Amazon Studio’s head honcho, Jennifer Salke, has been chatting about that Lord Of The Rings TV show. It’s a fairly massive update she’s offered, so prepare thyself for a lot of quotes…
“Despite all the noise around Lord Of The Rings, the deal only closed like a month ago”, Salke explained to Deadline.
“But in the meantime, I’ve sat with Simon Tolkien for a couple of hours, and [Amazon TV executive] Sharon [Tal Yguado] has spent tons of time with them. She had spent the last couple of months meeting anyone who had said, I’m really passionate about it and I want to get in and talk about the show and what’s possible.”
So, what is possible? Well, Salke promised to deliver “one big series”, without confirming or denying the rumours that Aragorn could be the protagonist.
Salke stressed that “we’re not remaking the movies, but we’re also not starting from scratch. So, it’ll be characters you love”. She wouldn’t say which characters are on the cards, or who might be playing them.
In terms of location, Salke said this:
“I think we might be in New Zealand. I don’t know, but we’re going to have to go somewhere interesting that could provide those locations in a really authentic way, because we want it to look incredible. There’s no shortage of ambition for the project. We’ll go where we need to go to make it happen.”
And in terms of Peter Jackson, the Lord Of The Rings moviemaker who recently denied any involvement in the project, Salke said this:
“The Peter Jackson conversations, right now we’re right in the middle of them. It’s like, how much do you want to be involved, how little? I know there’s been some discussion, and he’s even said some things, but as far as I’m aware, the latest is that we’re just in a conversation with him about how much or how little he would be involved.”
And in terms of a timeframe, Salke said:
“I think you’ll see us honing in on a strategy in the next month, which might involve a group of writers. Clearly, there’ll be someone in charge, but it involves the [Tolkien] estate and Peter Jackson, and there’s a lot of conversations.”
We’ll keep you posted as we hear more.