Amazon and WB discussing new LORD OF THE RINGS TV series

[Ran]

Pretty thin resumes, but I suppose they impressed Amazon in meetings. 

[Mexal]

4 hours ago, Ran said:

Pretty thin resumes, but I suppose they impressed Amazon in meetings. 

Huge gamble by Amazon. They need to get this right and they're trusting two guys who've basically never really done anything before. Good luck to them.

[Corvinus85]

So another D&D duo?

[DMC]

So IMDB tells me they're part of the "writers room" for Godzilla vs. Kong (along with six others), and are writing the next Star Trek movie.  Seems like they're the new hot thing within the industry.  Why?  You tell me. 

Wouldn't compare them to D&D though.  Benioff actually had a record, and Weiss at least published a novel and had worked on things (that didn't come to fruition).  These two don't even have wikipedia pages, at least based on a quick search.  The closest is this. 

[Darth Richard II]

JD Payne sounds like a bad DJ name.

[DMC]

Or a porn moniker.

[Werthead]

They've never actually made anything that's been produced? Star Trek Beyond's first draft was thrown out and replaced by Orci and Pegg's script.

This is going to go well. Benioff and Weiss had far more experience than these guys, and Peter Jackson had a film career stretching back 15 years before he made LotR. It's astonishing that higher-profile producers and writers aren't lining up around the block to get involved in this project. Ridiculous.

They might come out and blow us all away, of course, but this is frankly bizarre.

[Corvinus85]

The Wheel of Time showrunner isn't a big name either. Maybe Amazon is going for some strategy of hiring relatively unknown guys who they think are talented. 

[Spring Bass]

When it says "develop", does that mean that they're actually the show-runners? It doesn't say. Maybe Amazon is still looking for a show-runner. 

It makes this all more interesting, at least. I was worried we might get an adaptation that would be competently made but completely forgettable. Now we're going to get something where they were under tremendous time constraints and possibly handled by people with no experience running a production of this complexity and size, and it will either be something special or something terrible. 

Or maybe not. Maybe Amazon hired these guys because they wanted someone they could control more easily. After all, this is getting made because Jeff Bezos wanted a cash cow Game of Thrones equivalent for his streaming service. 

[Werthead]

3 hours ago, Corvinus said:

The Wheel of Time showrunner isn't a big name either. Maybe Amazon is going for some strategy of hiring relatively unknown guys who they think are talented. 

The WoT guy doesn't have a massive resume, but he did write some of Agents of SHIELD's best episodes (maybe not saying a huge amount) and some very engaging episodes of Chuck. Maybe not a Triple-A, top-tier roster of projects, but not awful either. And certainly not nothing, like these LotR guys.

It's an interesting problem caused by the "golden age of television", which has seen Hollywood television production more than double in the last five years. It's created shortages of writers, actors, directors (I believe three separate productions have been fighting over GoT's Miguel Sapochnik recently, for example), vfx crew and everyone else, and people are being put in charge of high-profile shows where twenty years ago they wouldn't have even been considered for them based on such resumes.

[fionwe1987]

3 hours ago, Werthead said:

The WoT guy doesn't have a massive resume, but he did write some of Agents of SHIELD's best episodes (maybe not saying a huge amount) and some very engaging episodes of Chuck. Maybe not a Triple-A, top-tier roster of projects, but not awful either. And certainly not nothing, like these LotR guys.

He is also a fan of the series, apparently, which should count for something. For all my issues with Brandon Sanderson taking over WoT, at least I can be confident he put in a good-faith effort, and his obvious enthusiasm played no small part in the fan community embracing the last three books.

It's an interesting problem caused by the "golden age of television", which has seen Hollywood television production more than double in the last five years. It's created shortages of writers, actors, directors (I believe three separate productions have been fighting over 

GoT's Miguel Sapochnik recently, for example), vfx crew and everyone else, and people are being put in charge of high-profile shows where twenty years ago they wouldn't have even been considered for them based on such resumes.

I can certainly see that, but why Amazon would have difficulty getting top tier talent for a billion dollar production of the most famous fantasy writing ever is beyond me.

Could it be that Amazon wants to incubate talent in-house that it can then direct to other shows. Maybe being complete unknowns, these guys might sign a contract to produce several shows, which a more established person would not?

[red snow]

5 hours ago, Summer Bass said:

When it says "develop", does that mean that they're actually the show-runners? It doesn't say. Maybe Amazon is still looking for a show-runner. 

It makes this all more interesting, at least. I was worried we might get an adaptation that would be competently made but completely forgettable. Now we're going to get something where they were under tremendous time constraints and possibly handled by people with no experience running a production of this complexity and size, and it will either be something special or something terrible. 

Or maybe not. Maybe Amazon hired these guys because they wanted someone they could control more easily. After all, this is getting made because Jeff Bezos wanted a cash cow Game of Thrones equivalent for his streaming service. 

Im tending to think like you in that "develop" is the key word. Their resumes suggest thats what they do with others acting as producers or show runners. I think the bigger guns are still being courted while these guys help create more of a hook in terms of figuring out a story/pitch. They are also probably good at taking top down orders.

Nothing suggests they know how to make or run a show but they might be able to story wise.

[Darth Richard II]

Ok wait, so who is Showrunning WoT.

[Corvinus85]

31 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

Ok wait, so who is Showrunning WoT.

This guy.

[Werthead]

2 hours ago, fionwe1987 said:

I can certainly see that, but why Amazon would have difficulty getting top tier talent for a billion dollar production of the most famous fantasy writing ever is beyond me.

Could it be that Amazon wants to incubate talent in-house that it can then direct to other shows. Maybe being complete unknowns, these guys might sign a contract to produce several shows, which a more established person would not?

I think a much bigger problem is that Amazon has a very tight time turn-around on the project. The project has to be in front of the cameras, shooting, by November 2019 or they lose the rights and they'll lose the $250 million they paid for the rights. They need to get moving ASAP. They need to have scripts in place before the end of this year, and pre-production and casting underway at the start of next year. There's probably plenty of talent who'd take a crack at this, but they're all locked in to other projects and shows.

Once exception was J. Michael Straczynski, who was available and apparently showed some interest, but Amazon decided to go in a different direction. Why you wouldn't go with the guy who has 35 years of showrunning and writing experience, has produced multiple shows (from Murder, She Wrote through Babylon 5 through Sense8), is a massive Tolkien fan (naming multiple characters and planets in B5 after it) and has good geek cred in favour of two unknowns is beyond me, although by his own admission JMS doesn't play studio political games very well.

 

 

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Ok wait, so who is Showrunning WoT.

 

 

Rafe Judkins, who has written for Agents of SHIELD, Hemlock Grove and Chuck. Slightly randomly, he also came third on a series of Survivor USA about ten years ago.

[Argonath Diver]

Their press release directly mentions Frodo. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the clearest direct info we have confirming that the series will be adaptations of the LotR novels, and not going to necessarily focus on Aragorn or other stories from Middle Earth.

I should re-read the novels this summer, maybe imagine which parts I feel they could improve on the movies, which still are just fantastic entertainment to me.

[Ran]

I think that's reading a lot into a simile. Per Deadline, the head of Amazon said in an interview:

 

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“I think you can know that we’re not remaking the movies, but we’re also not starting from scratch. So, it’ll be characters you love.”

 

[Darth Richard II]

I feel like Bezos made a deal with Satan and is trying to get out of it somehow.

[williamjm]

12 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

I feel like Bezos made a deal with Satan and is trying to get out of it somehow. 

Or possibly a deal with Sauron?

[Werthead]

1 hour ago, williamjm said:

Or possibly a deal with Sauron?

I think Morgoth is more the equivalent of Satan. Sauron is the equivalent of a lesser fallen angel like Beelzebub.