Discussions are underway for the creation of a TV show based on J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved fantasy series Lord of the Rings.
Amazon Studios is in a very early phase of talks with Warner Bros and Tolkien's estate to make the series, according to Variety, and it is believed to be the favourite to bag it, with Netflix and HBO also in the running for the project.
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Tolkien's estate appears keen to sell rights to the story to a large TV production company, and has tapped up a number of production companies and studios who may be interested in the project.
It's likely to be at a big expense to whoever successfully gets it, with Deadline reporting rights for the series will sit somewhere in the price range of US$200-250 million (NZ$290-360 million). That's on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars that would be required to make multiple seasons of a television series of that size.
Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, who is not known to normally be involved in negotiations for the company's production studio, is apparently heavily involved in discussions in a push to get it over the line. He is reportedly very keen to win this particular series, and sees it as key in an effort to establish Amazon Studios as a company that produces big-hitting shows.
The series will be made with Warner Bros, the production company that made the Peter Jackson-directed Lord of the Rings trilogy in the 2000s, and his The Hobbit follow-up more recently.
Newshub.
