In less than a month Amazon Prime Video will premiere The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerthe great fantasy bet of the streaming platform that will compete with other big-budget productions such as Sandman from Netflix or House of the Dragon from HBO.
The new series based on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien has a great task ahead of him, since he will not only have to satisfy the expectations of all fans of the author’s legendarium, but will also have to face comparisons with the Oscar-winning trilogy directed by Peter Jackson.
Back in 2017 it was first announced that Amazon had acquired the television rights to the work for $250 million. Quickly, fans around the world began to wonder if Peter Jackson would be involved in the production, not only because of his experience in having adapted the trilogy of The Lord of the ringsbut because of his great knowledge about Middle-earth.
At the beginning it was said that Jackson would have a participation as a consultant, but according to the showrunners of The Rings of Power, J. D. Payne Y patrick mckay, at the beginning of production they tried to get in touch with the filmmaker but never made the meeting. Now Peter Jackson broke the silence and told the truth about what happened with Amazon and the Lord of the Rings series.
The Oscar-winning director revealed that he was initially asked by the studio to be involved in the ambitious new adaptation of The Lord of the ringspromising that they would send him a copy of the script, but they never contacted him again.
“They asked me if I wanted to participate, [la escritora y productora Fran Walsh] and me, and I told them: ‘That’s an impossible question to answer without seeing a script,'” Jackson said in dialogue with The Hollywood Reporter. “So they said, ‘As soon as we get the first two scripts, we’ll send them to you.’ And the scripts never appeared. That’s the last I heard, which is fine. No complaints at all.”
In 2019, the president of Amazon Studios, Jennifer Salke, had answered the question before the Jackson’s absence from the project. “We haven’t heard from Peter Jackson. There hasn’t been anything negative around him. We just haven’t heard from him yet and what his involvement may be,” he said.
The day of the date, jackson does not hold any grudge against the new amazon series which will debut in early September. He even assured that he is looking forward to seeing the show.
“I’m not the kind of person who wishes ill will. Making movies is hard enough. If someone makes a good movie or series, it’s something to celebrate. The only thing I look forward to is seeing him as a perfectly neutral spectator”, said the director who was in charge of six feature films based on Tolkien’s work.
For its part, Amazon Studios released a brief statement in response to Jackson’s remarks: “In pursuing the rights to our show, we were required to keep the series distinct and separate from the movies. We have the utmost respect for the Peter Jackson and Lord of the Rings films and are delighted that you are looking forward to seeing The Rings of Power.”
The studio statement makes it quite clear why the studio didn’t go ahead with the idea of having Jackson as a permanent reference source. Sources close to the project indicated that, indeed, the showrunners of the series tried to contact the director by their own means, but the legal section would have forced them to abandon all contact.
The rights to the films The Lord of the rings are owned by Warner Bros., while those in the series went the other way. It is also speculated that the Tolkien Estate, the heirs who watch over the work, were against having Jackson as part of the Amazon project. In the past, Christopher Tolkien, JRR’s son, has harshly criticized Jackson, whom he accused of “gutting” his father’s books, claiming they turned his novels into youth action movies that lack “beauty and seriousness.” “.
However, at first glance it does not look very good that Amazon has made an offer to Peter Jackson and then left him hanging. The trilogy of The Lord of the rings is one of the most successful movies, which marked a before and after for the fantasy genre on the big screen. In addition, he returned the prestige with the number of nominations for the Oscar Awards. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King it was awarded 12 statuettes, including Best Director and Best Film.
Next month fans will be able to draw their own conclusions when The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power the premiere September 2 on Amazon Prime Video. Remember that the series will be set during the Second Age of Middle-earth, that is, thousands of years before the events of the Jackson trilogy.
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive all the news and participate in exclusive contests from here.
.