No one knows Middle-earth quite like Peter Jackson – so it’s small wonder why Amazon Studios is keen to work with the Kiwi director during the production of their lavish Lord of the Rings TV series.
Case in point: during an interview with /Film, Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios Television, addressed the Oliphaunt in the room – Peter Jackson’s potential involvement in The Lord of the Rings TV series. To his credit, the esteemed filmmaker has previously gone on record to express his relief that he’s no longer tied up with Middle-earth and all of its many story strands. And, frankly, after wrangling six fantasy blockbusters from Tolkien’s work, you can hardly blame him.
Still, it seems as though Salke and Co. are keen to work with Peter Jackson, should the opportunity arise:
We don’t have any news on Peter Jackson. There hasn’t been any negativity around it. We just don’t have any news on that yet and what his involvement may be.JD Payne and Patrick McKay and their team are making great progress. We’ve established the social handles for the show and there will be more news coming shortly.
So, it seems as though there will be some sort of status report concerning Amazon’s LOTR series in the very near future. We’ll be keeping a close eye on that front, but when discussing Peter Jackson, Albert Cheng, co-head of TV for Amazon Studios, noted that the director is, at the very least, “aware of what’s happening.”
Could that advisory role lead to a full-blown producer credit? It’s far too soon to tell, though we’ve previously heard that The Lord of the Rings TV series is being angled as a prequel to explore the early years of Aragorn before he joined the Fellowship. Color us intrigued…