by Thinus Ferreira
The first season of Amazon Prime Video's upcoming Lord of the Rings TV series filmed in New Zealand will cost an eye-watering NZ$488 million to produce, making it the most expensive TV series ever made.
New Zealand's Stuff magazine went to court under its Official Information Act to obtain the agreement that Amazon Studios signed with the New Zealand government.
The agreement reveals that Amazon will spend up to NZ$650 million (R6.68 billion) for the first year of the show, under which it will qualify for an overall 25% discount in the form of a film subsidy of $162 million.
In an interview on The Morning Report on Radio New Zealand, Stuart Nash, the country's economic development minister, said that Amazon's Lord of the Rings "is the most expensive television series ever filmed".
The $650 million - or $488 with the rebate - is just for the first year of production, with the series that is envisioned in the documents to run for five seasons or longer, and that could even lead to spinoff series.
Amazon recently officially ordered a second season and revealed that the first season of Lord of the Rings will have 8 episodes. The first season is set to debut on Amazon Prime Video later in 2021.
Stuff reports that New Zealand's treasure has now actually labelled the Amazon show as "a significant fiscal risk" since the government might end up paying millions back to Amazon Studios should the series run multiple seasons and with subsequent production cost increases happening as what is often the case with premium TV series like Game of Thrones and others.
J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay are the showrunners of the Lord of the Rings series that has a large ensemble cast with filming that is taking place at the Kumeu Film Studios and Auckland Film Studios.
The Lord of the Rings series is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, placing it thousands of years before the events in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings films.
The official description so far released by Amazon for the show, states that it will "brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth's history".
"This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads, and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien's pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness."
"Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth."
"From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone."
