AMAZON BETS BIG ON ‘RINGS’:
Amazon has high hopes for its new precious.
The streaming giant — which last year won a $250 million rights deal to J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” novel series — has given the upcoming show a five-season commitment, The Hollywood Reporter revealed.
The deal was originally announced in November, when Amazon said that the series will begin as a prequel to “The Fellowship of the Ring,” which is the first of three volumes of the novel.
The huge undertaking will come with an enormous price tag. Amazon reportedly expects to spend more than $1 billion on the project, including casting, producers and visual effects, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That cost would make it the most expensive series in TV history, outdoing shows like “The Crown,” “Friends,” “Game of Thrones” and “ER.”
By comparison, Peter Jackson’s three-film “Hobbit” series, released between 2012 and 2014, cost about $745 million, AP reported in 2014.
Between the six “Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings” films, New Line Cinema pulled in $5.85 billion at the box office.
Jackson, who won three Oscars in 2004 for “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” hasn’t been linked to the series yet, but his attorney, Peter Nelson, recently began talking to Amazon about the possibility of a return to Middle Earth.
“It’s very much a creature of the times,” Nelson told The Hollywood Reporter of the huge deal.
“We are in an era where streamers are bidding up the price of programming. I think Amazon is taking a page out of the studios’ emphasis on franchises. They also are realizing that with the overproduction of television, you need to get the eyeballs to the screen, and you can do that with franchise titles.”