I just posted an entry on my other blog, “Observations on Film Art,” which might be of interest to Tolkien fans. The topic is how film researchers like me can use eBay as a resource. Naturally my example is The Frodo Franchise and some of the film-franchise-related objects I acquired for possible use as illustrations.

Not all that many of the objects I bought ended up in the book, but I’ve posted photos of some of the most interesting and unusual ones.

I have to admit that I haven’t kept up with every new film-related piece of LOTR merchandise. There are quite a few of them, considering that it’s going on seven years since the last part of the trilogy was released.

Weta Workshop has been busy turning out swords, busts, models, and clothing. Now two new items are announced as premiering at Comic-Con: a model Bag End and a model Prancing Pony, as well as a necklace with the One Ring on a chain, housed in a wooden box. Check out the descriptions and images here.

I was alerted by Magpie over on the Message Boards of TheOneRing.net that Doug Adams has revamped his blog site in preparation for the publication of his long-awaited book on the music in the LOTR trilogy. Have a look here. Doug specifies that his book will come out this fall. Even those who don’t want to read close analysis of the musical tracks may want to buy the book anyway to get the accompanying CD (which I gather won’t be sold separately). It contains: “unused, alternate, and early-draft music from FOTR, TTT, and ROTK … and even a little discussion with Howard Shore and myself.” Doug has long had access to Shore for interviews, and there’s no one better qualified than he to create the definitive book on the subject: The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films.

I know a lot of us are eagerly looking forward to seeing this book at last. Some of the delays have been due to the formidable challenges of putting together an elaborate publication like this.

Doug has been very mysterious about the publisher. I’m curious, since of course this is a late entry in the continuing LOTR franchise, which this blog in part exists to update. Is this one of the official tie-in books licensed by New Line? Or is it an independent book that had isn’t licensed but has had to pay for the individual rights to reproduce the various musical notations, illustrations, and other material from the films? I’ll of course post a notice when the book becomes available, but in the meantime, you can follow Doug’s blog, which contains a link to his Twitter page.

Today Variety posted a long story about the changes CEO Jeff Bewkes has made in Time Warner. No mention of The Hobbit, though the story does mention that Bewkes doesn’t seem inclined to raise its offer, rumored to be in the neighborhood of $1.5 billion, to buy MGM.

The summary includes a section on how Time Warner has been expanding into the video-game business:

Time Warner’s M&A activity mostly has focused on opportunistic, low-risk buys of videogame publishers and developers with creative talent and assets that Warner Bros. needs to expand its games biz. This year, it acquired a majority stake in London-based Rocksteady, which was had been working with the studio on a Batman game; and Boston-based online gaming outfit Turbine.

That company, through a quirk of licensing, controlled multiplayer online gaming rights to “The Lord of the Rings” franchise, while Warner Bros. had a lock on every other “LOTR” gaming format. Last year, it swooped in to buy “Mortal Kombat” maker Midway Games out of bankruptcy for $49 million after Sumner Redstone lost $800 million on the company. Warners also bought Bothell, Wash.-based Snowblind Studios last year.

The vidgame activity is a good example of the kind of strategic “tuck-in” deals that Bewkes is looking for to enhance existing operations. Time Warner’s revenue from vidgames rose from $100 million in 2007 to $510 million in 2009, according to the company.

The LOTR rights mentioned are, I believe, based on the novel (Turbine’s online game) and a combination of the novel and film (Warner’s holdings). It seems likely that eventually The Hobbit video-games will also be handled in-house. That business, including its LOTR component, seems to be doing very well for the company.

Celebriel over on TheOneRing.net alerts us to the fact that there are new bobbleheads of LOTR characters coming out, apparently timed to coincide with the Blu-ray release of the theatrical version of the trilogy.

Lots of people don’t like bobbleheads, especially people outside the U.S. who aren’t familiar with the concept. (I discuss the original bobbleheads briefly on p. 196, where I quote Ian McKellen on his destruction of the Gandalf the Grey bobblehead he was sent.) more »

TheOneRing.net alerts us to the fact that the LOTR official website has been redesigned in preparation for the April 6 release of the theatrical-version DVDs. Pre-orders are available.

So far there’s not a whole lot there, and maybe it will never grow large. I’m glad I still have my “Wizards” screensaver, acquired c. 2002, since all those and the other free downloads seem to be gone. (They did remain available for a long time.)

Not surprisingly, the old New Line shop is nowhere to be found. LOTR stuff is now sold on Warner Bros.’ online shop. There are still a few of the old franchise items on offer in the various categories–the Noble chess set and a half dozen or so of the Sideshow Weta figures and so on.

There’s also a link to the LOTR Facebook site. I’m rather glad that Facebook and Twitter weren’t around when I was researching the LOTR film trilogy and the internet. I’m on Facebook, but I’m barely active there, and I don’t tweet. In those days it was mostly Yahoo! groups and personal websites. Live Journal wasn’t even a factor yet.

I have to admit that the trilogy is slipped further back into history, but the franchise, however reduced, continues

TheOneRing.net has posted the press release giving the new release date for the LOTR theatrical versions Blu-ray set, April 6. There are nine discs, with the films, digital versions for your computer or portable player, and supplements. The latter appear to me to be basically the same ones that came with the first DVD release of the trilogy, including the various trailers and promotional documentaries and clips that heralded each part of the trilogy. Plus there are promos for the new Warner Bros. video game, “The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest,” to come out on an as-yet unspecified date in the spring after the Blu-ray release.

Of particular interest to me was this passage:

Additionally, Warner Bros. Consumer Products has teamed up with top licensees Games Workshop Ltd., Tonner Doll Company, Inc., Sideshow Collectibles, The Noble Collection, WETA, Pez Candy, Funko, LLC, Bioworld Merchandising Inc. and WMS Gaming to create an array of merchandise supporting The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, including apparel and accessories, novelties and collectibles, stationery and paper goods, toys and games.

Some familiar names there, and it will be interesting to see how much merchandising a Blu-ray release of the trilogy can support.

Collider.com has posted a brief interview with Peter Jackson in which he touches briefly on topics relating to both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

First, on the start of principal photography for The Hobbit. Obviously no firm schedule exists for this. Early on, when New Line first announced the project, the date was March, 2010. Later that became April, though that was not an official announcement by any means. Recently Peter said July in an interview in Germany and caused huge speculation on fan sites as to a) what caused such a delay and b) what it meant for the release date of the first film.

Here’s what he now says:

We were due to deliver the scripts and be shooting sometime around April and now I think I said in an interview we were shooting in June.  And somehow people are now saying the film is delayed.  As far as I am aware, they are not delayed at all.  I am not even sure when we are going to start shooting…we are delivering the scripts just after Christmas they’ll be finished and we’ll be shooting as soon as we possibly can.  But you need a certain amount of time to finish the pre-production.

The very fact that Peter can’t remember which date he mentioned in the earlier interview pretty much confirms that there is no official start date.

I cannot overemphasize that much of what the studio and filmmakers have said so far about dates is tentative. Until the two scripts are finished, the budget planned, and the greenlight given, no really firm dates can be devised. In the meantime, all announced dates are presumably targets, and they will change as the decision-makers gain more information.

So whether the principal photography begins in April or July or whenever, there is no real delay. It’s a delay only in relation to estimates, not a firm schedule. These procedures are normal in Hollywood. There is no need to imagine a crisis based on the Tolkien Trust lawsuit, MGM’s financial crisis, or some sort of creative disagreement between the scriptwriters and the studio.

Second, on the release dates of the finished films, the interviewer asks, “So you believe in December 2011 the first part is going to be in theaters. Peter replies, “At this stage, that is certainly the plan.”

Again, that’s tentative. Studios frequently change the release dates of films, especially if the release date was estimated very early on, before the scripting/greenlighting process was even begun. A delay would be disappointing, but it wouldn’t be indicative of some behind-the-scenes calamity.

Third, on the Blue-ray releases, Peter points out that Warner Home Video is handling the decisions about release dates. For the theatrical version, he says, “I believe it is scheduled for sometime next year. They keep changing the date … I don’t know why.” He has already been given a chance to approve the Blu-ray transfer, and “it looks fantastic.”

On whether there will then be a separate extended-version Blu-ray set, Peter replies, “I think so. Again I’m not 100% certain actually.”

So what this boils down to is that the situation is still very much in flux, and everything we think we know is only estimates and tentative plans. The bit of solid news here is that Peter has approved the Blu-ray theatrical version, which will presumably come out next year. There’s no real reason for Warner to delay it or fret about the optimum date for a release. Blu-ray still constitutes a tiny fraction of the home-video market.

[Thanks to David Ivory for alerting me to the Collider interview.]

It seems like old times. Weta has just announced that it has a license from Warner Bros. Consumer Products to create and market some new collectibles. Well, not quite old times, in that it would have been New Line granting such a license back in the early 2000s. Still, the products seem comfortingly familiar–a life-size bronze Gollum to stare at you from the corner of your room, replica swords, miniature shields, and a Gandalf the Grey cloak. (For a short account of Weta Workshop’s original license for collectibles back in 2000, in collaboration with Sideshow, see pp. 196-197 of The Frodo Franchise.) Perhaps eventually we’ll see some Hobbit collectibles from the same source. In fact, I would bet money on it!

Variety reported today that Warner Bros. has acquired the rights to create Lord of the Rings-based video games. Electronic Arts owned the rights for eight years, but they reverted to New Line Cinema earlier this year. Warner is currently expanding into video-game production in a big way, and being the parent company of New Line, has taken over this valuable property.

The first new game under this agreement is “Aragorn’s Quest,” which will be introduced next month at the big Electronic Entertainment Expo, usually referred to as 3E. Warner describes it as “the first ‘Lord of the Rings’ videogame created specifically for kids and their families.” Gaming sites are further quoting the press release as saying that “Aragorn’s Quest” will feature “accessible gameplay set in a friendly, colorful rendition of Middle-Earth. Players assume the role of Strider and embark on his greatest quests from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The game offers authentic, action-oriented sword fighting, lancing and archery that all ages can play together.”

Gaming commentators seem disappointed that this new game will be so family-oriented. I wonder if the new direction is designed to allow a smooth transition into the creation of the Hobbit video games. Those presumably will be more kid-friendly than the LOTR games were.