Sir Peter Jackson will return to Middle-earth ONE LAST TIME!
In an exclusive interview with Middle-earth News, Kiwi director Sir Peter Jackson revealed that he will be returning to Middle-earth as early as 2016 as production begins on Tolkien’s timeless epic, The Silmarillion. HBO has secured the rights to the book, and plans a big budget series in the vein of Game of Thrones.
Many fans have clamored for the director to take on Tolkien’s great history of the creation of Arda and First Age of Middle-earth, but Jackson had quashed their hopes earlier this year by pointing out that the rights for The Silmarillion were not available. Little did fans know that Sir Peter’s denials were a smokescreen for top-secret negotiations between HBO and the Tolkien Estate.
Jackson told Middle-earth News that he and his screenwriting team of Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh have been signed for the planned 10-season television series. Assuming the usual 10-episode season length for HBO drama series, that’s 100 hours to tell the complex tales of The Silmarillion! Sir Peter expressed doubt that will be enough time to do justice to the work, hinting that HBO may also seek the rights for the material contained in the 12-volume The History of Middle-earth, so that stories of The Silmarillion can be fleshed out a bit more. Jackson reported that they were considering asking George R. R. Martin to serve as a special consultant on the show, since he is an expert on killing characters, and there is even more death in The Silmarillion than there is in Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.
‘The Silmarillion’ will provide a stage for even more epic battles than those seen in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’ trilogies. Photo credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
The series is in the earliest stages of development, but Jackson shared a few tidbits about what fans can look forward to. “We’re really excited to be able to tell the full tale of the Were-worms of the Last Desert. They’ll have an entire episode! And I expect that the Dagor Nírnaeth Arnoediad [“Battle of Unnumbered Tears,” the climactic battle in which Morgoth utterly defeated the Elves and the Edain] will take 3-4 episodes. At least”
The director had no comment about the air date or potential casting for the series, but he said with a wink, “Oh, I think you’ll be seeing lots of familiar faces in the cast. Well, familiar names at least, because their faces will be covered in prosthetics.”
Keep your eyes on Middle-earth News for more news on this exciting project!
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