By Gavin Boyle
The J.R.R. Tolkien Estate, which includes The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings stories, will now be represented by the London-based agency, Curtis Brown Heritage, after being without representation.
“As a family, we remain deeply conscious of the responsibility of looking after J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary works and legacy,” the Tolkien estate said in a statement after the deal was announced. “We are committed to keeping his stories alive for generations to come. In Curtis Brown Heritage we have found partners who share that passion, and we are delighted to be working with them.”
The Curtis Brown Heritage agency is a leg of Curtis Brown Publishing launched in 2016 to help manage the literary estates of beloved British writers. The writers it currently represents along with Tolkien include Douglas Adams, Iain Banks, Gerald Durrel, Isaiah Berlin, Nevill Coghill, Iris Murdoch and Stephen Spender.
“It is a great honour and joy to be working with the Tolkien Estate to preserve and celebrate J.R.R. Tolkien’s extraordinary literary legacy, and to help to bring new readers (and viewers and listeners) to his writing,” said Head of Curtis Brown Heritage, Noah Perkins. “I am thrilled to be joining the Estate on the next part of the journey.”
“I’m delighted on behalf of Curtis Brown to welcome one of the great literary estates of the world to the agency,” added Jonny Geller, The Curtis Brown Group CEO. “All of us who grew up passionate about reading have been influenced and dazzled by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and we are committed to help to bring a new generation of readers to the enduring pleasure of these great books.”
The Tolkien Estate currently has control of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit book rights as well as television rights. It does not have the rights to movies, as they were sold to United Artists in 1969, and later came into the hands of Saul Zaentz who created the well known LORD OF THE RINGS and THE HOBBIT movie trilogies in the early and mid 2000s. Most recently, the movie rights were sold to Swedish gaming company Embracer.
Embracer has licensed the story and characters for the upcoming LORD OF THE RINGS: THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM movie, while the Tolkien Estate was the one to license Prime Video’s THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER.
It is unclear if the new deal with Curtis Brown Heritage will disrupt the Prime Video show, or if Curtis Brown Heritage will allow it to continue production uninterrupted.
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