The Hollywood Reporter has published an intriguing story about how the competition between streaming services for the rights to The Lord of the Rings led to The Rings of Power.
Earlier, it was heard that there is massive competition for the rights to Lord of the Rings between streaming service providers, because in addition to Amazon, HBO Max and Netflix have also partnered with the Tolkien Estate, which manages the legacy of JRR Tolkien, to adapt the writer’s work.
As we know since then, Amazon has finally won, and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series is currently in full swing, and a sequel has already been ordered. The The Hollywood Reporter At the same time, he posted an interesting material that revealed some interesting details about the competition.
It turns out, for example, that it was no coincidence that Tolkien’s real estate company did not ask for the work of HBO and Netflix, because both companies approached the subject in an unimaginative way. For example, HBO envisioned a series set in the Third Age, meaning it would have mapped the era more comprehensively, which the Peter Jackson films also did – however, the Tolkien estate never saw the need for that.
On the other hand, Netflix made several shows and was going to build the world of Lord of the Rings in the style of Marvel, but this idea “regularly freaked out” representatives of the Tolkien estate. The Gandalf series and the Aragorn series were also planned, the latter delivered by Marvel veterans the Russo Brothers.
In the end, Amazon won, as the company pledged a “close relationship” with Tolkien’s company in order to “protect Tolkien’s legacy” together. Although money also matters, contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t Amazon that made the highest bid: the $250 million figure reported in the press was actually a Netflix show, and Amazon “promised tens of millions less.”
Plus, the show’s pitch to J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay was compelling anyway, and their mentor J.J. Abrams reportedly said a few good words on their behalf. Incidentally, the competition was such a long procedure that Baines compared it to a six-month presidential campaign, which even included such little things as, on one occasion, a salute to Simon Tolkien, one of Tolkien’s estate managers (who, incidentally, is the grandson of JRR Tolkien) at Elvish.
