‘Lord of the Rings’: HBO and Netflix’s crazy ideas that scared Tolkien’s heirs

Much has been said about the mountains of money that Amazon has spent to acquire JRR Tolkien’s precious rights to the work and create the most ambitious fictional work on Prime Video, and virtually the entire television spectrum. As the first season of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” draws to a close (the latest episode will be released on Friday, October 14), the showrunners of the series take stock of the long and certainly expensive road they have traveled to Middle-earth.

In a report by the Hollywood Reporter they reveal that Amazon won the race for the rights for several reasons, one of which is that Tolkien’s heirs disagreed with the proposals that other platforms bring to the table. HBO practically offered them to do a remake of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. recounting the main events of the Third Age, and while not exactly fans of Peter Jackson’s films, they found it too repetitive. But what really horrified them was the idea of ​​Netflix, which he proposed “a Marvel approach” with the work of Tolkiencreating several related series, each centering on a character like Gandalf or Aragorn.

Jeff Bezos’ company did something that tipped the scales in his favor: it offered them a seat at the creative table so they had a say in decisions regarding the series and could protect Tolkien’s vision. The writer’s heirs picked them, and the Hollywood Reporter says the $ 250 million that it is said to cost the rights was actually a Netflix offer. Amazon would have paid a little less, even if that information doesn’t match the figures that Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, recently commented in another interview.. The process of creating the series that would become “The Rings of Power” also went through several stages within Amazon, as JD Payne and Patrick McKay recalled a long time ago. Having many characters and stories available within the saga, they have accepted any proposal, including one series focusing on Gimli and another on Aragorn’s youth. All were discarded, eventually opting for the Second Age, which was not even detailed in the novels, only in the appendices and author’s notes, but which hosts important events such as the fall of Númenor or the forging of the rings.

How the showrunners convinced the heirs and Amazon

Those who would become the showrunners of the series they sold it to the heirs and to Amazon like “‘Braveheart’, not ‘Narnia'” and they had to tell the complete journey they would take in the five seasons that would last the series. In the six months of meetings, which they remember as tiring “Presidential campaign”They even learned the elf to greet Tolkien’s heirs in the language created by the writer. They showed that they worshiped novels and their world and that it was going to be a series made with passion. They also asked their mentor, JJ Abrams, to help them by talking to Amazon. It was an arduous process, but they ultimately got the honor of being behind the rise of Middle-earth.

“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” releases a new episode every Friday. The first season ends on Friday 14 October and the second season is already in production.