Amazon (and Netflix) Pursue a 'Lord of The Rings' TV Series (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader quotes The Verge: Amazon Studios has been looking for a way to duplicate HBO's success with Game of Thrones, and the company may have found a solution: adapting J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings into a TV series. Variety reports that the company is currently in talks with Warner Bros. Television and the late author's estate, and while discussions are said to be in "very early stages," it is clearly a high priority, with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos himself involved in the negotiations.

Amazon isn't the only one looking into the rights, according to Deadline, which reports that the Tolkien Estate is looking to sell the television rights to the iconic fantasy series to the tune of $200-250 million, and has approached Netflix and HBO as well. There appears to be some strings attached: the rights might not encompass all of the characters in the story. HBO has reportedly passed on the project.
"We can hear the pitch now," jokes The Verge. "It's like Game of Thrones, only with a series of books that are actually finished."

Comments

And nobody will watch it

[Anonymous Coward]

No wonder bezos it's selling billions of dollars of stock.

Re:And nobody will watch it

[Anonymous Coward]

Tolkien's often dry and long winded as fuck. There are far better authors; I'll certainly agree with you there.

The world building, though? No. Fatty McHBOchecks ain't got shit on Tolkien. Dude not only invented workable languages, but went through the process of "modernizing" them over the imaginary centuries. You know why half of LotR is boring as fuck? Because it's references to shit that has nothing to do with anything in the books, but reflects how real people work.

Some alien dude wouldn't know what the fuck 'the whole nine yards' or 'three sheets to the wind' or 'hot grits' means. We say that shit, because of our history. Tolkien's characters do the same. And it's infuriating and absolutely magnificent.

Re:Please no

[alvinrod]

I don't think we need another adaptation of Lord of the Rings, but I think it would be fucking awesome to get a series that focuses around the Silmarillion. There's enough there to make several seasons worth of a show and you can easily use all of other Tolkien's works set in Middle Earth if the series is popular enough. By the time you get through all of that, perhaps move on to the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings, but when there's so much other wonderful material from the man out there, why retread the same ground, especially when the Peter Jackson movies were quite good for the time and still hold up rather well.

They have other options

[grasshoppa]

There are so many beloved fantasy epics out there, it might be wise to avoid the almost-blasphemy of redoing LoTR.

Off the top of my head, I'd do Wheel of Time. Lacking that, then I'd buy the rights to the Stormlight Archive.

Re: Overrated

[avandesande]

The Eagles weren't really an important part of the plot- the hobbits destroyed the ring. Saving their lives with deux machina was just window dressing or perhaps even meant to allegorical...