Middle-earth Enterprises
Middle-earth Enterprises, formerly known as Tolkien Enterprises (sometimes abbreviated to TE), is the division of the Saul Zaentz Company, created by Saul Zaentz to manage his licenses for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
History
In 1969, J.R.R. Tolkien sold certain rights to United Artists, for US$250,000.[1] This was then resold to independent producer Saul Zaentz in 1976. Ralph Bakshi, who had tried to argue with United Artists over an animated feature film for years, found more success with Zaentz. With a budget of US$7 million, it became quite an endeavour.[2]
After Bakshi's box office failure, and the non-success of the Rankin/Bass productions, Zaentz was reluctant to market another adaptation, but would grant license to Peter Jackson if he could find a production studio. After being turned down by Miramax, New Line Cinema went ahead with the record trilogy.[3]
Ownership
Tolkien Enterprises holds marketing and licensing rights for the titles The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and many proper names and short phrases from the books. As a consequence, they also own all stage and cinema rights to these two books, and the merchandise surrounding it.[4]
Current Licensees
- New Line Cinema
- Electronic Arts
- Turbine
- Games Workshop
- The Lord of the Rings Musical
- Danbury Mint
- Game Systems
- US Games Systems
- Sophisticated Games
- Lladro
- Royal Selangor
- Mithril Miniatures[5]
See also
References
- ↑ John Ezard, "So, would Tolkien have liked the film?", The Guardian (December 14, 2001)
- ↑ Barry Langford, "Bakshi, Ralph", published in J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia (edited by Michael Drout), pages 48-50
- ↑ The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: Special Extended DVD Edition, "From Book to Vision"
- ↑ Chester N. Scoville, "Estate", published in J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia (edited by Michael Drout), pages 175-6
- ↑ Tolkien-ent.com, "Current Licensees"
External links
- Official website
- Middle-earth Enterprises at Wikipedia
- Tamer Asfahani, "Tolkien IP License", at IncGamers
