Somewhere, in some secret and shadowy corner of this world, there exists a heavily-guarded windowless room. It is whispered that no one can leave or enter that room without fingerprint access.
In that room, a group of writers is slaving away to create something they hope will exceed people’s expectations and justify the price tag of $1 billion. That something is the script for Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings TV series.
The TV adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s legendary trilogy has been hotly anticipated for some time now, and not much information has been leaked regarding the direction the show will take.
The Daily Mail reports that when Amazon Chief Jennifer Salke was asked by the Hollywood Reporter what plans the online giant has for its Lord of the Rings TV adaptation, she replied, “There’s a fantastic writers room working under lock and key. They’re already generating really exciting material.”
She also added that a security guard keeps a watch outside of the room, and if your fingerprints don’t match, you’re not getting in because “their whole board is up on a thing of the whole season.”
Less than a little has been drip fed to the public about Amazon’s Lord Of The Rings TV show, but rumors abound that one direction the fantasy spinoff could take is to focus on the life and times of Aragorn, who is played in the Peter Jackson films by Viggo Mortensen.
Hardcore fans of Tolkien’s classic have theorized that the show will probably focus on the Ranger of The North because one of the few things Amazon has revealed is that the TV series will be set in a Middle Earth where the story of Frodo and the fellowship of the ring has yet to unfold.
However, fans of Mortensen have resigned themselves to the fact that at the age of 59, the actor who earned such a cult following as Aragorn in the original trilogy will not be reprising his role.
Fans have also speculated that Tolkien’s rich and highly-detailed universe will give the Amazon writers a mammoth amount of back stories and plot twists to generate some great TV from.
The Lord Of The Rings film series raked in an estimated $2.8 billion worldwide and was a firm favorite with both critics and the public.
With an estimated $1 billion price tag, Amazon’s TV version will become the most expensive series of all time. There’s a lot of dollars and anticipation riding on this one. The tension in that writer’s room must be palpable. Let’s hope they can deliver the goods.