A “Huge” Chunk Of Amazon’s ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Series Will Be Produced In NZ

Lord of the rings

New Zealand has reportedly gotten its hands on a sizeable chunk of Amazon‘s Lord of the Rings prequel series production, the series with the very fat price tag on it.

[jwplayer z0khvLrA]

Film industry insiders told New Zealand Herald that a “huge” part of the series will be produced in the country.

Said source, a senior member of the Auckland film industry, said Kumeu Film Studios and Auckland Film Studios have been working on pre-production for more than a year now. They added that American crews are already in on the action as well.

Kumeu Film Studios’ inaugural project was The Meg, starring Jason Statham and Li Bingbing. Auckland Film Studios is behind a number of TV and big screen titles including The Chronicles of Narnia, Whale Rider, and goddamn Xena: Warrior Princess. 

Sources said the crew have been busy building studio locations and whatnot.

As for what “huge” entails, the source couldn’t say.

“I’m just not sure what the extent is to, whether they’re doing all the filming. But I can assure you, it is happening in Auckland,” they said. “And all I can tell you is that it’s huge. You can more or less say they’re here.” 

Whatever ends up happening, Hobbiton‘s probably going to get a giant update in the next couple of years.

Last year, after a big bloody battle with Netflix, Amazon sealed the deal for a five-season (5!!!) television adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s masterpiece. As The Hollywood Reporter revealed at the time, Amazon Studios shook on a whopping $250 million rights deal with HarperCollins, New Line Cinema, and the Tolkien estate. That’s excluding production costs like casting and mad as hell visual effects.

Earlier this year, it was announced the series will be set in Tolkien’s Second Age – which is quite a number of years before your ol’ mate Frodo walked the earth.

The prequel series might not be happening until 2021, but the show already has a Twitter account up and ready to go. If you’re interested, there’s a whole map of the Middle-earth you can explore.

Back in May, veteran writer Bryan Cogman – known for penning a number of key episodes on Game of Thrones – joined the LOTR series team. Cogman’s last episode with GoT was season eight, episode two – A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. 

More Stuff From PEDESTRIAN.TV