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The upcoming Resident Evil reboot has officially attached Zach Cregger (of Barbarian fame) to direct, according to The Hollywood Reporter. And just like a zombie outbreak, the news has studios frothing at the mouth to get a piece - in particular, THR names Netflix and Warner Bros. as combatants in a franchise-focused bidding war, along with two other unnamed studios. But the winner of this financial beat-em-up might not solely be decided by who shells out the most cash. For proof, just look at both studios' attempt to snag The Lord of the Rings TV rights.

We'll explain.

In 2017, the Tolkien Estate offered to accept proposals for a TV show based on The Lord of the Rings. Naturally, studios leapt at the chance to acquire this coveted TV IP, with Netflix, Warner Bros., and Amazon Prime entering their bids. By the end, it was Netflix that offered the most money (a whopping $250 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter), but as we know, it was Amazon Prime that eventually got the rights to do what would eventually be the Rings of Power. So what happened?

Apparently, it all came down to not how much the studios pitched, but what their pitches consisted of. For highest bidder Netflix, that TV show looked very similar to a certain cinematic universe, which various character-centric series that would lead into a connecting story, presumably with Sauron as its "Big Bad." Then for Warner Bros, which did and still does hold the rights to Lord of the Rings movies, the pitch was essentially to remake the Peter Jackson films as a TV show. It was Amazon Prime's pitch, to tackle the Second Age of Middle-Earth, that won the Tolkien estate's blessing.

So what does this mean for the Resident Evil remake? Well, that's tough to say. The "Tolkien estate" of this particular bidding war is probably Constantin Films, who've owned the Resident Evil movie rights since before the first Milla Jovovitch-starring film came out in 2002. However, it's yet to be determined if what will sway Constantin is the strength of the studios' pitch or the depths of their pockets, especially since, with a filmmaker like Cregger at the helm, we'd bet the story/narrative is already strong.

And hey, we don't even know who the other two studios in the bidding war at this point. For Netflix & Warner Bros' sakes, let's hope neither of them are Prime.

Whether you're Shirefolk, Elven, Dwarven, or something else, there's a good reason to love Lord of the Rings. We do! With that in mind, we have a dragon's horde of goodies for you from a Lord of the Rings reading guide, a Lord of the Rings watch guide, details on the upcoming animated film Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim, a full the Lord of the Rings reunion panel you can watch, how the OG Hobbit actors stay in touch every day on a groupchat, and the true message of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, according to Gimli himself - John Rhys-Davies.