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Fantasy books, movies, and TV shows are often spun into franchises because of the expansive worlds that the writers and creators of the series develop. While some spinoffs and sequels don't live up to previous books or screen iterations, these franchises have never disappointed me. Returning to the fantastical worlds that lie within the pages or dazzling visuals of these franchises has provided comfort, escape, and thrilling adventures at every turn. Whether it's through additional books, spinoffs, or multiple sequels, these fantasy stories have the potential to go on for a long time.

While there are some movies and fantasy TV shows that go on for too long, there are other franchises that are ever-expanding. World-building is a considerable factor in whether or not a fantasy series has the longevity to continue for many years. Of course, every audience is biased, as my favorite fictional universes that have captured my...

Russell Crowe reveals why he turned down a role in The Lord of the Rings. Serving as adaptations of the books by J.R.R. Tolkien director Peter Jackson's hit fantasy trilogy was released from 2001 to 2003, chronicling Frodo's (Elijah Wood) epic quest to destroy the One Ring. The Lord of the Rings cast is a major reason why the movies work so well, but it's become common knowledge in the decades since the films' release that various other actors were almost cast for key roles, including Crowe as Aragorn, a role that eventually went to Viggo Mortensen.

In a recent segment for British GQ, Crowe is asked on social media whether he regrets turning down The Lord of the Rings.

Crowe makes clear that it's not a decision he regrets, and explains that he didn't take the job because he had a feeling he wasn't Jackson's top choice. Check out...

Fathom Events is re-releasing the Lord of the Rings trilogy in 4K extended editions throughout June. The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers have both landed in the domestic box office Top 10 for the weekend. The movies are performing well, though they have hardly made a dent in the box office totals of their original runs.

Two Lord of the Rings movies have landed in the domestic box office Top 10. The trilogy, which was adapted from the iconic fantasy novels of the same name by J.R.R. Tolkien, was released between 2001 and 2003 to overwhelming critical and commercial success. They were followed by a trilogy of live-action movies adapting Tokien's prequel The Hobbit between 2012 and 2014. In recent years, the Lord of the Rings franchise has picked up steam once more with the 2022 premiere of Prime Video's The Rings of Power and the upcoming 2024 animated movie The War of the Rohirrim.

Warner Bros. is working on a new Lord of the Rings movie that could arrive in 2026. The project is currently in the early script stage. More recent Lord of the Rings projects have struggled to recapture the magic of Peter Jackson's original trilogy.

Warner Bros. has a new Lord of the Rings movie in the works, and it already has a tentative release window. Adapting J. R. R. Tolkien's beloved fantasy novel series, Peter Jackson's first acclaimed Lord of the Rings trilogy was released from 2001 to 2003. The filmmaker would subsequently return to the world of Middle-earth with his more divisive Hobbit trilogy in the 2010s. Since then, new projects in the franchise have included The Rings of Power on Prime Video and an upcoming anime movie, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.

Now, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav reveals during a recent earnings...

A movie for people who don’t normally like costume dramas about kings and queens, this adaptation of Maxwell Anderson’s play is great entertainment from head to toe. Richard Burton gives one of his better late-career performances, and Geneviève Bujold is a dynamo in a tiny package. It’s an impressive portrait of male power run amuck.

Anne of the Thousand Days

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 146 min. / Street Date , 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Richard Burton, Geneviève Bujold, Irene Papas, Anthony Quayle, John Colicos, Michael Hordern, Katharine Blake, Valerie Gearon, Michael Johnson, Peter Jeffrey.

Cinematography: Arthur Ibbetson

Film Editor: Richard Mardon

Original Music: Georges Delerue

Written by Bridget Boland, John Hale, Richard Sokolove from the play by Maxwell Anderson

Produced by Hal Wallis

Directed by Charles Jarrott

Anybody still saying that the Production Code made movies better? One minor effect of Code Enforcement was...

Powell & Pressburger’s big-scale historical epic is perhaps the best show ever about an old-school naval encounter between battleships. The first half depicts the showdown between England and Germany in the South Atlantic, and the second half a tense diplomatic game in the neutral country of Uruguay. Peter Finch, Bernard Lee and Anthony Quayle shine as sea captains.

Panzerschiff Graf Spee (The Battle of the River Plate)

Region B Blu-ray

ITV Studios Home Entertainment (Germany)

1956 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 119, 106 117 min./ Pursuit of the Graf Spee / Street Date 2010 / Available from Amazon UK £16.90

Starring: Peter Finch, Bernard Lee, Anthony Quayle, John Gregson, Ian Hunter, Jack Gwillim, Lionel Murton, Anthony Bushell, Peter Illing, Michael Goodliffe, Patrick Macnee, Christopher Lee.

Cinematography: Christopher Challis

Production Design: Arthur Lawson

Film Editor: Reginald Mills

Original Music: Brian Easdale

Written, Produced & Directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressberger

The best way so far to see the impressive The Battle of the River Plate...

Review Andrew Blair 13 Dec 2013 - 07:00

As Peter Jackson's second Hobbit film is released in cinemas, Andrew looks back on the 1968 BBC Radio 4 adaptation...

Somewhere in the sidestreets of Hereford is, or was, a bookshop that is indelibly labyrinthine in my memory, with nooks and crannies (yes) in every direction filled with shelves, platforms, steps and ladders. I have an inkling that it only sells maps now. When I was a child, it sold all the books, and was the first place I ever saw the cassettes of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (speaking of Inklings). And, as I pointed out to my parents, we did need something to listen to on the journey back to Glasgow. The Hobbit was cheaper, shorter, and – crucially – not in a cardboard box about a foot long. The cassettes came in reflective gold-coloured card that, I seem to recall, confused the hell out of budgies.

Rex Harrison hat on TCM: ‘My Fair Lady,’ ‘Anna and the King of Siam’ Rex Harrison is Turner Classic Movies’ final "Summer Under the Stars" star today, August 31, 2013. TCM is currently showing George Cukor’s lavish My Fair Lady (1964), an Academy Award-winning musical that has (in my humble opinion) unfairly lost quite a bit of its prestige in the last several decades. Rex Harrison, invariably a major ham whether playing Saladin, the King of Siam, Julius Caesar, the ghost of a dead sea captain, or Richard Burton’s lover, is for once flawlessly cast as Professor Henry Higgins, who on stage transformed Julie Andrews from cockney duckling to diction-master swan and who in the movie version does the same for Audrey Hepburn. Harrison, by the way, was the year’s Best Actor Oscar winner. (See also: "Audrey Hepburn vs. Julie Andrews: Biggest Oscar Snubs.") Following My Fair Lady, Rex Harrison...

The Armageddon Factor. Hmmphh. Sounds a bit like a cross between Gladiators and The X Factor in which Simon Cowell, Many Faces Of Louis Walsh, a Minogue Sister and People’s Pop Princess Cheryl Cole decide which bicep-bulging goons go head to head in mortal combat. In fact, it turns out to be both an orchestrated war between the planets of Zeos and Atrios.

Oh, and more crucially, it’s the last instalment in the Key To Time saga.

The past 26 weeks have boasted some of the best examples of late 1970s Who - witty snowbound Hustle prototype The Ribos Operation, explosion in imagination factory The Pirate Planet and summery Zenda update The Androids Of Tara. One of the good things about the season is that the linking theme isn’t always crowbarred in at inopportune moments. That’s the great thing about the quest motif - you simply start...

This week sees the release of several new movies and TV shows, some for the first time ever on Blu-ray. Of the ones coming out this week, we’re excited for a few of them in particular. These esteemed examples of entertainment include The Natural, Dreamscape, the debut of the quirky ABC show The Unusuals, the second season of Simon & Simon, Cocoon and the Blu-ray premiere of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (pictured above with Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellan and John Rhys-Davies). Yes, we realize it’s not the director’s cut of the trilogy but still, having these great films on Blu-ray in any form is cause for excitement.

Check them out:

Movies

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans ~ Fairuza Balk, Nicolas Cage, Vondie Curtis-Hall (Blu-ray and DVD)

Cocoon ~ Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn (Blu-ray)

Dolan’s Cadillac ~ Christian Slater, Wes Bentley, and Emmanuelle Vaugier (Blu-ray and DVD)

Dreamscape ~ Dennis Quaid,...