Would Frodo have felt a great eye watch it even more closely if the original trilogy of the Lord of the Rings had been produced by Amazon? The most famous of the Hobbits, who does not appear in the series The Rings of Power inspired by the universe of JRRTolkien and broadcast from September 2 on Prime Video, already had a lot to do with Sauron and his fate would probably not have been the same with Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, behind him .
Read our review: “The Rings of Power”: a grandiose series in the tradition of the “Lord of the Rings” despite some sprains from Tolkien’s universe
Tuesday August 30, alongside the first screening of the series Rings of PowerJeff Bezos, fan of thework by Tolkien, admitted that he closely oversaw the creation of the staggering billion-dollar series. Smiling, he explained to the magazine Variety Fair that he was thanking the show’s creators for ignoring some of his notes about filming. “I thank you both for listening to me when it could be useful, but above all for ignoring my advice when it was necessary to do so”he said in particular.
The series is crucial for Amazon, which wants to exist in the “streaming wars” between Netflix, Disney + and HBO Max – the latter has just launched House of the Dragonthe prequel to Game Of Thrones.
The challenge is daunting: the series features heroes and their foes who are barely (if at all) sketched in the trilogy and its appendices and appendices, while the cast and creators are largely unknown.
Some characters were even created from scratch for the series. “Season 1 is really about settling the characters and introducing new characters (…), bringing to life a fairly skeletal world that Tolkien just created in the Second Age”explains Maxim Baldry, whose character, Isildur, was briefly depicted fighting Sauron in a flashback at the start of Peter Jackson’s trilogy.
“Amazon has been pretty crazy, in the best way possible”
patrick mckayseries co-creator
Series creators Patrick McKay and JD Payne pitched their concept to Amazon in 2017, with only a few projects on their resumes. “We wanted to find a massive Tolkien saga. And Amazon was crazy enough, in the best way, to say, ‘OK, here we go'”said Patrick McKay in London on Tuesday.
At the series premiere in London on Tuesday, Jeff Bezos admitted that “some people questioned our choice” to bring in “this relatively unknown team”. “But we saw something special there”he said according to Variety magazine.
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Reviews so far are generally positive. The rich costumes, the sets, the special effects and the acting of Morfydd Clark (Galadriel) have garnered numerous praises, including those of Francetvinfo.fr, even if the magazine Time scratched him a show “full of beautiful imagery and hackneyed cliches”.
The series is considered the most expensive in television history. Amazon paid $250 million to buy the rights, and some $465 million was spent on the first season alone. And the group having committed to five seasons, the final sum should far exceed one billion.
These staggering costs go hand in hand with extreme discretion. Plot details and reviews were strictly embargoed until Wednesday, two days before the show’s launch, and even the cast didn’t know their characters’ fates.
“I don’t have a clue! I don’t even know what happens next season”thus assures Megan Richards, who embodies Poppy Proudfellow, a Harfoot, ancestor race of the Hobbits.