Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, longtime U.S. publisher of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, has secured the U.S. rights to release tie-in books for the films The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again. The rights come from Harper UK, the global master tie-in publisher for the films, licensed by Warner Bros. Consumer Products.
Five titles will be released on November 22, in advance of the December 14 debut of the first film. They include The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Visual Companion by Jude Fisher, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Official Movie Guide by Brian Sibley, The World of the Hobbits, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Almanac, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Photo Storybook. The second film is scheduled to come out on December 13, 2013.
Peter Jackson, the director of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, will also direct The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which will star many of the same actors in key roles from The Lord of the Rings films, including Ian McKellen as Gandalf. The Hobbit movies are produced by the Saul Zaentz Company/Middle-earth Enterprises, the owner of worldwide motion picture, stage, merchandising, and other rights associated with Tolkien’s literary works, and New Line Productions, a subsidiary of Warner Bros.
