With Game of Thrones coming to an end soon, there’s going to be a hole in our lives for a big-budget fantasy show. Amazon apparently hopes to fill that hole with one of the biggest fantasy worlds around, and is planning an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved series.
Image: New Line/Warner Bros.
Variety reports that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has gotten personally involved in a series of negotiations between Amazon Studios, Warner Bros. TV, and the Tolkien estate to bring the seminal trilogy of books to the small screen. Talks are apparently in the earliest of stages and no deal has been set yet, but the report further claims that Warner Bros. and Tolkien’s estate have been shopping a live-action TV adaptation around before these talks, and Amazon has emerged as a frontrunner. News of Warner Bros. and the Tolkien Estate working together again is also a surprise, given that their long, bitter legal battle stemming out of the Warner Bros.-produced Peter Jackson movie characters being used in video games and slot machines only recently concluded.
The deal would be a huge get for Amazon Studios, which has already made a name for itself with its adaptations of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Man in the High Castle, and has been wanting to make a move into larger-scale, wide-appeal original content recently. Lord of the Rings would be a significant step in that direction, and arguably the company’s biggest and grandest foray into TV yet, if the deal goes through. And that’s a big if, given how early this allegedly all is.
We’ll bring you more on the rumoured Lord of the Rings TV plans as we learn them.