10 Movies You Didn't Know Were Becoming TV Shows

Amazon announced way back in 2017 that it bought the rights to (part of) J.R.R. Tolkien’s ring saga for a whopping $250 million. Needless to say this is going to be a massive undertaking with astronomical expectations given the LOTR trilogy is barely 20 years old and still fresh in our collective memory.

Since the initial announcement, a lot of the worry has been that Amazon was going to try and redo the ring trilogy, but we can all rest easy now that it’s become known that this is not what they are going to do whatsoever. In much the way The Mandalorian is able to tread softly between Star Wars trilogies, the Amazon Lord of the Rings series will stay very hands-off to the beloved films. How hands-off? Well how does 3,000 years sound? The series will take place during the Second Age of Middle Earth, well before the events of the films, which took place at the end of the Third Age.

Set to film in New Zealand just as both of the trilogies were, the series will be moving into production very soon. Game of Thrones actor Robert Aramayo was just announced as the lead and several other actors have been locked in. So far Peter Jackson, the director of all six films, will not be involved. After everything is said and done the total budget could be upwards of $1 billion, making it the most expensive TV show ever.

Expect the series to appear no earlier than 2021, but if it turns out to be a success, this could be a major game-changer for small screen productions as we know them.