It was announced nearly two years ago that Amazon had purchased the rights to J.R.R. Tolkein, Lord of The Rings. It would be an understatement to express how that news would seem shocking to the many who thought big, or little, screen adaptions were done, at least for a little while. The wait may soon be over to see what fruit this endeavor will produce.
IndieWire has put together an interesting story listing many facts of this little known project. Today it was announced that Will Poulter would need to leave the series due to scheduling conflicts which in turn has sparked some discussion of the series progress. Here’s a few facts to be gleamed about the new forthcoming series.
- Rights were purchased in Nov. 2017 for $250 million dollars with requirement the series go into production within two years of purchase
- Series will actually be a prequel taking place in the 2nd age(about 1000 years before the Lord of the Rings most are familiar with)
- The 2nd age spans roughly 3,441 years(plenty of time to develop stories)
- 1st Season will comprise of 20 episodes
- Will be written by JD Payne and Patrick McKay
- First 2 episodes will be directed by J.A. Bayona
- Creative Team will include people from notable series such as: Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Stranger Things, to name a few.
- Filmed in New Zealand
- Confirmed for a 2nd Season
- After first two episodes there will be a 4-5 month break
Obviously there’s still many unknowns and Amazon has intentionally made it so. Reports of security guards and locked doors requiring fingerprints around the writers room might seem nonsensical but rumors are still abound about cast and other details.