Lord of the Rings: Almost every kid born by the late 80s or early 90s has been a witness to magical tales that have unfolded on the silver screen. Be it J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter or The Chronicles of Narnia, kids of these timelines have found a home-like comfort in these stories. J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings is no different. It is safe to say that Peter Jackson's adaptation of Tolkien's work opened the floodgates to how fantasy films were supposed to be made for audiences. Be it "The Fellowship of the Ring, "The Two Towers" or "The Return of the King", Jackson has done complete justice to Tolkien's writings and has made characters like Gandalf, Sauron, and Frodo relatable in every possible way.
It is Jackson's prowess in his craft that the fantasy series has won 17 out of 30 Academy Award nominations with "The Return of the King" winning eleven. After Jackson was done with the three LOTR movies, he decided to return and ended up filming three more Hobbit movies which include The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013), and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014). These movies were certainly not received well but they make up for a magnificent visual spectacle.
On November 13, 2017, Amazon Prime acquired the television rights of this mega fantasy story for a whopping US$250 million. The streaming platform which was hell-bent on telling the unheard tales of middle earth announced it as its most ambitious project so far. Insiders from the industry termed the amount as an insane one because they saw no point in remaking a story that had been told earlier. Little did anyone know that Prime Studios had already started working with Tolkien Estate & Trust, HarperCollins, and New Line to curate a storyline with the events that had happened before the ones portrayed in the Lord of the Rings movies.
Taking giant leaps in the right direction, Prime Studio roped in Peter Jackson who confirmed his association with the project in April 2018. Later in December 2018, Peter Jackson openly said that he went through the script and offered his notes to Prime Studio just to depict the events perfectly. As the writers began work in February 2019, Prime Studio confirmed that their version of the famous LOTR will span across five seasons and will deal with all the aspects in detail.
With Amazon Prime going out with all guns blazing for this epic fantasy drama, fans and the studio just have their fingers crossed that the new version does justice to Tolkien's work and manages to start from where Jackson left. The fantasy series releases on September 2, 2022.
