Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film and gaming rights are set to be auctioned

Movie and gaming rights to J.R.R. Tolkien works including The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are reportedly coming up for sale.

According to Variety, owner Saul Zaentz Co. has hired ACF Investment Bank to organise the sale of its Tolkien holdings.

The holdings, which also include the rights to merchandising, live events and theme parks, are reportedly expected to raise at least $2 billion.

Amazon, which is gearing up to launch a new Lord of the Rings TV show in September, is viewed as a leading contender to acquire them.

It’s been suggested Amazon may have spent as much as $500 million on the first eight-episode season of its upcoming TV adaptation, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

Last April, Amazon Game Studios said it had cancelled a Lord of the Rings MMO it was co-developing with Athlon Games, a US subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Leyou Technologies.

Related

The Lord of the Rings Gollum has been delayed to 2022

PC and console game was previously scheduled to launch this year

The project’s cancelation was reportedly the result of a dispute between Amazon and Tencent, which acquired Leyou in December 2020.

The Lord of the Rings Gollum, a story-driven action adventure game from Daedalic Entertainment and Nacon, is scheduled to be released for PC and consoles later this year, following a delay from 2021.