How close are we to getting a Silmarillion movie?
Earlier this year, Peter Jackson put out a press release and did a few interviews. He revealed that he and Warner Brothers has een in talks with the Tolkien Estate about licensing the rights to make a Silmarillion movie.
Oviously, talks are just that, talks. It does represent some progress. it shows a shift in the attitudes of certain members of the Estate's board.
There is one sentence in that article that is most telling of all:
"It would be nice to get away from the appendices and get something a bit more meaty."
It's nice to see that the grumblings of some of the fans are echoed in PJ's sentiments. From the moment the credits rolled at the end of RotK, it had to be acknowledged that all they had left was to scrape the LotR carcass clean.
War of the Rohirrim was their first crack at scraping the carcass. Granted, thios movie had a huge black cloud hanging over it. Warner Bros stood the chance of losing there license to the movie rights if the did not release a movie by a certain date. The holder of the rights at that time, the Saul Zaentz Company, held WB's feet to the fire and threatened to outright cancel their license to the movie rights if they didn't fulfill their option.
In oder to fast track the project, the decision was made to do it as an animated film. If the rumors are true, the screenplay was written virtually overnight and WETA storyboarded it in record time. They managed to get the movie out on time, and it subsequently flopped. It was never designed to succeed, it was made to fulfill their option. It was a modern day version of the 1967 Hobbit.
PJ basically spelled out wjhy he has taken a hands off approach to the movies post Hobbit. They aren't passion projects. He'll accept the producer credits and cash the royalty checks, but he doesn't want to actively work on any carcass scraping projects. For Watrner Bros, this poses a problem. PJ has been the magic man in the development of tis franchise. For him to take a back seat is like takinbg the sizzle off the steak. They need to find him a passion project tat's "meaty" to get him back in the game. That project would obviously be The Silmarillion.
The fact that PJ would issue a public press release and do an interview implies that the talks with the Estate aren't dead in the water. Although, these kinds of press releases din't always mean much. An example of that would be an interview the head of Amazon/MGM gave on the eve of the release of WoR. She stated cryptically that MGM had been in ttalks with Embracer Group. Embracer currently holds the rights to the Tolkien IP under their subsidiary, Middle Earth Enterprises and Friends. This wou;dn't be the first time it was rumored that Amazon was making a play for all of part of MEEF. Those rumors started back when they acquired the Tpmb Raider IP. The Tomb Raider portfolio was part of the MEEF IP portfolio.
Unlike Amazon, Peter Jackson isn't shy about stating what the talks with the Estate were about. Does this mean a movie is in the works. Your guess is as good as mine. Given how PJ works, I wouldn't be suripsed if their wasn't a working screenplay finished, or in development.
I'm surprised that this news didn't reach this subreddit sooner. Let's see how it plays out and hope for the best.