Middle-earth in motion pictures
J. R. R. Tolkien interpretations / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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J. R. R. Tolkien's novels The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), set in Middle-earth, have been the subject of numerous motion picture adaptations, whether for film (cinema), television, or streaming. There were many early failed attempts to bring the fictional universe to life on screen, some even rejected by the author himself, who was skeptical of the prospects of an adaptation. While animated and live-action shorts were made in 1967 and 1971, the first commercial depiction of the book onscreen was in an animated TV special in 1977. In 1978 the first big screen adaptation of the fictional setting was introduced in the animated The Lord of the Rings.
The rights to adapt Tolkien's works passed through the hands of several studios, having been briefly leased to Rembrandt Films before being sold perpetually to United Artists, who then passed them in part to Saul Zaentz (which did business as Middle-earth Enterprises). During this time, filmmakers who attempted to adapt Tolkien's works include William Snyder, Peter Shaffer, John Boorman, Ralph Bakshi, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro. Other filmmakers and producers who were interested in an adaptation included Walt Disney, Al Brodax, Forrest J Ackerman, Samuel Gelfman, Denis O'Dell (who contacted David Lean, Stanley Kubrick and Michelangelo Antonioni to direct), and Heinz Edelmann.
New Line Cinema released the first part of director Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film series in 2001 as part of a trilogy and several actors and roles were introduced once again in a prequel trilogy in The Hobbit film series, also producing a short film to promote the video game Middle-earth: Shadow of War in 2017, and an animated prequel film, subtitled The War of the Rohirrim, in 2024. In 2017, Amazon Prime Video bought the television rights to adapt a new prequel streaming television series set in the Second Age, a period glimpsed in flashback in The Lord of the Rings films as The Rings of Power. The first season began in September 2022. In February 2023, a new film reboot of the franchise was announced to be in early development from Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema.[1]
Collectively, the New Line franchise has received a record 37 Academy Award nominations, winning 17, and three special awards, also a record. Along with The Godfather film series, it is one of two film series to date to have received three Best Picture nominations. The third film in Peter Jackson's trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, was the first and, as of 2020, the only high-fantasy film to win Best Picture. Along with Titanic and Ben-Hur, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King holds the record for Academy Awards won by a single film and is the only one of the three films to win every category for which it was nominated.
Well-received fan films of Middle-earth include The Hunt for Gollum and Born of Hope, which were uploaded to YouTube on 8 May 2009 and 11 December 2009 respectively.