and Marvel Comics supervillain Dormammu in Doctor Strange.

While speaking with Collider, Benedict was asked about his interest in the hypothetical role of Thrawn but seems to be turned-off to the idea of being in a makeup chair. A grueling makeup job could easily be a reason someone might want to avoid a role like Thrawn, while others might jump at the chance.

CUMBERBATCH: “That’s a straight no from me, right now. There’s no way I want to be turned blue. I turned the air blue, very recently. No no, seriously, I have precious time with my children and I think sitting in a makeup chair and being painted blue, and the amount of time it would take to do that and then take it off at the end of the day might just… it’s not the right time in my life for that.”

Despite the tease in The Mandalorian, we still don’t know when and where Thrawn could end up appearing officially. Benedict Cumberbatch is currently shooting Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness and is also attached to appear in Spider-Man: No Way Home as well.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

‘Lord of The Rings’: Elvish Kingdom of Lindon & Moria Will Be Explored In Amazon Series – Will Celebrimbor Appear?

A synopsis for The Lord of The Rings series posted by fansite The One Ring and confirmed by IGN doesn’t give us any hard plot details but has now given us two key locations the expensive Amazon project will explore within the Second Age of Middle-Earth.

Amazon had already confirmed that they would covering the island Kingdom of Numenor (Middle-Earth’s Atlantis) that eventually returns to the water after the inhabitants attempt a rebellion against the Elves/immortals sparked by the evil Sauron in his fair-form, a disciple of the original Dark Lord Morgoth. Sauron embeds himself into the court after being captured and basically destroys Numenor from within leading to a Morgoth cult that included human sacrifices and turning the rulers/population against the Elves. The Numenoreans eventually made their way to the mainland and led the forces against Sauron at the end of The Second Age leading to the new Dark Lord losing the Ring of Power in defeat.

The two other locations for the show mentioned in the synopsis include the Elvish Kingdom of Lindon and Misty Mountains, the latter being where the Dwarf Kingdom of Khazad-dûm aka Moria that was explored in The Fellowship of The Ring and briefly shown in The Hobbit films. The Kingdom of Lindon was a place that was essentially abandoned by those Elves before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings trilogy that took place in The Third Age.

Lindon included the Noldor and Sindar. The Noldor is the group of Elves that Celebrimbor belonged to, the Elvish Prince who helped forge the Eleven Rings of Power for Sauron in the Second Age and was seen in the Shadow of Mordor video games.

Here is that synopsis.

Amazon Studios’ forthcoming series 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 the greatest villain 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 re-emergence 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 furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.

These words about the Misty Mountains teasing the Mines of Moria which would suggest we’ll see those Durin Dwarves in the series (ancestors of Dwarves we’ve seen before in the Peter Jackson films), Lindon apparently had Dwarves among their population as well.

Filming is underway in Auckland, New Zealand.

The show’s massive cast includes actors Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Daniel Weyman, Lenny Henry, Peter Mullan (Trainspotting, Children of Men), Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Benjamin Walker (Heart of The Sea, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Arrow, Power), Simon Merrells, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Geoff Morrell, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, and Sara Zwangobani.

SOURCE: THE ONE RING & IGN

Hugo Weaving Has Zero Interest In Joining Amazon’s ‘Lord of The Rings’ Series

It was recently revealed by Aussie actor Hugo Weaving that he was keen on returning to the Agent Smith role for Lana Wachowski’s Matrix 4, but the director ultimately decided against it. 

However, when it comes to being asked to reprise the role of Elrond in future Middle-Earth projects such as Amazon’s Lord of The Rings series set in during the Second Age, he has no interest according to comments made to Variety. 

WEAVING: “Matrix might have happened. But Lord of the Rings, no, I would never — I’m not interested in that at all. Look, I loved being in New Zealand with all those great people, and it was like going back to a family but actually, to be honest, I think everyone had more than enough of it.”

“They have to be something really interesting, with a different twist to make me really keen to do it.”

“I’m not saying ‘no’ [to those kinds of tentpole films] because I’m sort of open to anything,” he says. “But I suppose my interests have always lay with this country and trying to find really interesting projects out here. That’s my primary focus.”

His experience working on the Hobbit films and their outcome might have something to do with his stance. 

There had been some unconfirmed fan rumblings of his character returning for the Amazon series, but Hugo won’t be involved. 

SOURCE: VARIETY