Sir Peter Jackson could be joining Amazon's billion-dollar Lord of the Rings TV series
Monday, 9 April 2018
Sir Peter Jackson is reportedly in talks with retail giant Amazon about his involvement in The Lord of the Rings TV show.
While Jackson was not involved in Amazon's original deal to buy the rights from Tolkien's estate, his lawyer Peter Nelson told The Hollywood Reporter he had 'recently helped start a dialogue' between the two parties.
The television series will tell of the events before The Fellowship of the Ring, which Jackson turned into an Oscar-winning film in 2001. Jackson went on to make another five mega-hit adaptations.
The Lord of The Rings TV show is set to be the most expensive series ever made, with costs expected to exceed US$1 billion (NZ$1.3b).
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Nelson told The Hollywood Reporter Amazon was 'very much a creature of the times'.
'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 realising that with the overproduction of television, you need to get the eyeballs to the screen, and you can do that with franchise titles.'
A spokesman for Jackson's company Wingnut Films Productions said there was 'no news to share on this topic'.
In November, Amazon Studios beat Netflix to secure the $250 million rights deal with Tolkien estate, publisher HarperCollins and New Line Cinema.
The series includes a five-season commitment to bring The Lord of the Rings to the small screen.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon must be in production within two years.