After more than 20 years of rule, Middle-earth has dismissed its king. Peter Jacksonthe director of the trilogy The Lord of the Ringsconfessed to Hollywood Reporter being ignored by the creators of the series The Rings of Power.
Jackson spoke with Scott Feinberg as part of his podcast produced by the Hollywood Reporter, Awards Chatter. The multi-award-winning director opened up about the new series from the universe of J.R.R Tolkien, which will be released in September 2022. “The creators asked me if I wanted to be involved in the series. I answered them that “it is impossible for me to answer this question without having seen the script”. They told me that they would come back to me as soon as they had the first scripts. Then I never heard from them. But there’s no problem, I’m not complaining at all,” Jackson said.
In 2018, the director had already raised the subject with Metro (Great Britain) saying, “I think they’ll send me script excerpts to see if I can help. »
Finally, it is as a fan like the others that the New Zealander will immerse himself in the marvelous kingdom of elves, dwarves and other creatures. “I will watch the series. I’m not the kind of person who would want it not to work. Making movies is hard enough. So if someone manages to make a good movie or a good series, we have to celebrate. Precisely, I’m really looking forward to being able to discover the project with a very neutral look”, he enthuses.
$250 million paid to Tolkien’s heirs
After his intervention, Amazon responded to Jackson, explaining that it was a rights issue that caused them to retract. Indeed, they claim to have been forced to keep the series separate from the trilogy, which is owned by Warner Bros. But the directors J.D. Payne et Patrick McKayhave all the same confessed their great admiration for Jackson.
In addition, a source confides to the Hollywood Reporter that Tolkien’s heirs would have sought to dismiss the director. Which would not be surprising since the Tolkien Estate, whose Christopher Tolkien was part of, always despised the trilogy. Tolkien’s son, who died in 2020, has repeatedly claimed that Jackson “eviscerated” his father’s work.
On the other hand, the domain is involved in the project of the Rings of power. Amazon paid the Tolkien Estate no less than $250 million to buy rights. JRR Tolkien’s grandson, Simon Tolkienwas even recruited by the directors to work on the series with a half-million dollar budget.