Tag: Lord of The Rings

Posted on in Television News

‘Lord of The Rings’: Elvish Kingdom of Lindon & Moria Will Be Explored In Amazon Series – Will Celebrimbor Appear?

A synopsis for The Lord of The Rings series posted by fansite The One Ring and confirmed by IGN doesn’t give us any hard plot details but has now given us two key locations the expensive Amazon project will explore within the Second Age of Middle-Earth.

Amazon had already confirmed that they would covering the island Kingdom of Numenor (Middle-Earth’s Atlantis) that eventually returns to the water after the inhabitants attempt a rebellion against the Elves/immortals sparked by the evil Sauron in his fair-form, a disciple of the original Dark Lord Morgoth. Sauron embeds himself into the court after being captured and basically destroys Numenor from within leading to a Morgoth cult that included human sacrifices and turning the rulers/population against the Elves. The Numenoreans eventually made their way to the mainland and led the forces against Sauron at the end of The Second Age leading to the new Dark Lord losing the Ring of Power in defeat.

The two other locations for the show mentioned in the synopsis include the Elvish Kingdom of Lindon and Misty Mountains, the latter being where the Dwarf Kingdom of Khazad-dûm aka Moria that was explored in The Fellowship of The Ring and briefly shown in The Hobbit films. The Kingdom of Lindon was a place that was essentially abandoned by those Elves before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings trilogy that took place in The Third Age.

Lindon included the Noldor and Sindar. The Noldor is the group of Elves that Celebrimbor belonged to, the Elvish Prince who helped forge the Eleven Rings of Power for Sauron in the Second Age and was seen in the Shadow of Mordor video games.

Here is that synopsis.

Amazon Studios’ forthcoming series 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.

These words about the Misty Mountains teasing the Mines of Moria which would suggest we’ll see those Durin Dwarves in the series (ancestors of Dwarves we’ve seen before in the Peter Jackson films), Lindon apparently had Dwarves among their population as well.

Filming is underway in Auckland, New Zealand.

The show’s massive cast includes actors Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Daniel Weyman, Lenny Henry, Peter Mullan (Trainspotting, Children of Men), Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Benjamin Walker (Heart of The Sea, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Arrow, Power), Simon Merrells, Maxim Baldry, Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Geoff Morrell, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, and Sara Zwangobani.

SOURCE: THE ONE RING & IGN

Posted on in Television News

Bryan Cogman Developing Series Based On Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Yojimbo’ – Previously Worked On ‘Game of Thrones’ and Amazon’s ‘Lord of The Rings’

The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Bryan Cogman has landed an overall deal at Entertainment One (formerly at Amazon) and his first project will be a commentary series based on the iconic Akira Kurosawa masterpiece Yojimbo that starred legendary Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune.

The first project under the pact is a contemporary take on Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. 

YOJIMBO (1961) – A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master (Toshiro Mifune), enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon (Kamatari Fujiwara) and sake merchant Tokuemon (Takashi Shimura) to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.

The samurai film, like Seven Samurai, influenced multiple versions in the west most famously the Sergio Leone western A Fistful of Dollars (1964) that starred Clint Eastwood and there was also a lesser known gangster remake from Walter Hill with Last Man Standing (1996) starring Bruce Willis. It also has had some influence on more modern projects such as the Star Wars series The Mandalorian.

Cogman previously worked on HBO’s fantasy series Game of Thrones and the first season of Amazon’s expensive Lord of The Rings series. He also penned Disney’s live-action Stone In The Stone film.

FX is also attempting their own modern samurai series with a revival of Shogun based on the novel by James Clavell.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

‘Lord of The Rings’: Amazon Series Officially Adds 20 New Cast Members Including Benjamin Walker and Peter Mullan

Amazon Studios have announced today 20 brand new casting additions to their massive Lord of The Rings series which is currently shooting in Auckland, New Zealand. After a pause due to COVID-19 had resumed filming back in September.

Their massive announcement sees the additions of actors such as Lenny Henry, Peter Mullan (Trainspotting, Children of Men), Lloyd Owen, Augustus Prew, Peter Tait, Benjamin Walker (Heart of The Sea, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Arrow, Power), Simon Merrells, Maxim Baldry (finally confirmed by Amazon), Ian Blackburn, Kip Chapman, Anthony Crum, Maxine Cunliffe, Trystan Gravelle, Thusitha Jayasundera, Fabian McCallum, Geoff Morrell, Alex Tarrant, Leon Wadham, and Sara Zwangobani.

They join a cast that already consists of Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge, Morfydd Clark, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Joseph Mawle, Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomvete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, and Daniel Weyman.

Amazon has yet to give an official synopsis of the series other than it will be taking place during the Second Age and covering the ancient kingdom of Numenor that did not appear in the previous two trilogies.

However, we are hearing that the Amazon series will attempt to deviate from the Peter Jackson series by potentially ignoring the established look of Middle-Earth along with redesigning both familiar creatures and the population. There is also a much more diverse cast this time around which hints this will be different enough from the past two trilogies.

It’s looking like ILM and not Weta Digital will be handling the visual effects on the show. There sadly hasn’t been even confirmation that Weta Workshop is involved either given that they’re shooting in proximity of Weta makes this even more upsetting.

Also, the series set during the Second Age is said to cover Sauron’s perversion of the advanced kingdom of Numenor (essentially J.R.R. Tolkien’s Atlantis) leading to Morgoth (Middle-Earth’s version of Lucifer and the first Dark Lord) cults and a splintering of the forces of man in the island kingdom by fueling their hatred towards the elves because of their immortality. Sauron (a Maia just like the wizards) in a much more pleasing form allows himself to be captured and taken to Numenor corrupting the population from within stoking resentment against the Elves rather than being an unseen villainous force hiding in the shadows.

We’re expecting to see the creation of the rings of power and potentially the origins of the nine Nazgul/Ringwraiths that were once men tricked by Sauron to take rings of power turning them into his unnatural servants via dark magic. Three are supposedly Numenorean Lords including the Witch King of Angmar, who is their leader and had a significant role in The Return of The King. It’s also expected we’ll see the ultimate destruction of Numenor forcing surviving inhabitants to the mainland along with the eventual Last Alliance leading to the defeat of Sauron. The latter I wouldn’t expect to happen for a very long time.

I’ll be keen to see if they’ll also attempt to purse the eastern part of Middle-Earth as that could be an equally interesting part to explore as the two Blue Wizards (Alatar/Morinehtar aka Darkness Slayer and Pallando/Rómestámo aka East Helper) operated there during the Second and Third ages, but have only been briefly referenced in the past. One of the Nazgul, Khamûl The Easterling aka Shadow of The East, is said to be a former Easterling King. We only got a glimpse of the Easterling forces in The Lord of The Rings as they were mostly made up of mercenaries or those loyal to Sauron, who had a strong presence in East along with Morgoth in the First Age.

There are also rumblings of Amazon taking a much more mature tone which wouldn’t be shocking given that director John Boorman (Excalibur, Zardoz) had once attempted a live-action film based on Lord of The Rings in the 1970s that would have included sex and hard violence for the era likely would have landed an R-rating. The Second Age is described as extremely dark in comparison to the Third Age with men’s lust for wealth/power/immortality combined with what is essentially devil worshiping cults and human sacrifices.

The streaming service has yet to announce when episodes will begin dropping on Prime Video.

SOURCE: AMAZON STUDIOS

Posted on in Features

Will The Blue Wizards of The Second Age Appear In Amazon’s ‘Lord of The Rings’ Series?

Filming on the new Lord of The Rings series resumed at the end of September in Auckland, New Zealand with a cast that consists of Robert Aramayo, Markella Kavenagh, Morfydd Clark, Ema Horvath, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, and Joseph Mawle.

The new series writers will have to fill in many blanks and may be allowed to use certain characters that were around in during The Second Age but unlike the original novels and The Simarillion (they don’t have access to The First Age material) showrunners will have to piece together a Middle-Earth series based on small tidbits and scraps instead of full novels as blueprints.

One key thing we do know is that Numenor will be featured, an advanced island kingdom in the West that is the Middle-Earth version of Atlantis that is eventually corrupted by Mairon aka Sauron (in his more beautiful form) leading to it’s doom because of their jealously of the immortality of the Elves. Sauron at this point is the former second in-command of the original Dark Lord, Melkor aka Morgoth, who was banished to the void before the start of The Second Age.

After stoking distrust of the Elves, Sauron eventually convinces Numenor to invade the Undying Lands leading to their fleet of ships to be destroyed along with the kingdom of Numenor returning to the water, an obvious nod to the Atlantis myth.

Other notable events in The Second Age include the creation of the Rings of Power by Sauron and Celebrimbor. An elf Prince of The Noldor, Celebrimbor was the ruler Eregion and was killed by Sauron after hiding the lesser rings. We’ve seen a version of this character covered in The Shadow of Mordor and The Shadow of War video games that had Celebrimbor as a playable character in the form of a wraith looking for revenge against Sauron.

I’d personally love to see Celebrimbor explored in the series.

Towards the end we see the fall of Sauron at The War of The Last Alliance at the hands of Isildur that was shown in the opening sequence in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Rings. I think it’ll be interesting to see if they would be willing to show Sauron’s perspective during his rise to power as he’s been mostly an ominous figure in previous live-action adaptations.

Some of those tidbits from The Second Age that could also show up in the new series could possibly see two wizards that really have only been briefly mentioned in passing show up. The Blue Wizards, Alatar aka Morinehtar (Darkness Slayer) and Pallando aka Rómestámo (East Helper), were according to Tolkien important unseen players in both The Second and The Third Ages as they helped to stir up rebellions against Sauron in the dark East.

The pair could be excellent replacements for Gandalf, who won’t be part of the show.

There are convincing fan theories that the duo after falling to evil of Sauron at some time in the Third Age could have been the evil force in J.R.R. Tolkien’s sequel to The Lord of The Rings titled The New Shadow (13 pages) taking place in a never fully realized Fourth Age where the world of man has forgotten Sauron. This isn’t hard to imagine given that Sauron was also Maia (like the five wizards) before becoming a minion of Margoth and taking his place as the second Dark Lord. Fellow wizard Saruman was eventually turned by Sauron and attempted his own power grab becoming a main villain for a good chunk of the Lord of The Rings trilogy.

The Fourth Age could be worth exploring at Amazon once they’ve finished-up with The Second Age as it would allow them return to Middle-Earth and explore something never fully developed by J.R.R. Tolkien given that they don’t have access to The First Age. Although, I’m not sure if that will actually happen and the Tolkien Estate could have a change of heart.

Men of The White Mountains could play a role in the latter part of the series as they were worshipers of Sauron that promised to aid Isildur in The War of The Last Alliance. They were cursed by Isildur after breaking their oath leading to them becoming the Army of The Dead aka Oathbreakers that were only released after helping Aragorn during The War of The Ring.

I’ve been hearing that Amazon will be deviating from the Peter Jackson films visually and we could be seeing different takes of characters/creatures we’ve previously seen in the six films. I’ll be very curious to see those changes and if fans will be all-in given for their love for what Peter Jackson accomplished.

We already know from Hugo Weaving that he’s not interested in reprising the Elrond role anytime soon, which would further suggest that we might not see any actors from the films who played elves return to their roles in the Amazon series despite those characters being around in The Second Age. Adding to the talk that the series won’t be as connected to the Peter Jackson films as originally thought and becoming it’s own take on Middle-Earth.

Posted on in Television News

Amazon’s ‘Lord of The Rings’ Series Has Just Resumed Filming In New Zealand – ‘Cowboy Bebop’ Begins Filming On Wednesday

Deadline has word that the New Zealand production of Amazon’s Lord of The Rings series has resumed and Netflix’s live-action Cowboy Bebop heading towards a start on September 30th, both series had been shooting in Auckland.

Filming has just resumed in New Zealand on Amazon’s sprawling The Lord Of The Rings TV series, an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels, I have learned. Production on Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop is slated to restart on Wednesday, Sept. 30, in the island country where Netflix’s Sweet Tooth has been shooting since Sept. 14, sources said. The three shows were among handful of Hollywood TV series and movies that were granted border exemptions by the New Zealand government in July to film in the country.

The Lord of The Rings series will take place during The Second Age of Middle-Earth, which means this will be thousands of years before the events of two feature film trilogies that took place in The Third Age. It’s cast includes Robert Aramayo, Markella Kavenagh, Morfydd Clark, Ema Horvath, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Maxim Baldry, Nazanin Boniadi, and Joseph Mawle.

The Second Age sees the rise of Sauron, who has replaced Melkor aka Morgoth as the new Dark Lord after Morgoth is banished to the void. During this time Sauron creates the rings of power and uses them to destroy multiple ancient kingdoms leading to the battle scene in the prologue sequence from Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring.

It’ll be interesting to see if we’ll end up seeing fair-faced version of Sauron and the origin of The Witch King, who might have been a Numenorean king of the ancient island kingdom. A key location that is going to be explored in the series.

Sadly, Amazon is tackling The Second Age because they don’t have access to The First Age, which is mostly covered in The Silmarillion and the History of Middle-Earth. This could lead to Amazon having to come up with a lot of that mythology on their own and filling blanks with the help of the Tolkien Estate. This series will likely be familiar to fans but will also likely be it’s own thing.

We are hearing they’ll be adding many familiar Middle-Earth creatures but remains to be seen if they’ll attempt to make the production design match the Peter Jackson films.

Deadline adding that writers have used the production pause to start writing Season 2 (previously confirmed) scripts which isn’t shocking it’s being planned as getting five seasons.

The writing team of the series, led by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, used the time to map out and write Season 2 scripts.

Netflix had begun shooting the live-action Cowboy Bebop last fall and after a knee injury suffered by lead actor John Cho led to a hiatus in Auckland before the COVID-19 impacted global production. Resuming this week sounds is the first step for them to finally get this completed after a year of hiccups.

COWBOY BEOP – Based on the worldwide phenomenon from Sunrise Inc., Cowboy Bebop is the jazz-inspired, genre-bending story of Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine and Radical Ed: a rag-tag crew of bounty hunters on the run from their pasts as they hunt down the solar system’s most dangerous criminals. They’ll even save the world…for the right price.

This news comes after James Cameron recently confirmed to Arnold Schwarzenegger that they’ve completed live-action filming on Avatar 2 and is 95% completed on Avatar 3. Those two massive sequels had been shooting at Stone Street Studios in Wellington, New Zealand.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

Hugo Weaving Has Zero Interest In Joining Amazon’s ‘Lord of The Rings’ Series

It was recently revealed by Aussie actor Hugo Weaving that he was keen on returning to the Agent Smith role for Lana Wachowski’s Matrix 4, but the director ultimately decided against it. 

However, when it comes to being asked to reprise the role of Elrond in future Middle-Earth projects such as Amazon’s Lord of The Rings series set in during the Second Age, he has no interest according to comments made to Variety. 

WEAVING: “Matrix might have happened. But Lord of the Rings, no, I would never — I’m not interested in that at all. Look, I loved being in New Zealand with all those great people, and it was like going back to a family but actually, to be honest, I think everyone had more than enough of it.”

“They have to be something really interesting, with a different twist to make me really keen to do it.”

“I’m not saying ‘no’ [to those kinds of tentpole films] because I’m sort of open to anything,” he says. “But I suppose my interests have always lay with this country and trying to find really interesting projects out here. That’s my primary focus.”

His experience working on the Hobbit films and their outcome might have something to do with his stance. 

There had been some unconfirmed fan rumblings of his character returning for the Amazon series, but Hugo won’t be involved. 

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Television News

Amazon’s ‘Lord of The Rings’ Series Might Resume Production In New Zealand Next Month

New Zealand’s Star News says that fellow Kiwi outlet, The New Zealand Herald, is reporting from an “insider” that production on Amazon’s billion-dollar Lord of The Rings series is expected to resume shooting next month. Filming had paused in mid-March due concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amazon’s giant Lord of the Rings shoot is set to resume in West Auckland next month, an insider earlier told the Herald.

The original story is behind a paywall.

It’s certainly believable they could begin next month as last week 20th Century Studios/Disney resumed filming on James Cameron’s Avatar sequels at Wellington’s Stone Street Studios. New Zealand is also in a better position to resume film and television productions than places like the United States. As America is still dealing with a prolonged first wave of coronavirus with staggering amounts of new cases popping up in various states like Texas.

Production on the Lord of The Rings series is expected to take place in Auckland.

It’s cast is said to include Robert Aramayo (Game of Thrones), Morfydd Clark, Ema Horvath, Joseph Mawle, Markella Kavenagh, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Tom Budge, Ismael Cruz Cordova (The Mandalorian), Tyroe Muhafidin, Sophia Nomevete, Megan Richards, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, and Daniel Weyman. 

The new series is confirmed to take place during the Second Age of Middle-Earth which likely means the show could potentially follow the rise and fall of franchise baddie, Sauron. The Second Age is set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings trilogy.

We’ll have to wait for official word from the show’s Twitter account that would likely be the place that an announcement is going to be made by Amazon about filming resuming.

SOURCE: THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD