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EA & New Line Extend Lord of the Rings License

Electronic Arts Inc. has renewed the license to launch additional games within the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien's epic literary fiction, THE LORD OF THE RINGS, through 2008. EA has developed games based on New Line Cinema's Academy Award-winning LORD OF THE RINGS movies since 2001. To date, the New Line Cinema feature film trilogy has grossed more than $3 billion worldwide. By moving ahead with this popular license, and the development of an all-new title scheduled for release in 2008, EA will continue to give gamers more Middle-earth adventures.

"THE LORD OF THE RINGS is an incredible canvas to create epic games," said Frank Gibeau, EA's evp and general manager of North American publishing. "We look forward to our next project with New Line Cinema and Tolkien Enterprises scheduled to ship in 2008."

"We have a long history of making great games with EA and are thrilled to extend our longstanding relationship," said David Imhoff, New Line's senior evp of worldwide licensing and merchandising. "We look forward to working closely with EA to create even more compelling LORD OF THE RINGS adventures in the future."

EA was granted the rights to THE LORD OF THE RINGS videogames based on the trilogy of books by Tolkien, in accordance with an agreement with the Saul Zaentz Co. d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises, in addition to a separate agreement that allows for games based on the New Line Cinema films.

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA, www.ea.com), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for videogame systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS, EA, EA SPORTS BIG and POGO. In fiscal 2006, EA posted revenue of $2.95 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies.

The Saul Zaentz Co. d/b/a Tolkien Enterprises (www.tolkien-ent.com) is the holder of worldwide motion picture, legitimate stage, merchandising and other rights in J.R.R. Tolkien's literary works THE LORD OF THE RINGS and THE HOBBIT. Tolkien Enterprises has been producing and licensing films, stage productions and merchandise based on Tolkien's works for almost 30 years. Its headquarters are in Berkeley, California.

Founded almost 40 years ago, New Line Cinema is the most successful independent film company in the world. In addition to the production, marketing and distribution of theatrical motion pictures, the fully-integrated studio has divisions devoted to home entertainment, television, music, theater, merchandising and an international unit. In 2005, New Line partnered with HBO to form Picturehouse, a new theatrical distribution company to release independent films. A pioneer in franchise filmmaking, New Line's Oscar-winning THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy is one of the most successful film franchises in history. New Line is a division of Time Warner Inc.

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Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.