A couple of months ago, it was revealed that Amazon Studios acquired the television rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s best-selling series, The Lord of the Rings, for $250 million. It was also specified that Peter Jackson, who won Best Director at the 76th Academy Awards for The Return of the King, has the option to board the series as an executive producer.
While the past few weeks have seen fans waiting with baited breath to learn whether or not he’d choose to return to Middle-earth, we now have our answer, and unfortunately, it won’t be what you want to hear. As spotted by The Playlist, Jackson spoke with French outlet Allocine recently and set the record straight, saying that he’s not involved in Amazon’s upcoming project.
“I’m not involved at all in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ series. I understand how my name could come up, but there is nothing happening with me on this project.”
This follows on from what Andy Serkis (who starred as Gollum in the original films) said not too long ago, with the actor, like Jackson, distancing himself from the TV show. It all paints a picture of Amazon’s endeavor being a completely separate beast with little to no ties to the original trilogy. Aside from, of course, that it’s based on the same source material. Other than that, though, there likely won’t be any links between the two as it doesn’t seem as if any of the original cast or crew are interested in returning.
Circling back to Amazon Studios’ initial purchase of the property, though, and we’ve heard that in addition to that ludicrous acquisition fee, production costs could push the series’ total to $1 billion. Although Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy earned close to $3 billion at the worldwide box office, a ten-figure gamble is risky no matter how you frame it, so it’ll be interesting to see if this ends up paying off for the company.