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Amazon acquires Lord of the Rings rights, plans massive TV series (1 Viewer)

NewlyRetired

NewlyRetired

Footballguy
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/official-lord-rings-tv-series-gets-multiple-season-commitment-at-amazon-1057486

From this and other articles:

* Amazon wants a signature TV series to combat Netflix original programming

* Amazon purchased the global TV rights to the Rings franchise (the whole timeline)

* Will be set in a time frame before The War of the Ring but no mention of exactly when in the long Tolkien time line

* Amazon and New Line will produce together

* Multiple seasons planned

* Expected to be the most expensive TV series ever shot

 
NewlyRetired said:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/official-lord-rings-tv-series-gets-multiple-season-commitment-at-amazon-1057486

From this and other articles:

* Amazon wants a signature TV series to combat Netflix original programming

* Amazon purchased the global TV rights to the Rings franchise (the whole timeline)

* Will be set in a time frame before The War of the Ring but no mention of exactly when in the long Tolkien time line

* Amazon and New Line will produce together

* Multiple seasons planned

* Expected to be the most expensive TV series ever shot
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This is saying a lot and has me all geeked for it!

 
TheFanatic said:
This is saying a lot and has me all geeked for it!
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I have not seen what they paid for the rights but it had to be a kings ransom.  The Tolkien estate has been keeping the TV rights underwraps forever.

It is likely not coincidental that 92 year old Christopher Tolkien has finally stepped down from the position of Director of the Tolkien Estate.

 
Yeah, at this point I don't know that they really could screw it up.  I mean, Peter Jackson's movies are pretty much the standard.  So if they bag this up, nobody cares because we still have Jackson's movies.  If they do awesome well, they become the new standard.   

 
Currently reading The Silmarillion so this news is timely. Star Wars coming up in about a month and now this news. Geeked for this!  :nerd:

 
Buzzbait said:
Currently reading The Silmarillion so this news is timely. Star Wars coming up in about a month and now this news. Geeked for this!  :nerd:
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How is that? I read the trilogy and the Hobbit. Care to give a quick synopsis? The kid wrote that one right? Or at least finished dad's work?

 
TheFanatic said:
boots11234 said:
Wish it was WOT series instead 
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I don't know what WOT is. 
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The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

Was considered by many as our generation's Lord of the Rings.  14 books spanning 22 years, that was finished by another writer when the original succumbed to a fatal illness. But he knew it was coming after it was diagnosed, so prepared notes for someone else to be able to finish it if he couldn't.

I'm actually in a re-read of it right now, on book 5.

 
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TheFanatic said:
How is that? I read the trilogy and the Hobbit. Care to give a quick synopsis? The kid wrote that one right? Or at least finished dad's work?
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It's all J.R.R.'s., the kid just did editorial type stuff. The initial part sets the pantheon of gods in Middle Earth and describes where/when elves, dwarves, men, orcs, dragons, balrogs came from. The rest of it is epic history, establishing the legends that get referenced in the Lord Of The Rings. Similarly with the Unfinished Tales. I really like both those books, but the tone and style are different from the Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings. When I do Tolkien rereads I do it in chronological order: Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, Hobbit, Lord Of The Rings - although I'll usually read the appendices from Lord Of The Rings prior to the Hobbit as the time frame for many of those is before or during the Hobbit.

As for this T.V. series, I hope Jackson has nothing to do with it. I loathe what he did with the Hobbit, and really disliked what he did with the Lord Of The Rings.

 
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GregR said:
The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

Was considered by many as our generation's Lord of the Rings.  14 books spanning 22 years, that was finished by another writer when the original succumbed to a fatal illness. But he knew it was coming after it was diagnosed, so prepared notes for someone else to be able to finish it if he couldn't.

I'm actually in a re-read of it right now, on book 5.
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Best fantasy book of our genre for sure. Those middle books suck however, way to much braid pulling IMO. 

 
GregR said:
The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

Was considered by many as our generation's Lord of the Rings.  14 books spanning 22 years, that was finished by another writer when the original succumbed to a fatal illness. But he knew it was coming after it was diagnosed, so prepared notes for someone else to be able to finish it if he couldn't.

I'm actually in a re-read of it right now, on book 5.
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Amazon has a 14 book set and 15 book set. Wassupwitdat?

 
Gr00vus said:
As for this T.V. series, I hope Jackson has nothing to do with it. I loathe what he did with the Hobbit, and really disliked what he did with the Lord Of The Rings.
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Interesting, I loved the LOTR but disliked the Hobbit trilogy. I read the 4 books after seeing the movies and liked the films way more than the books.

 
Here is an explainer with what is known or presumed about the deal. Amazon paid $250 million just for the rights, with production costs estimated to be $150 million per season (apparently the Tolkien folks got a spending floor included). Meaning, if it goes 5 years, Amazon will have spent $1 billion

 
EYLive said:
GregR said:
The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

Was considered by many as our generation's Lord of the Rings.  14 books spanning 22 years, that was finished by another writer when the original succumbed to a fatal illness. But he knew it was coming after it was diagnosed, so prepared notes for someone else to be able to finish it if he couldn't.

I'm actually in a re-read of it right now, on book 5.
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Amazon has a 14 book set and 15 book set. Wassupwitdat?
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I didn't see the 15 book set when I googled.  But the 15th book is probably New Spring, a short prequel novel that expands the story of how two of the major characters first got together and became allies. If it's not that, there's also a published Compendium of characters, history, etc.  

boots11234 said:
Best fantasy book of our genre for sure. Those middle books suck however, way to much braid pulling IMO. 
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Agreed, there's 2-3 books that dragged and that I skim through.  Then Jordan got diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis and they gave him a median chance of about 4 years to live, though he only lasted 2 years. He became hyper-focused and the story really took off again. Brandon Sanderson was chosen by Jordan's wife to finish up the final three books after Jordan's death, and did a stellar job if you ask me.

 
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Gr00vus said:
It's all J.R.R.'s., the kid just did editorial type stuff. The initial part sets the pantheon of gods in Middle Earth and describes where/when elves, dwarves, men, orcs, dragons, balrogs came from. The rest of it is epic history, establishing the legends that get referenced in the Lord Of The Rings. Similarly with the Unfinished Tales. I really like both those books, but the tone and style are different from the Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings. When I do Tolkien rereads I do it in chronological order: Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, Hobbit, Lord Of The Rings - although I'll usually read the appendices from Lord Of The Rings prior to the Hobbit as the time frame for many of those is before or during the Hobbit.

As for this T.V. series, I hope Jackson has nothing to do with it. I loathe what he did with the Hobbit, and really disliked what he did with the Lord Of The Rings.
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:goodposting: for the first part of your post. Love the Silmarillion, truly an underrated novel from Tolkien. Groovus nailed it, much different tone than the Hobbit and LOTR. It creates the world in which those two series live in. I haven't read it in years but might have to over the holidays.

As for your last line, I disagree but I know a lot of Tolkien diehards agree with you. I loved LOTR, thought the Hobbit was too long and turned into a money grab with 3 movies. Could have wrapped it all up with one.

 
Uruk-Hai said:
Here is an explainer with what is known or presumed about the deal. Amazon paid $250 million just for the rights, with production costs estimated to be $150 million per season (apparently the Tolkien folks got a spending floor included). Meaning, if it goes 5 years, Amazon will have spent $1 billion
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Good info from this article:

What is this TV show about? Is it a remake of the Lord of the Rings movies?

Contrary to early reports, no. The new TV series will apparently be set between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and will use material from the appendices to The Lord of the Rings to flesh out this time period. Possible subjects for the TV show are the adventures of young Aragorn, the gradual corruption of Saruman, the dwarves led by Balin trying to retake Moria, Gollum's hunt for the One Ring, Faramir and Boromir as young solders in the Gondorian army and the childhood adventures of Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin.

What about The Silmarillion?

The Tolkien Estate does not appear to have sold the rights to The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The Children of Hurin or Beren and Luthien (the other four of the six canonical Middle-earth books, alongside The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings) so these stories remain off-limits for now.
 

Is anyone from the Jackson movie series involved?

At the moment, no. Apparently Amazon has not spoken to or approached director Peter Jackson, writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, artists John Howe and Alan Lee, Weta Workshop or any actors or crew involved in the making of either The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings at all.
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Hopefully the influence of the Tolkien Trust keeps this respectful of the author's wolrdview, and they stay away from nudity, sex, gore, and violence.  Stay classy, Amazon.

 
I'm curious to see what they do with the battles not featured in the main movie storylines. The Lonely Mountain had one, the Beornings got involved, tons of stuff!

 
Psychopav said:
Good info from this article:
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really good info!!! The most important part I got wrong (or at least what ever article I read was wrong) is that they did not buy the entire time line.

At first I did not think there would be enough story between Hobbit and LOTR but that summary certainly shows there is some interesting tidbits they could build a story around.

 
Sabertooth said:
Yeah, at this point I don't know that they really could screw it up.  I mean, Peter Jackson's movies are pretty much the standard.  So if they bag this up, nobody cares because we still have Jackson's movies.  If they do awesome well, they become the new standard.   
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I don't think the quality of the TV show will affect the movies status in either way. 

The movies told the LOTR story (the war of the ring).  The TV show will not be in that time period according to what has been release so far.

 
Uruk-Hai said:
Here is an explainer with what is known or presumed about the deal. Amazon paid $250 million just for the rights, with production costs estimated to be $150 million per season (apparently the Tolkien folks got a spending floor included). Meaning, if it goes 5 years, Amazon will have spent $1 billion
Click to expand...
Holy crap.

Amazon paid $250m for what basically comes down to a few pages of text in the appendices (assuming they only have the rights to the time period between the Hobbit and LOTR).

Damn, when you have a brand name like LOTR, jesus.....

And god bless loss leaders. There is no way in hell Amazon can ever make money on this deal IMO but they seem willing to jump into the deep end to make sure they get a signature franchise recognized.  I hope we all benefit :)

 
Psychopav said:
Hopefully the influence of the Tolkien Trust keeps this respectful of the author's wolrdview, and they stay away from nudity, sex, gore, and violence.  Stay classy, Amazon.
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The need for companies to want to try and emulate The Game of Thrones success certainly does make me a bit nervous here......

Although the LOTR movies had plenty of violence and gore (not GOT level but it was there at times).

 
It really depends on the details. I read the press release to say that Season One would be set between The Hobbit and LOTR. Then, they would Fargo/American Horror Story future seasons with completely different stories. I think that, based on Christopher Tolkien's resignation, more IP is in play either now or soon to come - like The Silmarillion.

 
NewlyRetired said:
really good info!!! The most important part I got wrong (or at least what ever article I read was wrong) is that they did not buy the entire time line.

At first I did not think there would be enough story between Hobbit and LOTR but that summary certainly shows there is some interesting tidbits they could build a story around.
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There's a ton mostly just alluded to. Very fertile soil here. When I first heard they were doing a Hobbit movie I thought they'd tap into this. They did a tiny bit but it should have/could have brought so much depth to that story. They really whiffed on that opportunity imo. Where LotR (necessarily) lost a lot in adaptation, the Hobbit could really have gained. Instead they went for the cash. Hopefully this series lives up to its potential.

 
NewlyRetired said:
The need for companies to want to try and emulate The Game of Thrones success certainly does make me a bit nervous here......

Although the LOTR movies had plenty of violence and gore (not GOT level but it was there at times).
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I didn't think the gore was gratuitous and more importantly the violence was mainly people killing monsters. Part of the ethos of this franchise respects the dignity of the human person. Movies did a great job of capturing that imo, even enhancing it some (arguably) in their treatment of women.

 
jhib said:
Any chance we see some Tom Bombadil?
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he was in LOTR.  I don't know how much information there is on him in the appendices but he seems like he would be old enough in LOTR to be a character in this time frame between Hobbit and LOTR.

 
NewlyRetired said:
Holy crap.

Amazon paid $250m for what basically comes down to a few pages of text in the appendices (assuming they only have the rights to the time period between the Hobbit and LOTR).

Damn, when you have a brand name like LOTR, jesus.....

And god bless loss leaders. There is no way in hell Amazon can ever make money on this deal IMO but they seem willing to jump into the deep end to make sure they get a signature franchise recognized.  I hope we all benefit :)
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Amazon's market cap closed at 544 billion today. This is literally nothing to them. 

 
NewlyRetired said:
he was in LOTR.  I don't know how much information there is on him in the appendices but he seems like he would be old enough in LOTR to be a character in this time frame between Hobbit and LOTR.
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As far as I know, Tom Bombadil is perhaps the oldest living entity in Middle Earth (or perhaps Treebeard....its debatable). :shrug:

Also, for those who proclaim WOT the fantasy epic of our age, check out Malazan Book of the Fallen....it gets my vote easily!  :thumbup:

EDIT: Actually...Bombadil is so old, that he could be the "connecting/carry-over character" to tie ALL the seasons together, regardless of the time frame in which they take place...........IMO, of course.

 
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Psychopav said:
Hopefully the influence of the Tolkien Trust keeps this respectful of the author's wolrdview, and they stay away from nudity, sex, gore, and violence.  Stay classy, Amazon.
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I'd be happy if they avoid stuff like elves and dwarves falling in love

 
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