The biggest and most surprising television deal of the year? That’d arguably be the reported quarter of a billion dollars that Amazon has forked out to make at least two seasons of a Lord Of The Rings television show.
Amazon won the bidding war for the show, but one notable company ducked out very early on: HBO. Given the sizeable success it’s had with fantasy drama in the past, that was something of a surprise.
However, HBO’s CEO Richard Plepler has confirmed that it was the fact it already had Game Of Thrones on its plate that led to the firm passing on the Lord Of The Rings opportunity. “I’d rather own our IP 100%”, Plepler said. “And I’d rather have the ability to work with a product that is inextricably linked to our brand”.
You can’t beat a bit of corporate speak, right?
Still, with five Game Of Thrones prequel series in stages of development, HBO arguably didn’t need to spend big to get another genre show. Thus, it ducked out of the Lord Of The Rings auction, freeing Amazon to spend big to get it…