WingNut Films
Amazon sank $250,000 into obtaining the rights to make a Lord of the Rings series and then they’ll invest another $1 billion into production of the exciting fantasy TV series. Now we get some more details about Amazon’s answer to HBO’s Game of Thrones.
Amazon has committed to making at least five seasons of the TV adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece. Amazon Studios will produce the TV show with cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, book publisher HarperCollins, and New Line Cinema, which is a division of Warner Bros., which made the LOTR movies with Peter Jackson. So will Peter Jackson return to helm the series? Rumors say that Amazon has contacted Jackson to be an executive producer for the project.
The TV show will not be old material covered in the movies, but rather based on the massive amount of notes and appendices Tolkien drafted to write the books. There is plenty of directions that they could go and could take the time to give the origin stories of characters. The script hasn’t even been assigned yet so there’s plenty of time to theorize how Amazon Studios will bring Tolkien’s world to the small screen. Amazon is actively reaching out to writers, directors, and showrunners to hear their pitches.
The series is a prequel that is said to be focused on a young Aragorn aka Strider, who was played by Viggo Mortensen in the Oscar-winning movies. The first season will reportedly follow Aragorn in Rivendell, explore his romance with the elven Arwen, and the discovery of his royal Numenorean bloodline.
Will you get the original cast back together for the TV show? Nobody knows yet, but Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in the original Lord of the Rings trilogy, believes the show will go with a brand-new cast to start fresh and have its own identity. “It sounds incredible, but I don’t see myself being any part of it,” Serkis said. “I think it’s a completely fresh, new approach to it all, so I don’t think I’d imagine myself to be anywhere near it really.”
However, Ian McKellen is definitely interested in returning as Gandolf for the TV show. “I haven’t said yes because I haven’t been asked. But are you suggesting that someone else is going to play it? Gandalf is over 7000 years old, so I’m not too old,” McKellen said.
John Rhys Davies on the other hand doesn’t think a TV show is a great idea. “It’s not about doing it better, it’s about making more money, that’s all,” said Rhys-Davies who played dwarf Gimli. “If they think they can make more money, then they will.”
Production is said to start by November 2019, so there’s going to be a long time before we know casting decisions.
[Maxim]