We had previously heard that the new ‘Lord of the Rings’ series from Amazon was going to have a budget of over $1 billion dollars and not only is that still the case but it is set to span at least five seasons! On top of production costs, Amazon had to pay over $250 million to the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien for the rights and beat out Netflix who was also vying for the franchise in the process.
There is a catch though, to keep this moving forward we’ve learned that Amazon Studios needs to have the series begin production within two years. So, while the ‘Game of Thrones’ spinoffs could be years away at this point, we might even start to see pre-production photos of Amazon’s series before they even begin casting.
Matt Galsor was the attorney who was the chief architect at working out the deal and stated:
“This is the most complicated deal I’ve ever seen, but it was handled relatively quickly, in a way that brought the parties together in a close relationship. It was tough, but everybody liked each other and felt like a team more as the deal closed.”
Hopefully, this means that we’re not going to be seeing any giant lawsuits playout as we did from Peter Jackson‘s films.
While New Line and Warner Bros. didn’t have any of the television rights to the films, Amazon brought in chief content officer Carolyn Blackwood and Warner Bros. Picture Group chairman Toby Emmerich as part of the negotiations to potentially use material from the films. It isn’t clear what that could entail quite yet.
To date, we haven’t heard if Peter Jackson would be involved or not. His attorney Peter Nelson was also involved in the negotiations and said the show was “very much a creature of the times. We are in an era where streamers are bidding up the price of programming. I think Amazon is taking a page out of the studios’ emphasis on franchises. They also are realizing that with the overproduction of television, you need to get the eyeballs to the screen, and you can do that with franchise titles.”
Nelson has also confirmed that there is now a dialogue open between the studio and director. That doesn’t mean he will be involved going forward but it sounds like the potential for him to return in some capacity could be there.
Are you excited to see what a ‘Lord of the Rings’ series with a massive budget could look like coming out of Amazon? Who would you want to see cast in the film and what stories that haven’t been told would you want to be included? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
