Lord of the Rings is one of the hottest properties in Hollywood, and thanks to the help of Jeff Bezos, a new series may be headed for Amazon.
Jeff Bezos may very well get the next Game of Thrones, according to an exclusive report in Variety. There has long been talk of a series based on the Lord of the Rings novels and now, thanks to some personal intervention by Bezos himself, Amazon could become the next home for the hobbits.
Warner Bros. and the Tolkien estate have been seeking a deal for a small-screen adaptation set in the world of the classic fantasy trilogy for some time and now Amazon may be the one ending up with the gold ring.
Bezos is an avid sic-fi and fantasy fan himself – he even had a cameo in a Star Trek movie – but it’s highly unusual for him to become personally involved in negotiations of this sort. Then again, this is no ordinary property, and Amazon has apparently ended up on top after a high-stakes bidding war.
The report relies on anonymous industry sources, and neither Warner Bros nor Amazon had any official comment.
These rumors also mark a thaw in the frosty relationship between Warner Bros. and the Tolkien estate. The two have been engaged a five-year legal battle about the use of LOTR properties in digital entertainment, namely a slot machine game featuring the late author’s characters. The $80 million lawsuit was settled “amicably” in July, paving the way for this latest enterprise.
This latest news also comes on the heels of a shakeup at the executive level of Amazon’s original programming division, with president Roy Price departing amidst a sexual harassment scandal. Executives Joe Riggs and Conrad Price departed soon afterwards, and Morgan Wendell ( The Man in the High Castle) jumped ship for Apple, which is looking to bolster its own original series efforts.
The Hollywood Reporter adds that there are some eye-popping numbers involved in this deal. The rights payments alone for the property are reportedly in the $200-$250 million range. That payment had to be made sight unseen, before a single line had been written or actor had been cast. The yearly budget for a LOTR series would purportedly be in the $100-$150 million range.
Although Amazon is the frontrunner with Netflix still possibly in the mix, HBO has taken a pass. It’s also not clear exactly how much of the LOTR universe is available for a dramatic series, as the deal supposedly doesn’t include all of Tolkien’s characters.
It’s still very early in the negotiations, so we’ll be following the latest developments in the ongoing efforts to bring this beloved series to the small screen.
