Amazon’s Lord of the Rings moves show to UK from New Zealand

Lord of the Rings will be filmed in the UK, could Boris be in with a shot to play Gollum?

Amazon Studios have confirmed that their upcoming Lord of the Rings (LOTR) show will move production from New Zealand to the UK. Despite the original franchise having been filmed in New Zealand, Amazon is expected to move production to the UK following the conclusion of season one filming. [caption id="attachment_284630" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Via Amazon Studios[/caption] UK culture secretary Oliver Dowden welcomed the decision, saying: "Thousands of high quality jobs all across the UK will be created and supported by The Lord of the Rings television series so this is very exciting news." Amazon Studios have already spent $465m (£336.5m) on the first season of the show, the BBC reports. The first season will be released on Amazon Prime in September 2022, which will be the first major LOTR instalment since the original franchise concluded in 2003, and The Hobbit trilogy finished in 2014. In April, New Zealand granted Amazon Studios extra subsidiaries on its production, having initially been awarded a 20 per cent rebate. After negotiations, a further 5 per cent was added. New Zealand's economic development minister Stuart Nash said the government was "disappointed" by the decision. Nash had previously said that the show's production in New Zealand created "local jobs and creates work for local businesses" and would "enable a new wave of international tourism branding and promotion for this country". Nash has now said that the market is "incredibly competitive and highly mobile" and "We have no regrets about giving this production our best shot with government support." The show will reportedly be set in the "Second Age" of Middle-earth which precedes the original franchise by several thousand years. "Beginning in a time of relative peace, thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth," reads the official release statement. This is also great news for the Conservative party, who will need minimal training to play legions of orcs!

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