Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series will cost at least $465M for first season • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series will cost at least $465M for first season

#21

Post by runawaybottle » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 3:15 PM UTC

The budget for the first three movies in total was 281 million. They filmed on location and had pretty good CGI, minus a few scenes that would look better today.

Why are costs going up here? Tech is commoditized easily (ease of use and availability of talent), so I expect CG work to have gotten better and cheaper.

Re: Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series will cost at least $465M for first season

#22

Post by larusso » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 3:15 PM UTC

mehlmao wrote: post #9

kzrdude wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get the impression that LotR was a project Peter Jackson had a lot of passion for, and the Hobbit wasn't, really.

My understanding is that he directed the Hobbit movies after Guillermo del Toro was removed, and the studio wanted him to start filming immediately. Fellowship had tons of pre-production time, The Hobbit movies had virtually none.

Yes. When they started shooting Lord of the Rings they had already 3 years of preproduction done which means weapons and sets and buildings and all. The hobbit was a constant race against the clock. And they tried to make the goblins non CGI with animatronic heads. But it simply didn’t work and looked good enough. I still feel that the CGI heads in the end are also ugly but what gives.

Re: Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series will cost at least $465M for first season

#23

Post by SilasX » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 3:17 PM UTC

olivierestsage wrote: post #12

Although I suspect this will not be a popular comment, I hope the Amazon series will remain faithful to the Catholic/Christian sense that Tolkien deliberately infused into these novels. Peter Jackson did a notably good job with that, all things considered. To be clear, I don't think that you should have to be a Christian to like Lord of the Rings -- quite the contrary. But given the lack of compelling Christian art i…

Well, I have some bad news. It’s looking like they’re going to ape Game of Thrones, nudity and all.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/lor...

Re: Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series will cost at least $465M for first season

#24

Post by adflux » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 3:17 PM UTC

kzrdude wrote: post #6

rightbyte wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compare the Hobbit and Lotr movies. Simple things as having CGI orcs will mess up the feeling. It is not about money mainly.

I get the impression that LotR was a project Peter Jackson had a lot of passion for, and the Hobbit wasn't, really.

Peter Jackson got in ONLY at the last moment as Guillermo del Toro bailed out. He simply didn't have the time he had when he did the original trilogy. Preproduction alone took years for that.

Re: Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series will cost at least $465M for first season

#25

Post by candiddevmike » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 3:17 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #2

Curious if I'm the only one here who thinks that LotR is overrated. Let them spend the money on a better story.

If anyone has ever read the Malazan Book of the Fallen books, adapting that into a series would be incredible, though it would be a serious undertaking. My dream adaptation would be an animated version in the style of the Castlevania and DOTA shows on Netflix--I don't think live-action with CGI could do it justice.

Re: Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series will cost at least $465M for first season

#26

Post by Covzire » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 3:18 PM UTC

olivierestsage wrote: post #12

Although I suspect this will not be a popular comment, I hope the Amazon series will remain faithful to the Catholic/Christian sense that Tolkien deliberately infused into these novels. Peter Jackson did a notably good job with that, all things considered. To be clear, I don't think that you should have to be a Christian to like Lord of the Rings -- quite the contrary. But given the lack of compelling Christian art i…

I've read that Tolkien shunned allegory, but the books and movies do have strong undercurrents in my opinion at least in their overall plots though they're far less overt than your average CS Lewis work of fiction.

Re: Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series will cost at least $465M for first season

#27

Post by celebrimbor7 » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 3:19 PM UTC

olivierestsage wrote: post #12

Although I suspect this will not be a popular comment, I hope the Amazon series will remain faithful to the Catholic/Christian sense that Tolkien deliberately infused into these novels. Peter Jackson did a notably good job with that, all things considered. To be clear, I don't think that you should have to be a Christian to like Lord of the Rings -- quite the contrary. But given the lack of compelling Christian art i…

That's fair, although, if it could be said that Tolkien's book Lord of the Rings is a bit inspired by the heroism of Christ, the best analogy for the story of Numenor is it's the fall of man, Noah's Ark, and Atlantis combined, and it will inevitably be dark.

Re: Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series will cost at least $465M for first season

#28

Post by yuppie_scum » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 3:21 PM UTC

runawaybottle wrote: post #21

The budget for the first three movies in total was 281 million. They filmed on location and had pretty good CGI, minus a few scenes that would look better today. Why are costs going up here? Tech is commoditized easily (ease of use and availability of talent), so I expect CG work to have gotten better and cheaper.

There’s been a lot of inflation in the past 20 years.

Re: Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series will cost at least $465M for first season

#29

Post by assface » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 3:22 PM UTC

olivierestsage wrote: post #12

Although I suspect this will not be a popular comment, I hope the Amazon series will remain faithful to the Catholic/Christian sense that Tolkien deliberately infused into these novels. Peter Jackson did a notably good job with that, all things considered. To be clear, I don't think that you should have to be a Christian to like Lord of the Rings -- quite the contrary. But given the lack of compelling Christian art i…

> the lack of compelling Christian art in general the past 50 or 60 years

What about all those Mel Gibson movies that you guys have?

Re: Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series will cost at least $465M for first season

#30

Post by larusso » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 3:22 PM UTC

t-writescode wrote: post #16

Is this what we do now? Remake things that are still in the majority of our living memories? Have the original LOTR movies stopped holding up? Are we playing the long game and intending to have an Into The Smiegalverse?

My understanding was that they shoot a series about Aragorn or? The world of Middleearth spans multiple thousand years. Check out the Silmarillion which tells most of the creation story and more. The Story about the Ring which only spans about 80 years if you count the hobbit is a very small part of this world. There is a lot of untold parts that would be worth telling. I would like to see the story of Númenor and it’s aftermath up until the Ring gets lost.