Amazon’s upcoming TV series based onLord of the Ringsis going to run the studio back about $465 for one single season. Perhaps hoping to compete with the success of Peter Jackson’s original movie trilogy, Amazon Studios is apparently going all-in with the company reportedly spending around NZ$650 million, or $465 million in U.S. currency, for just the show’s first season.
This tremendously high price tag is even above the previously-reported estimate of $500 million formultipleseasons of the show, a number that was already record-setting. By comparison, the expensivemedieval fantasyseriesGame of Throneshad cost HBO roughly $100 million per season. That show had begun with around $6 million put into each episode for season 1, followed withGoTcosting around $15 million per episode by the eighth and final season. That’s obviously alotof money, but it still pales in comparison to Amazon Studios' budget forThe Lord of the Rings.
“What I can tell you is Amazon is going to spend about $650 million in season one alone,” Stuart Nash, New Zealand Minister for Economic Development and Tourism, reportedly toldMorning Report. “This is fantastic, it really is … this will be thelargest television series ever made.”
Amazon picked up the global TV rights toThe Lord of the Ringsback in 2017. At the time, it was reported that the plan was to develop a multi-season series consisting of new stories set beforeThe HobbitandThe Lord of the Ringsstories. Full details on the plot of the series are still unclear, but it seems obvious thatAmazonhas very high hopes for the success of the show. A massive budget will certainly improve the odds of becoming a hit, but fans will still need a well-crafted story and likeable characters to keep people watching.
Production onThe Lord of the Ringsiscurrently underway in New Zealand. The first season will reportedly consist of 20 episodes written by the writing duo of JD Payne and Patrick McKay. J.A. Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) will direct the show’s first two episodes and will also serve as an executive producers alongside Belén Atienza. Also executive producing are Lindsey Weber, Bruce Richmond, Gene Kelly, and Sharon Tal Yguado, as well as writers Gennifer Hutchison, Jason Cahill, and Justin Doble.
“They’re already generating really exciting material,” Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke previously toldTHRof the show’s writers. “They’re down in Santa Monica. You have to go through such clearance, and they have all their windows taped closed. And there’s a security guard that sits outside, and you have to have a fingerprint to get in there, because their whole board is up on a thing of the whole season.”
The Lord of the Ringsseries will star Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Sir Lenny Henry, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Simon Merrells, Geoff Morrell, Peter Mullan, Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, Benjamin Walker, and Sara Zwangobani.
Amazon hasn’t yet set a release date forThe Lord of the RingsTV series on Amazon Prime Video. If we’re lucky, the series will debut before the end of the year. This news comes to us fromThe Hollywood Reporter.
