JD Payne taps from foot to foot, hands shaking. He looks around as if he has no idea how he got here – and in a way he does: the young man has never been responsible for a series in his life. He sold a couple of scripts that never came to fruition. Now he’s standing in theater 12 of the legendary Culver Studios in Los Angeles, together with his partner Patrick McKay, who seems just a little less excited, and as showrunner he’s presenting the most expensive series in history: “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power “.
“We ask ourselves every day how that could have happened,” Payne says, and now when you see him in the burgundy suit stumbling around like a little boy who has stolen the key to the candy store and is afraid of being caught, you can imagine how great the pressure must be. Millions of die-hard fans will see this prequel set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The expectations could hardly be greater. How does that feel? “It’s completely insane,” says Payne. Actually, you can only screw up something like that, just as no screenwriter and no director in the world can create a Star Wars film that all fans would be satisfied with.
Amazon paid 250 million dollars for the rights to the book “The Lord of the Rings. Appendices and Registers”, in which JRR Tolkien explains the history of Middle-earth; and then the company invested at least another 750 million dollars to make a series out of the material, from September 2nd the eight one-hour episodes of the first season can be seen on the streaming platform Prime Video. Four more seasons are to follow.
That’s quite a lot of money that Amazon has entrusted two such young screenwriters who have had absolutely nothing to show for their careers to date.
They are aware of the risk, says Payne
Amazon Studios boss Jennifer Salke apparently convinced the two of their ideas with a lot of physical effort four years ago at a presentation of their concept. “We’re like Tasmanian devils at presentations like this. We’re jumping around, we’re yelling, ‘And then there’s a dragon and it goes: kawuff, kaboom, kawall!'” Payne says. Jennifer Salke didn’t make a face during the lecture, but in the end “the corners of her mouth went up a little”. “We are aware of the risk Amazon took in entrusting us with the project.”
For Los Angeles, the “Lord of the Rings” premiere is also a return to normality. There hasn’t been such a bombastic opening ceremony on Hollywood Boulevard for a long time because of the corona pandemic. The red carpet takes on the characteristics of a marathon. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is there, Tolkien’s grandson and estate executor Simon Tolkien, actor Michael B. Jordan, who doesn’t play at all himself, but describes himself as the world’s biggest Middle-earth fan – they all want to check what Payne and McKay are doing now with the billion from Amazon, with the prologue by JRR Tolkien, with the expectations of the fans.
The first two episodes of the series will be shown in several halls at the same time, after which it’s off to the party in the garden, where the organizers probably want to emphasize the return to decadent normality again. In a light drone show, the most spectacular moments of the episodes previously shown on the screen are re-enacted in the sky. Yes, Amazon seems to be very sure that they have created something bombastic with the series.
Sophia Nomvete plays the role of Princess Disa in the series.
(Photo: Jordan Strauss/AP)
A few actors also mingle with the people. Sophia Nomvete, who plays Princess Disa, wants to know how the guests liked the episodes. No spoilers here, but a look at the faces of Payne and McKay. At the end of the evening they are standing on the lawn of the Culver Studios, looking tired, but also happy. But above all: relieved.