Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings television series is expected to start filming in New Zealand soon.
The upcoming show, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels, has already started preproduction in the country that was also home to the feature films. Production in Auckland is expected to begin in the coming months.
“As we searched for the location in which we could bring to life the primordial beauty of the Second Age of Middle-earth, we knew we needed to find somewhere majestic, with pristine coasts, forests, and mountains, that also is a home to world-class sets, studios and highly skilled and experienced craftspeople and other staff,” showrunners and executive producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay said Tuesday in a statement.
“We’re happy that we are now able to officially confirm New Zealand as our home for our series based on stories from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.” The TV adaptation will explore new storylines preceding Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring.
The theatrical adaptations, directed by Peter Jackson, earned a combined gross of nearly $6 billion worldwide and received 17 Academy Awards in total.