Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentWhen Amazon announced in August 2021 that its billion-dollar “Lord of the Rings” TV series would shift production to England, fans were stunned.
Though J.R.R. Tolkien was British and though the settings are fictional, New Zealand and Middle-earth have become synonymous.That’s all due to native son Peter Jackson, whose “Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” premiered in December, 2001.On Aug.
31, 1998, before filming on the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy began, Variety reported that Jackson was convinced “New Zealand is particularly suitable for re-creating Middle-earth.
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