Over the last week, director Peter Jackson spoke at the Cannes Film Festival as a Palme d’Or honoree. During one of the interviews, the famed director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy reveals that some extremely small movements have finally begun to churn regarding the Tolkien Estate and the film rights to The Silmarillion. For some time, it had been known that J.R.R. Tolkien’s son Christopher Tolkien was extremely critical of any film adaptation of his father’s work. However, J.R.R. already sold the film, stage, and merchandising rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit back in 1969, before Christopher could have a say (via Wikipedia). Despite his detestation of adaptations, the estate always regained the film rights to The Silmarillion and its adjacent book, Unfinished Tales. Christopher Tolkien also released several additional Middle-earth books that would fall under this umbrella, including The Fall of Gondolin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Children of Húrin. He never would budge on giving up the film rights to these books. Currently, Amazon also has a portion of the Lord of the Rings: Appendices rights for streaming only on its show The Rings of Power.
Unfortunately, Christopher Tolkien passed away in 2020 at the age of 95 (via The NY Times). J.R.R. Tolkien’s grandchildren now run his estate, and the film rights have moved to them. It now seems Warner Brothers, along with Peter Jackson and Embracer Group Sweden, has approached the estate about adapting a story from these additional novels as a future film, and the current estate seems much more open to it. A movie could follow any major story of the First Age, including the making of the universe, the fall of Morgoth, and the creation of the Silimarils. These films would be a massive step away from anything seen in The Lord of the Rings and more in the vein of a Clash of the Titans, with the introduction of the gods (or Valar) of the universe. As well as the awakening of the first Elves, Dwarves, and Men. Time will tell whether this newer estate moves forward with licensing the film rights they currently hold.
The Silmarillion has no set release date
Source: Deadline
