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.
