Today, IMAX and Warner Bros. announced that they have signed a deal to release twenty films in the format over the next three years. In the statement, several release dates were revealed, as well as an update on Guillermo del Toro’s The Hobbit.
First, the deal: After having a lot of success in the past, Warner Bros. is going all-out with the IMAX format. The deal, revealed today in a press release, details the company’s plans to exhibit 20 films in IMAX theaters over the next 3 years.
The first five movies under the agreement are Legends of the Guardian: The Owls of Ga’Hoole 3D (September 24, 2010), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (3D) (November 19, 2010) and Part II (3D) (July 15, 2011), Happy Feet 2 (3D) (November 18, 2011), and The Hobbit (December 2012). In addition, the studio will release 15 other films over the course of 2011, 2012 and 2013, including Gravity, Fury Road, Batman 3, and Superman.
In addition to this being a huge success for IMAX, now we know that The Hobbit is not dead. As of right now, both Hobbit scripts have been handed in to the studio and, although not officially green-lit, the finances are being worked out right now.
This is reassuring, considering how grim the movie’s future looked as a result MGM’s financial trouble. As far as I know, there will still be two parts, but the press release only listed one. Could WB be paring the story down to make it fit into one film?
I sure hope not. I can’t wait to see del Toro’s take on Middle-Earth. Hopefully, the film(s) will make a splendid, tonally different, addition to the terrific Lord of the Rings series.
