At first glance we were all in shock and awe that another adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is in the early talking stages between Amazon, Warner Bros. and The Tolkien Estate; mainly because Peter Jackson’s interpretation of both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are still kind of fresh in our minds. Sure it’s been over ten years since the original trilogy hit the big screens, but The Hobbit series just concluded not too long ago.
While it’s not set in stone, it is reported that Amazon, according to it’s CEO Jeff Bezos, is still early in the negotiation and talking phase and thus no deal has been drafted yet; however after multiple parties have been looked at, Amazon is currently the front runner in creating a new adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series.
According to Bezos, Amazon has been wanting to shift their gears into more large scale, mainstream and audience appealing titles and turn away from the smaller projects they have done in the past. And with Game of Thrones finally coming to an end, this will place Amazon in a particularly formidable time slot if they do acquire the rights to create a Lord of the Rings television series.
It is to note that currently Peter Jackson’s adaptations hold many Academy Award nominations and winning 17 of the 30 the series was nominated for; not to mention 11 Oscars were awarded to The Return of the King alone. The main series has grossed a total of $2.9 billion, with The Hobbit trilogy only adding to such a dominating financial achievement. To this date, between all six films that Peter Jackson has adapted, a total of $5 billion was brought in to the box office.
If Amazon, or any other type of studio, acquires such rights to create a Lord of the Rings television series, it’s no doubt that they will have some major shoes to fill and an already high bar of expectations from the fanbase.
