An Aragorn show and a Shakespearean take
Prime Video
One of the big points THR emphasizes in its article is that Payne and McKay were easily underdogs when it came to pitching their idea for a “Lord of the Rings” TV show. It’s not that they lacked experience, having written an early script draft for what would later become “Star Trek Beyond” and worked on the “Flash Gordon” reboot that Taika Waititi is currently attached to direct. But with no official credits to their name, they were, as McKay told the outlet, “the dark horse candidates” going up against people who “on paper would be more suited to the gig.”
Among their competitors were the Russo Brothers, who wanted to make a show that returned to Middle-earth’s Third Age — the era covered in “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” — but centered on Aragorn. (Not to drag them more than they deserve, but that certainly sounds like the sort of vanilla pitch we’ve grown accustomed to from the “Avengers: Endgame” directors.) Among the other strong contenders was Anthony McCarten, who had what THR describes as being a “Shakespearean take.” It’s a somewhat vague but intriguing description on its own, if less so when you recall McCarten is one of the writers behind the modern cottage industry of hackneyed biopics like “Bohemian Rhapsody.” In the end, it was the least well-known people in the room who landed the job of bringing Middle-earth back to our screens. Judging by the passionate responses to “The Rings of Power,” be they the disdainful bad faith reactions from toxic fans or the ardent defenses of the show’s bigger swings (yes, I’m Team Galadriel), it seems they may’ve been the right choice after all.
New episodes of “The Rings of Power” premiere on Fridays on Prime Video.
The Alternate Lord Of The Rings TV Shows That HBO, Netflix, And The Russo Brothers Wanted To Make
Prime Video
To Marvel or to remake?
Sure, Jan.
Okay, in all fairness, there’s more truth to that than you might think. The Tolkien estate was notoriously unhappy with the liberties Jackson took when adapting “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit,” so much so it required a lot more than money to win them over (not least of all with every major streamer in town trying to out-bid one another anyway). THR’s sources describe Netflix’s vision as “the Marvel approach,” with pitches for solo series centered on Gandalf the Grey and Aragorn. Based on their reaction to Jackson’s spectacle-driven take on Tolkien’s books, which devote a whole lot more pages to characters walking and singing songs than fighting, it’s no wonder “that completely freaked out the estate,” as one THR insider put it.
At the same time, the Tolkien estate had little to no interest in retreading Jackson’s steps. Hence, HBO failed to gain much traction after pitching them a series that would, in essence, re-imagine the events of Jackson’s films and their portrayal of Middle-earth.
An Aragorn show and a Shakespearean take
One of the big points THR emphasizes in its article is that Payne and McKay were easily underdogs when it came to pitching their idea for a “Lord of the Rings” TV show. It’s not that they lacked experience, having written an early script draft for what would later become “Star Trek Beyond” and worked on the “Flash Gordon” reboot that Taika Waititi is currently attached to direct. But with no official credits to their name, they were, as McKay told the outlet, “the dark horse candidates” going up against people who “on paper would be more suited to the gig.”
Among their competitors were the Russo Brothers, who wanted to make a show that returned to Middle-earth’s Third Age — the era covered in “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” — but centered on Aragorn. (Not to drag them more than they deserve, but that certainly sounds like the sort of vanilla pitch we’ve grown accustomed to from the “Avengers: Endgame” directors.) Among the other strong contenders was Anthony McCarten, who had what THR describes as being a “Shakespearean take.” It’s a somewhat vague but intriguing description on its own, if less so when you recall McCarten is one of the writers behind the modern cottage industry of hackneyed biopics like “Bohemian Rhapsody.” In the end, it was the least well-known people in the room who landed the job of bringing Middle-earth back to our screens. Judging by the passionate responses to “The Rings of Power,” be they the disdainful bad faith reactions from toxic fans or the ardent defenses of the show’s bigger swings (yes, I’m Team Galadriel), it seems they may’ve been the right choice after all.
New episodes of “The Rings of Power” premiere on Fridays on Prime Video.
Among their competitors were the Russo Brothers, who wanted to make a show that returned to Middle-earth’s Third Age — the era covered in “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” — but centered on Aragorn. (Not to drag them more than they deserve, but that certainly sounds like the sort of vanilla pitch we’ve grown accustomed to from the “Avengers: Endgame” directors.) Among the other strong contenders was Anthony McCarten, who had what THR describes as being a “Shakespearean take.” It’s a somewhat vague but intriguing description on its own, if less so when you recall McCarten is one of the writers behind the modern cottage industry of hackneyed biopics like “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
In the end, it was the least well-known people in the room who landed the job of bringing Middle-earth back to our screens. Judging by the passionate responses to “The Rings of Power,” be they the disdainful bad faith reactions from toxic fans or the ardent defenses of the show’s bigger swings (yes, I’m Team Galadriel), it seems they may’ve been the right choice after all.
New episodes of “The Rings of Power” premiere on Fridays on Prime Video.
