Peter Jackson Says Amazon Ghosted Him Over 'The Rings Of Power'

TV & Film

Aug 9

Peter Jackson, the Oscar-winning director and writer of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, recently revealed that Amazon ghosted him over the upcoming The Lord of The Rings : The Rings of Power series after the studio had asked him to take part in the project. However, it seems that the situation is far more complicated than it looks.

Speaking to Kim Masters from The Hollywood Reporter on The Business podcast, Jackson recalled how Amazon Studios cut off communications after they asked writer-producer Fran Walsh and him to be involved in the production of the Rings of Power series: “About four, five years ago, they asked if I would be interested in it. So I said, ‘Have you got the scripts yet?’ Because I know how hard the scripts were to write for the films, and I didn’t know the people writing their scripts. They said, ‘Oh no, we haven’t got the scripts yet, but as soon as we do, we’ll send you the scripts.’ So I was waiting for the scripts to arrive, and they never did.”

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In reality, Jackson’s story is rather incomplete and needs further explanation for the situation was far more complicated than it seemed. Firstly, due to legal concerns, there was a need for the studio to separate the TV show from the movies which are owned by Warner Brothers. As a response to Jackson’s comments, Amazon stated the following: “In pursuing the rights for our show, we were obligated to keep the series distinct and separate from the films. We have the utmost respect for Peter Jackson and The Lord of The Rings films and are thrilled that he is looking forward to watching The Rings of Power.” Added to this, due to creative reasons, the author J.R.R Tolkien’s estate, to which Amazon paid 250$ million for the rights to make the show, did not want Jackson to be involved in the project. For Christopher Tolkien, the movies were considered to be dishonouring the “beauty and seriousness” of the source material.

Despite all of that, Jackson entertains no resentment towards Amazon nor the showrunners of the upcoming series and intends to watch the show. “I’ll be watching it, I’m not the sort of guy who wishes ill will. Filmmaking is hard enough. If anybody makes a good film or TV show, it’s something to celebrate. The one thing I am looking forward to is actually seeing it as a perfectly neutral viewer.”