Elijah Wood Weighs in on the Crazy Amount of Money Being Spent on the New LOTR Series
In a recent interview with IndieWire, Elijah Wood weighed in on the exciting new Lord of the Rings series that is headed to Amazon in the next couple of years, particularly the $1 billion being spent to make it.
“That’s crazy to me. That wouldn’t have happened back then because the Tolkien estate didn’t know what they had as much as they do now. It’s all a product of the world they live in. They know now what they have, they know how lucrative it is.”
That makes a lot of sense. When the first LOTR movie came out in 2001, I’m sure the studio knew there would be a fanbase, but that trilogy became so incredibly lucrative and epic and beautifully done, that now whomever has the rights knows what they are dealing with. Wood went on to comment how it felt while making the trilogy:
“The thing that was wild about Lord of the Rings was that it felt like an independent movie, made by New Line [Cinema] in New Zealand. It was kind of tucked away. If that movie was made now, it would be under very different circumstances, and a much larger machine. That doesn’t mean it can’t have soul. It’s just harder to do that.
"Certainly some of the Marvel movies do have a soul. But I don’t know. Franchises are tough. It’s hard to make eye candy that makes a lot of money that’s also artistically satisfying.”
And although Wood isn’t involved with this iteration of the story, he still feels invested, and said:
“We have no idea what this is going to be like, and it could be great. Maybe they’ll go to New Zealand and shoot a bit there for visual continuity. Who knows? Lord of the Rings just felt like a movie made by this small cottage industry out of New Zealand that had never made anything on that scale before. It’s a completely untested thing. But I’ll be watching. I’m curious.”
Elijah Wood will always be inextricably tied to the Lord of the Rings stories for fans, so it’s cool that he is still a fan himself. We are still a ways off from knowing anything about the series, as they have only just found the place that they will be shooting, but it’s fun to think about, and I’m sure it will probably be great! Are you excited for the series?