Lord Of The Rings TV Show: Peter Jackson Could Be In The Mix, Report Says

Amazon's Lord of the Rings TV show is one of the biggest productions currently in the works across the entire landscape of television. Per the supposed terms of an agreement between Amazon and Lord of the Rings rights-holders, the show must enter production within two years, so Amazon is understandably eager to get things going.

Now, Lord of the Rings fansite The One Ring is reporting that Amazon is "actively" connecting with "established" writers, directors, and showrunners to hear pitches for the show. Intriguingly, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit director Peter Jackson is apparently on the list.

The One Ring didn't name any names outside of Jackson's, but it's exciting to think about being a fly on the wall at Amazon's offices as they hear pitches for the show. We know it's going to be a prequel set before the events of The Fellowship of the Ring. But nothing else is known at this stage. The universe that J.R.R. Tolkien created is rich and vast, with seemingly endless storytelling opportunities, so we're excited to learn more.

J. Michael Straczynski--who created or co-created the shows Babylon 5, Crusade, Jeremiah, and Sense8--says he would "give a lung" to work on Amazon's Lord of the Rings show. Straczynski, who wrote the Clint Eastwood-directed Changeling, is a huge Lord of the Rings fan--he wrote a term paper in college completely in Elvish.

Amazon is reportedly spending $1 billion to produce the Lord of the Rings TV show, so it is no small undertaking.

No new Lord of the Rings films have been announced, but movie about Tolkien's relationship with with his wife Edith Bratt and his time in World War I is in the pipeline. Another film will explore the author's relationship with Narnia writer C.S. Lewis and how he helped convert Lewis to Christianity. In other news, Universal might be working on a Lord of the Rings amusement park in Florida.