Peter Jackson “Ghosted” by Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV Series

Tsing

The FPS Review
Staff member
Joined
May 6, 2019
Messages
12,614
Points
113
Peter Jackson isn't involved with Amazon's new Lord of the Rings TV series because the studio basically ghosted him.

Go to post
 
My wife, who usually looks forward to just about anything LOTR related, also thought this show looks sketchy after seeing one of the trailers on TV recently.
 
It will be interesting to see if they can do worse than what MTV/Spike did to Shannara. I tried to look past its faults but that only lasted for about 3-5 episodes and then I decided I couldn't take any more. I attempted to watch the S2 premiere and didn't even make it a few minutes in. That show had so much potential and all they had to do was stick with the books but instead, they tried to reinvent it.
 
"Perhaps even more crucially, sources say author J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate was against having Jackson on board. This shouldn’t be surprising, as the estate had no involvement with his films and Christopher Tolkien has previously slammed the trilogy in the press as 'eviscerating' his father’s books, claiming they turned his novels into action movies for young people that lack 'beauty and seriousness.' But the estate is involved with the series — Amazon paid the estate an astounding $250 million for the rights to make the show."

Daaaaang, I didn't know about that about the original trilogy. I thought Tolkien's estate had given Jackson their blessing to do those movies. I really enjoyed the LotR movies, as did my friends who read the books.
 
Last edited:
DrezKill said:
"Perhaps even more crucially, sources say author J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate was against having Jackson on board. This shouldn’t be surprising, as the estate had no involvement with his films and Christopher Tolkien has previously slammed the trilogy in the press as 'eviscerating' his father’s books, claiming they turned his novels into action movies for young people that lack 'beauty and seriousness.'
Click to expand...
I've never seen those movies so I can't speak to how good they are or aren't. However, its worth noting that a lot of people read the books and still enjoyed the films. Furthermore, actor Christopher Lee was related to J.R.R. Tolkien and actually knew him. He seemed OK with them based on interviews he did concerning the subject of his relationship with Tolkien and the films in general.

The estate of J.R.R. Tolkien might hate everything, but it could be for reasons beyond not liking the movies or Peter Jackson's work. They may have felt they should have gotten a better deal on the film rights for the trilogy. I don't know.
 
DrezKill said:
"Perhaps even more crucially, sources say author J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate was against having Jackson on board. This shouldn’t be surprising, as the estate had no involvement with his films and Christopher Tolkien has previously slammed the trilogy in the press as 'eviscerating' his father’s books, claiming they turned his novels into action movies for young people that lack 'beauty and seriousness.' But the estate is involved with the series — Amazon paid the estate an astounding $250 million for the rights to make the show."

Daaaaang, I didn't know about that about the original trilogy. I thought Tolkien's estate had given Jackson their blessing to do those movies. I really enjoyed the LotR movies, as did my friends who read the books.
Click to expand...

Dan_D said:
I've never seen those movies so I can't speak to how good they are or aren't. However, its worth noting that a lot of people read the books and still enjoyed the films. Furthermore, actor Christopher Lee was related to J.R.R. Tolkien and actually knew him. He seemed OK with them based on interviews he did concerning the subject of his relationship with Tolkien and the films in general.

The estate of J.R.R. Tolkien might hate everything, but it could be for reasons beyond not liking the movies or Peter Jackson's work. They may have felt they should have gotten a better deal on the film rights for the trilogy. I don't know.
Click to expand...
The Tolkien Estate had absolutely nothing to do with the Jackson films for the very good reason that Tolkien sold some of the rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy decades ago. I've never looked into exactly what he sold off but it was basically the rights to movies, shows and other media of that type. He kept the rights to the print books. This means that no one has to deal with the estate at all with regards to those sources but instead temporarily purchase the right of use from the actual owner, Saul Zaentz Company or Middle Earth Enterprises or whatever the name of it is now.

Christopher Tolkien's opinion was always that everything that wasn't the original written word is an abomination so take anything said by him with a grain of salt.

It's also good to take into consideration that the Tolkien Estate is a very different animal now than what it was 10, 20 or 30 years ago, especially with the passing of Christopher Tolkien. I have no doubt that the current iteration of the Estate doesn't really care about the "purity" of the works and is more concerned with the money they can bring in. The trailers released for the show so far prove that. So much of what has been shown ignores or directly contradicts the lore. If the Tolkien Estate is on board with the dumpster fire that is this show, it's only because of money. There's really only two reasons the Tolkien Estate would be involved. To attempt to trick people into believing this show has some sort of legitimacy because the Tolkien Estate is on board or to gain access to some of the written works or at least parts of the written works that the Tolkien Estate still owns the rights for.
 
DrezKill said:
"Perhaps even more crucially, sources say author J.R.R. Tolkien’s estate was against having Jackson on board. This shouldn’t be surprising, as the estate had no involvement with his films and Christopher Tolkien has previously slammed the trilogy in the press as 'eviscerating' his father’s books, claiming they turned his novels into action movies for young people that lack 'beauty and seriousness.' But the estate is involved with the series — Amazon paid the estate an astounding $250 million for the rights to make the show."

Daaaaang, I didn't know about that about the original trilogy. I thought Tolkien's estate had given Jackson their blessing to do those movies. I really enjoyed the LotR movies, as did my friends who read the books.
Click to expand...
Christopher Tolkien was highly against even the most minor changes, rumor has it that's why amazon waited until he is no longer around so they don't have to deal with him. Now after his death all the estate cares about is the payday, not protecting the legacy.

This is not even lord of the rings, amazon doesn't have the rights to that, all they have rights for are appendices of the silmarilion. Which is just a history book with no plot to speak of. That's why they keep referring to hobbits as harfoots, because they don't have the rights to portray hobbits. When anybody even remotely familiar with LOTR knows harfoots are just one variant of hobbits.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Become a Patron!
Back
Top