Amazon has recently acquired the rights to produce a television epic set in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, and is said to blend aspects of both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
The online retail giant has offered a streaming services for quite some time now, but has been looking for ways to infiltrate the mainstream, as opposed to only producing critically-acclaimed fare. Their acquisition of this beloved trilogy will help elevate their productions to newer, more epic proportions. The series is set to cost around $1 billion to produce, spread out across five seasons, which would dethrone Netflix's The Crown as the most expensive televisual production of all time.
Amazon has worked out a deal with both New Line Cinemas and Warner Bros., the companies responsible for Peter Jackson's original box office smashes. This will effectively allow the company to borrow integral elements from the original cinematic franchise's world, while on a quest to narratively "explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring," alongside a potential spin-off series.
Peter Jackson's involvement in the series remains uncertain as of now; however, his attorney has described a potential deal as a "creature of the times," while admitting that Amazon is "taking a page out of the studios’ emphasis on franchises."
This could be the series to help catapult Amazon to the upper-echelons of streaming.