This news amuses me: Amazon will begin producing 1 or 2 television shows based on The Lord of the Rings. I am sure Tolkien fans are frothing at the mouth over this. They were not happy about the six movies Peter Jackson made.
Or wait. Didn’t those movies rake in hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars? Do Peter Jackson fans weigh more than J.R.R. Tolkien fans?
Well I don’t know who will produce these TV shows but he or she will become as rich and famous as Peter Jackson. I am guessing that Christopher Tolkien argued against allowing Jackson’s studio having anything to do with the project.
Word on the street is that the television programs will be about stories other than The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. They will finally get to produce real fan fiction TV shows. My money is on Numenor. It’s Tolkien’s version of the Atlantis legend. Numenor was destroyed when they tried to invade the immortal lands and take eternal life.
If done right they can do a show where humans are the invading aliens. There are movies where humans are the invading aliens. We’re not always the bad guys but it’s bad for whoever is invaded. So I can see the iron ships of Numenor sailing across the ocean to the immortal lands and their powerful armies disembarking. It will be like D-Day without all the guns and explosions. The king steps foot ashore and then all hell breaks loose. The mountains tumble and bury them.
End of series.
But then there is the inevitable spinoff. Out in the ocean are nine lonely ships left behind. That is Elendil and his guys. They are pushed in the other direction by a massive tidal wave and driven up on the ruined shores of Middle-earth.
So your spinoff is a lot like a sequel. We get to see Elendil meet Gil-Galad and they partner up against Sauron. You could do three whole seasons just on the war with Sauron. It took ten years so maybe that is ten whole seasons. If they do this right they’ll be able to milk the cash cow for 10-12 seasons.
That should give the fans something to howl about.
Welcome to the new Middle-earth baby! It’s about to start streaming from Amazon Studios and there is nothing you can do about it except decide if you’re going to watch.