Warner Bros. Discovery is releasing an NFT bundle for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring that includes the 4K version of the film and several collectible assets.
As reported by Variety, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has partnered with blockchain company Eluvio to launch The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Web3 Movie Experience — an NFT bundle that includes the extended version of the 2001 film in 4K UHD, over eight hours of special features, image galleries, and hidden AR collectibles.
The Fellowship of the Ring NFTs will launch on October 21, with a "Mystery Edition" priced at $30 and an "Epic Edition" available for $100. The more expensive option features navigation menus for The Shire, Rivendell, and Mines of Moria (as opposed to the "surprise" one offered in the mystery package) along with location-specific key art and extra image galleries.
The Fellowship of the Ring Web3 Movie Experience marks the first time a major studio has released a movie as an NFT, but it's unlikely to be the last. Warner Bros. has set up a website for its WB Movieverse venture and reportedly plans to build out its NFT marketplace with other titles that will presumably appear in those "coming soon" slots on the homepage.
Warner Bros. Entertainment's EVP and General Manager Jessica Schell described Peter Jackson's debut Lord of the Rings film as an "evergreen" title with a passionate fanbase. She said they wanted to make the NFTs available to fans while offering some level of "scarcity and exclusivity," so have minted 999 copies of the Epic Edition and 10,000 of the Mystery Edition.
NFTs and cryptocurrencies have seen a massive wave of attention in the tech space in the last year, and continue to be controversial subjects. They are largely unregulated entities often exploited for scam purposes and have been accused of having a huge negative impact on the environment due to the energy consumed during the electronic mining of currency.
The NFT drop for The Fellowship of the Ring comes amid Prime Video's release of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The much-anticipated series has just wrapped its first season. IGN called it "a strong successor to Peter Jackson's beloved Lord of the Rings trilogy" filled with "some of the most remarkable sets and scenes ever on TV."
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.
Source: IGN.com Warner Bros. Discovery to Begin Selling Lord of the Rings NFTs