Ever wanted to write your own official The Lord of the Rings novel, or do a The Hobbit film right this time? Heck, maybe even an anime series starring the Fellowship of the Ring? Well, now you can do just that, provided you have the money for it, of course.

J. R. R. Tolkien: Now Available For Purchase

J. R. R. Tolkien photo from the 1940's.
No, I meant his works. Not the author himself.

Variety has just reported that Saul Zaentz Co., who owns the rights for all the J. R. R. Tolkien works (including The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit), is now selling those rights. They have actually hired ACF Investment Bank to handle the sale process as an intermediary. So far, there is no prospective buyer, but that will probably change soon. Perhaps it might even be one of you readers, provided that you’re a billionaire. Apparently, top-tier IP and content producers estimate that the Tolkien rights will sell for at least $2 billion USD. So if you happen to have over 2 billion dollars just lying around, well, you might just be able to buy those rights. Not likely, but hey, you can dream, right?

The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship Of The Coming Multimedia Flood?

"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings" screenshot showing everyone giving Boromir funny looks.
I just imagine Boromir here to be the business executive, and the others are giving him funny looks at his slavering over the rights.

Whoever does end up purchasing the Tolkien rights though is going to have everything, and I do mean everything. The rights Zaentz Co. is holding encompasses “film, video games, merchandising, live events and theme parks”. It even includes the rights to 2 of Tolkien’s posthumously published stories: The Silmarillion and The Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth. So whoever owns these rights would own pretty much all of the rights to make The Lord of the Rings media.

This is just speculation, but it’s entirely possible that Amazon might be the company to buy up these Tolkien rights. After all, their decision to make The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power TV series was what prompted Zaentz Co. to sell those rights in the first place, hoping to cash in on the impending release. Maybe Amazon will go the whole mile and buy those rights, ensuring that they will be in full control of the Tolkien works? Maybe we’ll even see Amazon expand into the anime and video game industry as well, all riding on their ownership of the Tolkien rights? Only time will tell if this speculation bears fruit, so take it with a grain of salt.

Source: Variety