New 'Lord of the Rings' Movie in the Works, Peter Jackson Reacts

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Fox has named John Hesling its new head of Alternative Entertainment, the broadcast network’s in-house unscripted studio. Responsible for overseeing the development and production of all unscripted series owned by Fox Entertainment (FAE), as well as programs FAE produces for third-party buyers in the U.S. and abroad, Hesling will be based in Los Angeles and report to Allison Wallach, president of unscripted programming at Fox Entertainment. “I am so excited for John to join FAE and lead the incredible team we have assembled,” Wallach said. “His creative vision and vast experience as both a producer and an executive working on a global scale will be key to our strategy of building FAE as a leading provider of innovative series and formats for Fox and third-party platforms throughout the world.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Most of the nation’s biggest TV companies are planning to gather under one roof next week and discuss something that has little to do with traditional boob-tube economics but is likely to play a critical role in them in weeks to come. When Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Global, NBCUniversal and Walt Disney speak Tuesday morning at an event convened by The Trade Desk, they will give a tacit nod to the growing importance of so-called “programmatic” advertising to their many TV networks. In the not-too-distant past, programmatic sales were an add-on to mainstay TV commercials — and the networks were wary of ceding control to a technology that gave advertisers the ability to essentially use a software algorithm to insert an ad during a particular household’s streaming session or FAST watch, all according to the type of customer seen as most likely to be interested.

The Overlook Film Festival has unveiled the full lineup for its 2023 edition, taking place in New Orleans from March 30-April 2, naming the world premiering Universal horror-comedy Renfield as its opening night film, and Warner Bros’ Evil Dead Rise as its closer.

If you dig down into it, it’s pretty complicated to discuss the rights situation surrounding “The Lord of the Rings” IP. Warner Bros.

BreAnna Bell CultureCon returns for its sixth annual tour, Variety has learned. Going coast to coast, the convention will first stop in Los Angeles (June 17) before closing its run in New York City (October 7, 8). Presented by HBO Max, CultureCon was built by The Creative Collective NYC, a community dedicated to creating brave spaces for creatives and young professionals of color. “The growth and impact CultureCon has had among creatives of color continues to inspire us at HBO Max,” said Jackie Gagne, Warner Bros. Discovery’s SVP of multicultural marketing. “Heading into our fifth year as sponsors of the conference, and second as the presenting sponsors, we are excited to create spaces and provide invaluable resources for emerging creatives and young professionals of color.”

Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke feels about Warner Bros. making competing projects based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” Salke, who has held the top content job at Amazon since 2018, walked a Monday red carpet for the premiere of Michael B. Jordan’s “Creed III” where she spoke with Variety about last week’s news that Warner Bros. had secured film rights to some of Tolkien’s books. One of Salke’s defining moves at Amazon was to secure television rights to the same literary works, which she achieved at great expense. The first season of Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” premiered in 2022 with a big global marketing push and critical acclaim — as well as a reported budget north of $450 million for the first batch of episodes. Previously, Warner Bros. pushed out two massively successful film franchises with auteur Peter Jackson beginning in 2001. Those films grossed over $5 billion at the worldwide box office and brought home a best picture Oscar for one of the entries.

Emily Longeretta From the start, Courteney Cox was different. She was from Alabama — a place where, she recalls, people were steelworkers or doctors — and didn’t know anything about show business. So, she sought it out. Never in her wildest dreams did she think it’d lead her to a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, to be unveiled Feb. 27. The summer after she graduated high school, Cox moved to New York City and began modelling. “I got a job right away and I thought, that was easy,” she recalls. Then the changes came. “It was a makeover. They took the Alabama fresh face and made a little funky style and it was really fun. They changed everything about me — they said I was Kentucky-born and they changed my last name to Myles. I don’t know why! But I never thought that when I was 18 it would lead to a career that I love and have really learned so much … I just kept doing things that led me to something else and I just kept learning and learning and learning.”

Seven months after landing the highly coveted top jobs at Warner Bros. Motion Picture studios, Co-Chairpersons Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy were bestowed with the PGA Milestone award tonight and paid respect for their mega industry mentors, remembered emotionally their cinematic NYC and New Jersey youths, and gave a huge shoutout to their new boss, Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is suing Paramount Global, saying its competitor aired new episodes of the popular animated comedy series “South Park” after Warner paid for exclusive rights.

yet more Tolkien movies are on the way from their New Line Cinema.“For all the scope and detail lovingly packed into the two trilogies, the vast, complex and dazzling universe dreamed up by J.R.R. Tolkien remains largely unexplored on film,” said Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-chairs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy.The extended versions of the six “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” films add up to about 20 hours total, which seems pretty well explored to me.On paper, the move is logical.

“Screw you guys, we’re going to sue,” a Cartman paraphrasing Warner Bros Discovery essentially said to Paramount Global and the series creators today in a scathing lawsuit over South Park streaming rights.

Lord Of The Rings films, but not everyone is happy about it.Warner Bros Discovery’s CEO, David Zaslav, announced on an investors’ call on Thursday that a deal had been brokered to make “multiple” films based on J. R.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer HBO Max’s parent company has filed a lawsuit that accuses Paramount Global of reneging on parts of the $500 million licensing deal set in 2019 for the streaming rights to episodes of “South Park.” The suit, filed Friday in New York state Supreme Court, asserts that Paramount breached the contract by steering “South Park” specials and other content to its own Paramount+ platform. The suit alleges that Paramount “blatantly intended to prop up Paramount+ at the expense of Warner/HBO,” and that Paramount engaged in “multiple and flagrant duplicitous contortions of fact and breaches of contract.”

The Wrap.“But for all the scope and detail lovingly packed into the two trilogies, the vast, complex and dazzling universe dreamed up by J.R.R. Tolkien remains largely unexplored on film. The opportunity to invite fans deeper into the cinematic world of Middle-earth is an honor, and we are excited to partner with Middle-Earth Enterprises and Embracer on this adventure.”The cost of the deal made between Warner Bros., New Line Cinema and Embracer Group — the current rights holders to Tolkien’s novels — has yet to be released.

Yesterday, it was revealed that Warner Bros. Discovery (and its New Line studio) and Embracer Group have hammered out a deal to make more “Lord of the Rings” films in the future.

Middle Earth is returning to the big screen.

While Amazon is basking in the success of their “The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power” Middle-Earth streaming series, another big announcement was made today about the future of live-action J.R.R. Tolkien adaptations and specifically about feature films.

The obvious question in David Zaslav’s reveal today that Warner Bros/New Line intend to to head back into Middle-earth with rights owner Embracer and expand the Lord of the Rings franchise is this: What do the Kiwi creatives who architected the Oscar-winning, billion-dollar-grossing franchise feel about the whole thing?

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor David Zaslav sounds tired of taking lumps. After months of cost cutting, write-downs, and getting pilloried among Hollywood natives for killing projects, the Warner Bros. Discovery chief showed off some new truculence, making the case that while his newly-merged company has been having a tough time, so too were others. “‘Last year was a year of restructuring,” said Zaslav, during a call with investors Thursday. “This year will be a year of building.” Over the course of an hour, Zasalv and Gunnar Wiedenfels, Warner’s chief financial officer, made the case that their company was just as well-equipped as any of its rivals — perhaps even more so — to withstand a stormy era during which media companies are pressed to grow their streaming operations but maintain profitability. Zaslav elbowed Netflix for releasing all of the episodes for a program’s cycle all at once; suggested that a move to launch new “Lord of the Rings” movies would take away some of the momentum that Amazon had enjoyed from its launch of a series based on the novels; and told listeners Warner Bros. Discovery could launch an ad-supported streaming service without having to buy an outside asset, as Fox Corp. and Paramount Global had. “We can create a Tubi or a Pluto without having to buy anybody,” he boasted.