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June prediction for LOTR video game announcement unfulfilled - Lord of the Rings news - J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

August 07, 2000 at 03:49:29

Will the Mario brothers invade Middle-earth? Is a kick-boxing elf or dwarf in your video game future?

Gamespot ran a brief announcement back in June saying that New Line Cinema was all but ready to announce a deal with an unspecified company to produce a video game based on Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies.

"Specific announcements, regarding the publisher and game releases, will likely be made within a month. GameSpot will have the latest," they wrote. But that was on June 14, and since then Gamespot has apparently learned nothing new.

Is Gollum being redesigned due to his sudden unexpected apperance on the Internet about the same time (albeit in an early stage of CGI design)? Or have the contract negotiations stalled?

Tolkien fans await with a mixture of dread and intense curiosity the inevitable deluge of merchandising agreements which will help New Line Cinema not only recoup their huge investment in the three-film project, but possibly even provide it with a pre-release profit line. "I will not buy a McGandalf!" one indignant fan recently declared on Xenite.Org's White Council.