![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www-images.theonering.org\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/LEGO.com-LEGO\u00ae-The-Lord-of-The-Rings\u2122-_Home.png\" "\\"LEGO.com")
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LEGO fans rejoice! LEGO has secured the rights to develop build-and-play construction sets based on The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit! Check out the release below. They’ve even set up an official site for the line at \u00a0TheLordoftheRings.LEGO.com<\/a>!\u00a0(Thanks to Ringer Dayhiker for the heads up!)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n BURBANK, Calif<\/strong>.,\u00a0Dec. 16, 2011 — Warner Bros. Consumer Products and The LEGO Group announced today a partnership that awards the world’s leading construction toy brand exclusive rights to develop build-and-play construction sets based on\u00a0THE LORD OF THE RINGS\u2122<\/em>\u00a0trilogy and the two films based on\u00a0THE HOBBIT\u2122<\/em>.\u00a0 The multi-year licensing agreement grants access to the library of characters, settings, and stories for\u00a0THE LORD OF THE RINGS<\/em>\u00a0property, as well as films\u00a0The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Hobbit: There and Back Again<\/em>.\u00a0 LEGO\u00ae\u00a0THE LORD OF THE RINGS\u00a0<\/em>construction sets are slated for a rolling global launch beginning in\u00a0June 2012\u00a0in\u00a0the United States, with LEGO\u00a0THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY<\/em>\u00a0scheduled for later in the year.<\/p>\n “Only LEGO, with their expertise in the construction category, is capable of doing justice to the incredibly imaginative environments depicted in the world of\u00a0THE LORD OF THE RINGS<\/em>\u00a0and the two films based on\u00a0THE HOBBIT,”<\/em>\u00a0said\u00a0Karen McTier, executive vice president, domestic licensing and worldwide marketing, Warner Bros. Consumer Products. “These films give life to amazing worlds and characters and we are thrilled to bring fans these products that deliver an imaginative play experience befitting of these beloved properties.”<\/p>\n The LEGO\u00a0THE LORD OF THE RINGS\u00a0<\/em>collection will translate into LEGO form the epic locations, scenes and characters of Middle-earth as depicted in all three films, including\u00a0The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring<\/em>,\u00a0The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King<\/em>.<\/p>\n In late 2012, LEGO\u00a0THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY\u00a0<\/em>will give fans of all ages a chance to build and play out the fantastical story and new characters of the legendary Middle-earth adventures depicted in\u00a0The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey<\/em>from Academy Award\u00ae-winning filmmaker\u00a0Peter Jackson, slated to premiere\u00a0December 14, 2012.<\/p>\n “Our collaboration with Warner Bros. Consumer Products has delivered numerous worldwide successes in the construction toy aisle with lines like LEGO\u00a0HARRY POTTER<\/em>\u00a0and LEGO\u00a0BATMAN<\/em>, introducing us to loyal audiences who love great stories, strong characters and the toys that they inspire,” said\u00a0Jill Wilfert, vice president, licensing and entertainment for The LEGO Group. “It’s particularly exciting to now be able to create sets based on the fantasy worlds and characters from\u00a0THE LORD OF THE RINGS<\/em>\u00a0trilogy and the two films based on\u00a0THE HOBBIT<\/em>, not only because we know they will foster collectability and creative play, but also because these are two properties that our fans have been asking us to create for years.”<\/p>\n Information about the sets and collectible minifigures from both collections will be unveiled at a later date atTheLordoftheRings.LEGO.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n About\u00a0The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0The Hobbit: There and Back Again The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey<\/em>\u00a0will be released beginning\u00a0December 14, 2012.\u00a0 The second film,\u00a0The Hobbit: There and Back Again<\/em>, is slated for release the following year, beginning\u00a0December 13, 2013.<\/p>\n Ian McKellen\u00a0returns as Gandalf the Grey, the character he played in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and\u00a0Martin Freeman\u00a0in the central role of Bilbo Baggins.\u00a0 Also reprising their roles from “The Lord of the Rings” movies are: Cate Blanchett as Galadriel;\u00a0Ian Holm\u00a0as the elder Bilbo;\u00a0Christopher Lee\u00a0as Saruman;\u00a0Hugo Weaving\u00a0as Elrond;\u00a0Elijah Wood\u00a0as Frodo;\u00a0Orlando Bloom\u00a0as Legolas; and\u00a0Andy Serkis\u00a0as Gollum.\u00a0 The ensemble cast also includes (in alphabetical order)\u00a0Richard Armitage,\u00a0John Bell,\u00a0Jed Brophy,\u00a0Adam Brown,\u00a0John Callen,\u00a0Luke Evans,\u00a0Stephen Fry,\u00a0Ryan Gage,\u00a0Mark Hadlow,\u00a0Peter Hambleton,\u00a0Barry Humphries,Stephen Hunter,\u00a0William Kircher,\u00a0Evangeline Lilly,\u00a0Sylvester McCoy,\u00a0Bret McKenzie,\u00a0Graham McTavish,\u00a0Mike Mizrahi,\u00a0James Nesbitt, Dean O’Gorman,\u00a0Lee Pace, Mikael Persbrandt,\u00a0Conan Stevens,\u00a0Ken Stott,\u00a0Jeffrey Thomas, and\u00a0Aidan Turner.<\/p>\n The screenplays for both\u00a0The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Hobbit: There and Back Again<\/em>\u00a0are by\u00a0Fran Walsh,Philippa Boyens,\u00a0Guillermo del Toro\u00a0and\u00a0Peter Jackson.\u00a0 Jackson is also producing the films, together with\u00a0Fran Walsh\u00a0andCarolynne Cunningham.\u00a0 The executive producers are\u00a0Alan Horn,\u00a0Ken Kamins,\u00a0Toby Emmerich\u00a0and\u00a0Zane Weiner, with Boyens serving as co-producer.<\/p>\n The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Hobbit: There and Back Again<\/em>\u00a0are being co-produced by New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. with New Line managing production.<\/p>\n Warner Bros Pictures will be handling theatrical distribution for most of the world and MGM will handle all international television licensing and theatrical distribution for certain international territories for the films.<\/p>\n About The LEGO Group LEGO and the LEGO logo are trademarks of The LEGO Group.\u00a0 \u00a9 2011 The LEGO Group.<\/p>\n About Warner Bros. Consumer Products WB SHIELD:\u00a0\u2122 & \u00a9 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.<\/p>\n About Middle-earth Enterprises \u00a9 New Line Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY and the names of the characters, items, events and places therein are trademarks of The Saul Zaentz Company d\/b\/a Middle-earth Enterprises under license to New Line Productions, Inc.<\/p>\n \u00a9 New Line Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. THE HOBBIT: THERE AND BACK AGAIN and the names of the characters, items, events and places therein are trademarks of The Saul Zaentz Company d\/b\/a Middle-earth Enterprises under license to New Line Productions, Inc.<\/p>\n \u00a9 2011 New Line Productions, Inc.\u00a0 All rights reserved.\u00a0 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and the names of the characters, items, events and places therein are trademarks of The Saul Zaentz Company d\/b\/a Middle-earth Enterprises under license to New Line Productions, Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LEGO fans rejoice! LEGO has secured the rights to develop build-and-play construction sets based on The Lord of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":51459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[84,197,22,4,5,18,498,148,149,152,392],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-merchandise-collectibles","category-fans","category-headlines","category-hobbit-movie","category-lotr-movies","category-merchandise","category-production-studios","category-hobbit","category-lotr","category-tolkien","category-warner-bros"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/LEGO.com-LEGO\u00ae-The-Lord-of-The-Rings\u2122-_Home.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tLoH-dnY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51458","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\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em><\/span><\/strong>From Academy Award\u00ae<\/sup>-winning filmmaker\u00a0Peter Jackson\u00a0comes\u00a0The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey<\/em>, the first of two films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece\u00a0The Hobbit<\/em>.\u00a0 The second film will be\u00a0The Hobbit: There and Back Again<\/em>.\u00a0 Both films are set in Middle-earth 60 years before\u00a0The Lord of the Rings<\/em>, which Jackson and his filmmaking team brought to the big screen in the blockbuster trilogy that culminated with the Oscar\u00ae<\/sup>-winning\u00a0The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/strong>The LEGO Group is a privately held, family-owned company, based in Billund,\u00a0Denmark. It was founded in 1932 and today the group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of play materials for children, employing approximately 9,000 people globally. The LEGO Group is committed to the development of children’s creative and imaginative abilities. LEGO products can be purchased in more than 130 countries.<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/strong>Warner Bros. Consumer Products, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, is one of the leading licensing and retail merchandising organizations in the world.<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/strong>The Saul Zaentz Company d\/b\/a Middle-earth Enterprises is the holder of worldwide motion picture, legitimate stage, merchandising, and other rights in the literary works of\u00a0 J.R.R. Tolkien including\u00a0The Lord of the Rings<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Hobbit<\/em>.\u00a0 SZC has been producing and licensing films, stage productions and merchandise based on the Tolkien works for more than 30 years.\u00a0 Its headquarters are located in\u00a0Berkeley, California\u00a0and its Middle-earth Enterprises’ website may be found at\u00a0www.middleearth.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n