There's a The Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle-Earth Preview on GameSpy.com offers a first look at the upcoming Tolkien-inspired RTS game in the works at EA (Update: The official press release announcing the game has also now been released). The article goes into detail about the origins of this project, tidbits about gameplay, and what's being done to update the C&C Generals engine, as is demonstrated in this excerpt:

The engine has also been tweaked to do some incredible things with lighting. Obviously, lighting has a huge impact on the drama of scenes in the films, so the team wanted to get that sort of graphic effect in the game as well. During the battle with the Haradrim, Verdu zoomed in to ground level -- down to a first-person shooter perspective. The lighting was simply beautiful, with gorgeous oranges and yellows and purples shooting across the evening sky and shafts of golden sun coming in at the correct angle while the sun set. According to Verdu, they're also considering ways in which lighting can utilized as a gameplay element. When I pressed them for details, though, they demurred, saying it's still in the planning stages.