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Entertainment Hollywood

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos attends premiere for $1b ‘Lord of the Rings’ prequel

Highly anticipated series is said to be a personal obsession of multi-billionaire Bezos



Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder & Executive Chair, and Laura Sánchez attend the Los Angeles Premiere of Amazon Prime Video's "The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power" at The Culver Studios on August 15, 2022 in Culver City, California.
Image Credit: AFP

It has been dubbed the most expensive show ever made, but producers of Amazon’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” described its $1 billion price tag as a “bargain” at a lavish world premiere in Los Angeles Monday.

The highly anticipated TV series, launching September 2 on Amazon’s streaming platform, is said to be a personal obsession of Jeff Bezos, multi-billionaire founder of the online shopping giant-turned-streamer.

Set in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books, thousands of years before the Oscar-winning “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy, the series is set to unfold over five, sprawling seasons, each of 10 episodes.

Bezos joined the show’s stars and filmmakers for a launch event at California’s Culver Studios on Monday night, where the first two episodes were screened before a spectacular light show featuring dozens of illuminated drones.

Executive producer Lindsey Weber said the show’s $1 billion cost was “a very grabby headline people like to talk about,” but promised that viewers would “see the money is really on the screen.”

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Speaking to AFP on the red carpet, Weber said the eye-watering cost came from “setting up for five seasons.”

“If you look at what it cost to make a feature tentpole film, by that comparison, really we’re quite a bargain,” she added, using a term for mega-budget blockbusters released by Hollywood’s top studios.

“The Rings of Power” is set 4,000 years before the film trilogy and original books, in a fictional “Second Age” — a historical period sketched out in less detail by Tolkien’s writings.

The show features a large ensemble cast of actors who are not widely known to global audiences.

Morfydd Clark and Robert Aramayo play younger versions of elves Galadriel and Elrond — characters already familiar to fans of the “Lord of the Rings” films.

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“It’s an epic adventure story, with universal themes, and a real labour of love — we’ve all worked very very hard on it, and I just hope people enjoy it,” said Aramayo at Monday’s premiere.

“They built a city, with a dock and ships floating in it — it’s mind-blowing and really, really incredible to get to play on some of these sets.”

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