Amazon has been making quite the splash with its work on Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. While there has been the usual online backlash for any changes or adaptations from the original source material, they have offered something that feels like a blend of J. R. R. Tolkien’s work and Peter Jackson’s iconic film trilogy. As it turns out, it seems that other pitches would’ve taken the franchise in very different directions.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix and HBO have also pitched their takes on how to push the franchise forward. While the Tolkien estate famously has its problems with Jackson‘s adaptations, it seems that Netflix wanted to take a franchise-based approach by building various spinoff series focused on Gandalf and Aragorn.
While the concept works for comic book-based stories, it unsurprisingly “freaked out the estate” and may have been one of the reasons it was pushed towards Amazon’s pitch of just telling a unique story. Amazon Studios TV co-head believes that they won through their “collective passion and fidelity to Tolkien” but it wasn’t an easy win. HBO also was part of the bidding process and seemingly wanted to just retell the original trilogy with a focus on the Third Age once again.
The $250M reported budget was seemingly something Netflix initially put out to get their hands on the intellectual property. While they have moved on with other adaptations and their hope to build a Power Rangers-focused franchise, it definitely seems like the bidding process wasn’t an easy one for everyone involved.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
