{"id":110727,"date":"2021-05-26T18:04:58","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T23:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/?p=110727"},"modified":"2021-05-26T18:04:59","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T23:04:59","slug":"amazon-acquires-more-middle-earth-with-mgm-purchase-jeff-bezos-steps-down-to-focus-on-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/2021\/05\/26\/110727-amazon-acquires-more-middle-earth-with-mgm-purchase-jeff-bezos-steps-down-to-focus-on-studio\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon acquires more Middle-earth with MGM purchase, Jeff Bezos steps down to focus on studio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"intro\">Hobbits are now owned by Amazon, joining all-encompassing TV rights to <em>The Lord of the Rings<\/em> book and appendices rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maxresdefault-10-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"MGM's famous roaring lion trade mark is seen in front of Bilbo and Gandalf. \" class=\"wp-image-110730 no-lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maxresdefault-10-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maxresdefault-10-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maxresdefault-10-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maxresdefault-10-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maxresdefault-10-255x143.jpg 255w, https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maxresdefault-10.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>The Hobbit films were produced by Warner Bros from rights owned by MGM. img: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZLXsTKlBbNM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s official: <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2021\/digital\/news\/amazon-buys-mgm-studio-behind-james-bond-for-8-45-billion-1234980526\/amp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Amazon has acquired MGM Studios<\/a>, including the longtime film and TV rights to <em>The Hobbit <\/em>and characters related. Within hours, CEO Jeff Bezos <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2021\/digital\/news\/jeff-bezos-step-down-amazon-ceo-july-5-1234982238\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced he is stepping down<\/a> in July and moving to Hollywood to play with his major studio, of which the crown jewel is <em>The Lord of the Rings<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What this means is that <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LOTRonPrime\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@LOTRonPrime<\/a> can put Hobbits in their Second Age show, since rights to that class of characters were held by MGM. &#8216;But timelines,&#8217; you say! Time is just a construct. Amazon needs an Everyman entry point for casual viewers: Hobbits are that. There have been rumors that Harfoots are in the show, a book-sourced compromise from the troublesome <em>Hobbit <\/em>rights. Amazon can now change all the dialogue in reshoots to call them Hobbits; casual fans will want that familiarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember the crushing drama of rights issues with MGM on <em>The Hobbit<\/em>, which caused Guillermo del Toro perhaps the greatest professional loss of his career? Amazon has just resolved all that for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amazon has full TV rights to <em>The Lord of the Rings<\/em> full stop &#8211; anything mentioned in the books and appendices. Now they have all the rights MGM previously held, from its 45 year old Saul Zaentz deal. Amazon chose not to remake <em>The Lord of the Rings<\/em>, instead exploring many different options, before settling on Numenor and the Second Age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Owning MGM means, of course, that Amazon COULD remake <em>The Hobbit<\/em> into a limited series or a cartoon; many things are possible. All kinds of round doors are now open&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"460\" height=\"345\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/aab46bb3927f15427af5b5f5ece0c6a4.jpg\" alt=\"The cartoon Bilbo Baggins in front of Bag End - from the Rankin Bass Hobbit movie. \" class=\"wp-image-110728 no-lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/aab46bb3927f15427af5b5f5ece0c6a4.jpg 460w, https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/aab46bb3927f15427af5b5f5ece0c6a4-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/aab46bb3927f15427af5b5f5ece0c6a4-213x160.jpg 213w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hobbits are now owned by Amazon, joining all-encompassing TV rights to The Lord of the Rings book and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":110730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3127,3119,435,1156,148,149],"tags":[2327,3123,3206,3208,3643,771,357,698,221,2014],"class_list":["post-110727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amazon-studios","category-amazon-tv-series","category-guillermo-del-toro","category-mgm-production-studios-production","category-hobbit","category-lotr","tag-amazon","tag-amazon-middle-earth-tv-series-amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series","tag-amazon-studios","tag-amazon-tv-series","tag-harfoots","tag-hobbits","tag-mgm","tag-saul-zaentz-company","tag-the-hobbit","tag-the-lord-of-the-rings"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maxresdefault-10.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tLoH-sNV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110727"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110737,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110727\/revisions\/110737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}