Filming on Season 2 of Amazon’s Lord of The Rings series has officially moving from New Zealand to United Kingdom. Amazon Studios claims that it’s part of their commitment to expand their footprint in the United Kingdom, but failed to mention what facility they’ll be using as the homestead stage location.
Below is the official press release:
Amazon Studios announced today that its untitled The Lord of the Rings original series will film Season Two in the United Kingdom (U.K.). The shift from New Zealand to the U.K. aligns with the studio’s strategy of expanding its production footprint and investing in studio space across the U.K., with many of Amazon Studios’ tentpole series and films already calling the U.K. home.
The highly anticipated The Lord of the Rings series recently wrapped principal photography on Season One in New Zealand and is scheduled to premiere on Prime Video in more than 240 countries around the world on Friday, September 2, 2022.
Season One post production will continue in New Zealand through June 2022, and pre-production on Season Two will begin concurrently in the U.K. after the first of the year.
This should be hugely disappointing to fans hoping that Amazon would keep the series in New Zealand for all five seasons.
The new epic drama brings to screens for the very first time J.R.R. Tolkien’s fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. Beginning in a time of relative peace, thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, 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.
The series is led by showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay. They are joined by executive producers Lindsey Weber, Callum Greene, J.A. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Justin Doble, Jason Cahill, Gennifer Hutchison, Bruce Richmond, and Sharon Tal Yguado. Wayne Che Yip is co-executive producer and directs along with J.A. Bayona and Charlotte Brändström. Christopher Newman is a producer and Ron Ames is a co-producer.
A new Evil Dead movie, titled Evil Dead Rise, is coming from New Line Cinema with franchise stewards Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell attached to produce. The horror project is heading to WarnerMedia’s streaming service HBO Max from Lee Cronin, who will write and direct.
We finally know the first two actors that have joined the cast of Evil Dead Rise, as The Hollywood Reporter mentions that Australian actresses Alyssa Sutherland (Vikings, The Mist) and Lily Sullivan (Jungle) will play sisters in the horror film. Traditionally, the films focus on murderous demons called Deadites that jump into the bodies of human hosts possessing them after being unleashed by reading from the Necronomicon aka Book of The Dead.
The new film’s synopsis mentioned in the report reveals the setting will move from the cabin in the woods to the city and takes place in a high-rise skyscraper.
Evil Dead Rise takes the undead action away from the cabin in the woods and into the city as two estranged sisters’ reunion is cut short when flesh-possessing demons thrust them into a battle for survival.
Filming on Evil Dead Rise is said to begin sometime next month in New Zealand with previous crew members from Ash vs. The Evil Dead joining the production team including production designer Nick Bassett (Sweet Tooth, Guns Akimbo, Kung Fury 2) and stunt coordinator Stuart Thorp (Zero Dark Thirty, Avatar). Stuart recently worked on James Cameron’s Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 while they were shooting at Stone Street Studios in Wellington.
The Evil Dead franchise has led to three movies, a reboot film, and even a television series that brought back Bruce Campbell’s iconic Deadite slayer Ash. It also helped filmmaker Sam Raimi make an impact before tackling bigger movies down the line like the original Spider-Man trilogy for Sony Pictures.
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.
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.
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.
Today, it was officially announced via Variety that Weta Digital will be expanding it’s operations with a new animation division called Weta Animated. Peter Jackson’s company based in New Zealand has been one of the leading forces in digital visual effects along industry peers such as Industrial Light & Magic.
They’ve hired Prem Akkaraju to lead Weta Animated as the company’s chief executive officer.
Weta Digital got it’s start with Jackson’s 1994 film Heavenly Creatures. They’ve been working on various films since which includes projects such as The Lord of The Rings trilogy, King Kong, The Hobbit trilogy, Avatar, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Alita: Battle Angel, District 9, Mulan, and Black Widow.
It’s also been revealed that owners Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will write, produce, and direct many animated projects for newly formed company. However, details weren’t mentioned on what those projects could be.
I’m curious if they’ll attempt to use Weta Animated to make the Tintin sequels.
Yesterday, producer Jon Landau announced via his Instagram account (has oddly removed all his previous tweets) that the Avatar sequels have now resumed the live-action portion of the filming in Wellington, New Zealand.
Production is taking place at the Stone Street Studios facility.
Jon posted this image from the set.
LANDAU: “Used my iPhone to snap a picture of our first shot back in production on the Avatar sequels.”
This comes after their 14-day mandatory isolation as per government regulations.
The Avatar sequels are seemingly the first major productions to resume after the pandemic first broke out, worth noting that New Zealand has only had two new cases of COVID-19 over the last 24 days. The remote island nation is certainly in much better position to resume filming than the United States or even the United Kingdom.
It’s unknown if the production delays from back in March will directly impact the release date of December 17th, 2021.
THE RONIN 