Amazon has been adamant about insisting its in-the-pipeline and cartoonishly expensive Lord of the Rings TV show will not be a carbon copy of Peter Jackson’s beloved Tolkien movies (as well as the Hobbit trilogy he busted out a decade later). They even went so far as to scout locations that weren’t New Zealand, otherwise known as the setting for Middle Earth, just to distance themselves from Jackson, who, it should be stressed, is not involved. Anyway, after some location scouting, Jeff Bezos’ company will…shoot their show in New Zealand.
This one comes from The Guardian, who report that one of the former potential locations was Scotland, and whose report suggests the reason the nation didn’t get the gig was due to complications around Brexit, which should make people like Boris Johnson even more.
And so, even though Jackson is, again, very much not involved in this iteration of Lord of the Rings — and one can assume that, having directed approximately 40,000 hours of finished Tolkien product, he’s probably done with Middle Earth — this means there will at least be some continuity between the beloved films/TV staples and Amazon’s forthcoming show.
Of course, there isn’t too much yet known about Lord of the Rings: The TV Show, beyond that it will focus on the 3,441 years leading up to the events of The Fellowship of the Ring. It has been speculated that at least some of it may, or may not, include a young Aragorn, the sweaty hero played by Viggo Mortensen. But one thing’s for sure: They could hire Cate Blanchett to return as Galadriel because she has not aged a day.
(Via The Guardian)
