According to the link, the material regarding the White Council’s attack on Dol Guldur will be based around the appendices in LOTR. If memory serves there’s some material about this in Unfinished Tales. I think that source material should have been used as well. Building the plot with as much of Tolkien’s writing as possible seems like a wise course.
I’m pretty sure they don’t have rights to any Tolkien works beyond The Hobbit and LOTR. And the Tolkien estate, which doesn’t like the movies, isn’t likely to provide them.
Is there a particular reason beyond the usual “the movie can never be as good as the book” thinking? As book-to-movie adaptations go the LOTR trilogy is pretty good, though I am not a film buff.
What exactly does the copyright mean? That they can only use events, characters, and settings in “The Hobbit”, but maybe not if a particular related character only appears in “The Unfinished Tales”? Wouldn’t that be like having the rights to Episode IV of Star Wars but not being able to show the Emperor since he technically doesn’t appear in it?
Wouldn’t that be like having the rights to Episode IV of Star Wars but not being able to show the Emperor since he technically doesn’t appear in it?
Yes, copyright battles often have outcomes like that.
For example, DC Comics can have a character named Captain Marvel but his name can’t be used in the title of a comic book. Marvel Comics can have both the name and the title Captain Marvel, but only if they use the character (or any character named that) every so often.
According to the link, the material regarding the White Council’s attack on Dol Guldur will be based around the appendices in LOTR. If memory serves there’s some material about this in Unfinished Tales. I think that source material should have been used as well. Building the plot with as much of Tolkien’s writing as possible seems like a wise course.
I’m pretty sure they don’t have rights to any Tolkien works beyond The Hobbit and LOTR. And the Tolkien estate, which doesn’t like the movies, isn’t likely to provide them.
That’s unfortunate.
Is there a particular reason beyond the usual “the movie can never be as good as the book” thinking? As book-to-movie adaptations go the LOTR trilogy is pretty good, though I am not a film buff.
What exactly does the copyright mean? That they can only use events, characters, and settings in “The Hobbit”, but maybe not if a particular related character only appears in “The Unfinished Tales”? Wouldn’t that be like having the rights to Episode IV of Star Wars but not being able to show the Emperor since he technically doesn’t appear in it?
Wouldn’t that be like having the rights to Episode IV of Star Wars but not being able to show the Emperor since he technically doesn’t appear in it?
Yes, copyright battles often have outcomes like that.
For example, DC Comics can have a character named Captain Marvel but his name can’t be used in the title of a comic book. Marvel Comics can have both the name and the title Captain Marvel, but only if they use the character (or any character named that) every so often.