Amazon to Spend $500 Million on First Two Seasons of LOTR TV Series

Reuters and TrustedReviews are reporting the Amazon, which spent $250 million to purchase the rights to produce a Lord of the Rings television show, is now preparing to spend an additional quarter billion dollars on the first one or two seasons of the show. The total price tag of the series (which hasn't even begun production) is thus at $500 million, far more than was spent on the production of the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I for one am very excited to hear that Amazon is preparing to heavily invest in their LOTR property. It makes sense . . . the movies were insanely popular, and television series like Game of Thrones prove that there is a huge appetite for big-budget fantasy TV series. Of course, while more money generally means better specially effects, props, etc., we have yet to learn anything about who will be writing, directing, and acting in this film, so I'm still only cautiously optimistic about this whole LOTR venture. We're in uncharted territory here . . .

Later.

Ian McKellen Open to Reprising His Role As Gandalf. I Think That's a Good Idea.

Ian McKellen is the Gandalf. I don't think I'm going out too far on a limb saying that. He nails the performance in the Lord of the Rings films, and was one of the bright points in the Hobbit films when all other lights had gone out (see what I did there?). Both the Middle-earth & J.R.R. Tolkien Blog and The Wrap are reporting that last Saturday, Ian Mckellen appeared on the BBC Radio 2 Graham Norton show and confirmed that he would be open to playing the Gray Wizard in the new Amazon LOTR film series: “But are you suggesting that someone else is going to play it? Gandalf is over 7000 years old, so I’m not too old.”

I think that Amazon would be crazy to pass up having Ian McKellen reprising his role as Gandalf. His performance is absolutely iconic, and I can't imagine anyone else stepping into those particular shoes. However, hiring A-list actors definitely comes with a cost and while Amazon is reportedly giving this new TV series a record breaking budget, they may have to make some hard decisions about where they allocate their resources (actors, special effects, writers, etc.).

We'll keep you posted as more Gandalf-related news becomes available.

Later.

Update: Entertainment Weekly and Gizmodo are running this news as well.

NewStatesman on the Amazon Lord of the Rings TV series

NewStatesman has an article by Rebecca Rideal about the new Amazon Lord of the Rings series. Rideal makes some excellent points about the risks and benefits of adapting Middle-earth material to a TV series format; however, I'm not sure she has a full grasp on the legal situation regarding the different Tolkien books . . . she suggests more than once that Amazon might mine the Silmarillion for material, even though it is not at all clear that the Tolkien Estate is prepared to release the film rights for that book.

Additionally, she trots out the "Lord of the Rings is racist" argument towards the end of the article, and suggests that Tolkien's world will need significant updating to bring it up to 21st century standards. To me this smacks of a lack of understanding regarding why Tolkien developed his Legendarium in the first place, but I'm too tired to open up that debate right now. I'll save it that for another post down the road.

Later.

Screen Rant: HBO Passed Up the Chance to Create the New LOTR TV Series

Screen Rant just broke the news that HBO passed on the new Lord of the Rings TV series. The article explains that the entertainment company prefers to produce content for licenses that they own completely––so not surprisingly the complicated licensing and rights situation of Lord of the Rings (involving Warner Bros, New Line Cinema, the Tolkien Estate, and sometimes Middle-earth Enterprises) was not appealing to HBO. I've got to say I'm glad that HBO passed on Lord of the Rings. As well made as Game of Thrones is, I would hate to see Lord of the Rings tarnished with gratuitous violence and sex. Of course, there is still the possibility that Amazon will go that route . . . I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed, I suppose. Thanks to the Secret Fire Podcast for putting this info up on Twitter.

UPDATE: Here's an additional article by Den of Geek that basically covers the same news.

Later.

The Lord of the Rings Appendices: A Primer

With the film and TV rights to the Silmarillion still officially off-limits (at least as far as we know), Amazon studios and Warner Bros. have two choices for developing a new Middle-earth story: first, they could create original stories, or second, they can expand on material found in the appendices at the end of The Return of the King. I think the second option is by far the most likely, since mining the appendices for stories will simultaneously appeal to long-time Tolkien fans and save time and money compared to developing new stories from scratch. Die-hard fans of Lord of the Rings are no doubt familiar with the material in the Appendices, but newer fans (especially those that were introduced to the stories through the movies) might not be as familiar with the stories and histories JRR Tolkien included in at the end of the trilogy. Because of this, I thought it would be a good time to review the stories in the Appendices in a series of blog posts, and talk about how Amazon Studies might adapt the tales for their TV series. Jump past the break to read the first post in this series, which will review the history behind the Appendices and give a brief overview of their contents.

New Amazon Lord of the Rings TV Series to be filmed in 2019, air in 2020

The German IGN.com and TheOneRing.Net are reporting that Amazon will being filming of the new LOTR TV series in 2019, aiming for a release of the series in 2020. If true, this timetable puts the new LOTR series on track to premier following the end of the final season of Game of Thrones.

Side note: I haven't spent much time on the German IGN.com website (mainly due to the fact that I don't speak German), but a brief scroll-through of the site revealed a couple of fascinating articles that I hadn't seen reported anywhere else (for example, read about John Rhys-Davies and Sean Austin's reactions to the news that Amazon will produce a new LOTR TV series, and read the German IGN.com's suggestions for how to make a TV series that will be distinct from the LOTR films).

Later . . .

Christopher Tolkien has resigned as director of the Tolkien Estate

This week just keeps delivering Middle-earth surprises. TheOneRing.Net is now reporting that Christopher Tolkien stepped down as director of the Tolkien Estate in late August of this year. For over five decades Mr. Tolkien has acted as the curator and guardian of his father's literary legacy, and I can't overstate the debt of gratitude that all Tolkien fans owe to him. Jump past the break for my thoughts on what this means for the future of J.R.R. Tolkien's books, as well as future movies, games, and TV shows (including the new Amazon series).

Peter Jackson has yet to be contacted by Amazon about the new Lord of the Rings TV Series

Contrary to my speculations yesterday, Deadline and TheOneRing.Net are reporting that Peter Jackson has yet to be contacted by Amazon. What could this mean? Well . . . call my cynical, but I find it very hard to believe that Jackson won't be involved in some capacity. The Deadline article does a very good job detailing the numerous reasons why it would make sense for Amazon to at least chat with Jackson and his veteran Kiwi crew.

Amazon is Producing a New Lord of the Rings Show

It's official folks . . . and much sooner than I expected. Amazon is producing a Lord of the Rings television show in cooperation with everyone and the kitchen sink (I'm serious, it's a long list: Warner Bros. Entertainment, New Line Cinema, HarperCollins, Middle-Earth Enterprises, and The Tolkien Estate and Trust. Jump past the break to get the full story, and my initial thoughts on this exciting development.