Lord of the Rings TV series? Amazon, Warner Bros. in Talks for Series Adaptation

[Thebobo]

Just speculating but wonder if this would include the characters from the book or just based around middle earth.

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/lord-of-the-rings-amazon-1202606519/

Warner Bros. Television and the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien are in talks with Amazon Studiosto develop a series based on the late author’s “The Lord of the Rings” novels. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is said by sources with knowledge of the situation to be personally involved in the negotiations, which are still in very early stages. No deal has been set.

The studio and the Tolkien estate have been shopping a series based on the classic fantasy novels and their assortment of hobbits, wizards, and warriors, sparking a competitive situation from which Amazon has emerged as the frontrunner. Representatives for Amazon and Warner Bros. declined to comment.

It is uncommon for Bezos — known to be a fan of high fantasy and science fiction — to involve himself personally in dealmaking for Amazon Studios. But talks for “The Lord of the Rings” come at an uncommon moment for the e-commerce giant’s video-entertainment division. Last month Amazon Studios flushed its executive ranks, with president Roy Price, head of scripted Joe Lewis, and head of unscripted Conrad Riggs all departing. Price’s departure came just days after he was suspended on the heels of a sexual harassment allegation made against him by a producer on the company’s original series “The Man in the High Castle.” Lewis and Riggs’ departures followed a week later.

But the pursuit of “The Lord of the Rings” is in line with a new programming mandate dictated this year by Bezos, who, months before Price departed, ordered him to shift Amazon Studios away from niche, naturalistic series such as “Transparent” and “Mozart in the Jungle” and toward large-scale genre programming with potential for broad international appeal. As part of that shift, Amazon canceled two series, “Z: The Beginning of Everything” and “The Last Tycoon,” and began shifting resources away from Lewis’ development team and to a unit led by event-series exec Sharon Tal Yguado. With Lewis’ departure, Tal Yguado was named head of scripted series, reporting to Price’s interim replacement, Amazon Studios COO Albert Cheng.

The fact that a “Lord of the Rings” series is being shopped by Warner Bros. marks a thaw in the relationship between the studio and the Tolkien estate, which in July settled a massive lawsuit that had dragged on since 2012. The dispute, with Tolkien’s heirs and publisher HarperCollins on one side and Warner Bros. — which produced director Peter Jackon’s live-action feature film adaptations of “The Lord of the Rings” and its prequel, “The Hobbit” — on the other, stemmed from the use characters from the movies in online slot machines and other games.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but a legal filing stated that no fees or costs were to be awarded by the court and that no party was entitled to recover fees or costs.

 

[shortylickens]

Do we need it?
We already have 3 epic films. Isnt that enough?

 

[BudAshes]

Probably a buddy cop comedy with Legolas and Gimli.

 

[shortylickens]

Probably a buddy cop comedy with Legolas and Gimli.

Sounds stupid.
BUT, surprisingly the 21 Jump Street film did really well. So, theres that.
Also I think the Lethal Weapon series did much better than expected.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Do we need it?
We already have 3 epic films. Isnt that enough?

The question is not "do we need it?", it's "will people watch it?"

Pretty good chance that enough people will be fantasy addicted when Game of Thrones ends that a new series to fill the void could fly. Obviously it's not going to tell the story of Frodo, nobody will get into a series that rehashes the same material that the films covered. But it's a familiar world and mythos, so there's mileage left in it. Maybe something like Better Call Saul, do a prequel called "The Rise of Sauron". Some of the elves and dwarves lived long enough to overlap from the time of Sauron forging the rings and being overthrown to the LOTR years, so you can work in familiar characters and places. Make it darker than LoTR to appeal to the GoT fans, presto. Why wouldn't that work?

 

[Thebobo]

Some more information.

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/201...-series-some-background-and-more-information/

 

[Thebobo]

A tid bit more. Maybe a 200 million budget, storyline might take place before the fellowship.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/11/13/amazon_announces_lord_of_the_rings_tv_series.html

 

[DAPUNISHER]

They will probably follow all the races, moving us all over the map like GoT. Follow the events leading to the first war against Sauron. Most people will be fine with the few recastings that are necessary.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I'm pretty stoked for this. There's decades worth of seasons to draw material for, before the show even has to start developing their own stories. Just extrapolate existing material and have at it.

 

[sdifox]

No interest. Source material will get butchered.

 

[NuclearNed]

If they used the Silmarillion as source material, were faithful to it, and did it well, I would probably give it a chance.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

If they used the Silmarillion as source material, were faithful to it, and did it well, I would probably give it a chance.

Funny, I think if they try to faithfully follow the Silmarillion it's doomed. The Silmarillion sucked, on its own it was pretty much unreadable. They need to use that source in only the broadest strokes possible. Use a few of the key events in the book as point a, point b and point c signposts and then start from scratch to connect the dots. They need compelling characters and a coherent storyline and the Silmarillion provides neither.

And don't let Peter Jackson get near it.

 

[Thebobo]

Another article with even more info er speculation.

Content’s of Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series not so mysterious after all

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/201...the-rings-series-not-so-mysterious-after-all/

You know that new “The Lord of the Rings,” series that was just announced by not only Amazon Video and Warner Bros. but the Tolkien Estate?

It has everyone on the interwebs with even a passing interest in Middle-earth speculating on the content, imagining how it will tie in to beloved LOTR characters like Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Gandalf and Aragorn. It has even brought “The Silmarillion” to the forefront of the conversation, with people praying to Eru Iluvitar for an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic, sweeping mythology.

Sorry but this series cannot be and will not be an adaptation of that because the rights haven’t been sold. The Tolkien family has clearly decided not to do so. So sorry Silmarillioners — yet, some hope yet remains.

The information given to media, and covered widely from Entertainment Weekly to the Associated press to The Hollywood Reporter, uses “Lord of the Rings” seven times in six paragraphs, but then seemingly contradicts that usage with language that also comes directly from the press release.

Lets look:

 

[zinfamous]

I'd guess that it would be based on the Silmarillon which, if done right, could be great. There is enough content in there that could stretch out to many, many seasons (hopefully not too much, though).

If Jackson can squeeze 3 excruciating 3 hour-long films out of 15 minutes of content in the Hobbit, imagine what could be done with the Silmarillon.

 

[zinfamous]

Funny, I think if they try to faithfully follow the Silmarillion it's doomed. The Silmarillion sucked, on its own it was pretty much unreadable. They need to use that source in only the broadest strokes possible. Use a few of the key events in the book as point a, point b and point c signposts and then start from scratch to connect the dots. They need compelling characters and a coherent storyline and the Silmarillion provides neither.

And don't let Peter Jackson get near it.

Huh? It was the only literate thing that Tolkein ever wrote. Everything else was for 6 year-olds.

 

[Thebobo]

I'd guess that it would be based on the Silmarillon which, if done right, could be great. There is enough content in there that could stretch out to many, many seasons (hopefully not too much, though).

If Jackson can squeeze 3 excruciating 3 hour-long films out of 15 minutes of content in the Hobbit, imagine what could be done with the Silmarillon.

From the article link above

"It has everyone on the interwebs with even a passing interest in Middle-earth speculating on the content, imagining how it will tie in to beloved LOTR characters like Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Gandalf and Aragorn. It has even brought “The Silmarillion” to the forefront of the conversation, with people praying to Eru Iluvitar for an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic, sweeping mythology.

Sorry but this series cannot be and will not be an adaptation of that because the rights haven’t been sold. The Tolkien family has clearly decided not to do so. So sorry Silmarillioners — yet, some hope yet remains."

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Huh? It was the only literate thing that Tolkein ever wrote. Everything else was for 6 year-olds.

Literate? Have you actually read it? The Silmarillion isn't literate, it's not even literature. It's an appendix, a series of footnotes to a story never told.

There are probably 5,000 living beings mentioned in The Silmarillion. Tell me anything about any of them. They're not characters, they're names, it's closer to a phone book or a class directory than it is to an actual novel. Everything you know about any one of them you learned from LOTR, not The Silmarillion.

I agree, the LOTR is fairly infantile, but at least it's an actual novel. It's got real characters, a real storyline, a coherent structure. The Silmarillion doesn't. It's got no characters, just names. It's got no storyline, just lists of events, it's got no structure, just a timeline. The LOTR is the story, the Silmarillion is the box score.

 

[FeuerFrei]

Piques my interest. Hope they don't make it "edgy."

Guess I'd have to sign up for Prime though. *sigh*

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Piques my interest. Hope they don't make it "edgy."

I hope they do make it edgy. And since they're going for the GoT audience they're going to have to make it a hell of a lot more adult oriented than the LOTR movies. Maybe not some guy boinking his twin sister in the first episode, but it better not be a happy fantasy where the good guys all survive and make it home in time for dinner.

 

[Mayne]

i'm pretty happy about this.

 

[DigDog]

is it gonna suck?

or rather, what shortylickens said.

you can't be more accurate in reproducing ... well, you cannot make a reproduction of the film characters which is closer to the general imagination than what peter jackson has done. So it's gonna be either an inferior copy, an identical copy, or something really weird and contrived that we don't really need.