Yahoo Finance Boost for UK film industry as Amazon moves Lord of The Rings production from New Zealand
Amazon (AMZN) Studios will film the second season of its as yet unnamed Lord of the Rings TV show in the UK, as it looks to expand its production footprint in the country.
Amazon said in a statement it would shift production from New Zealand to the UK in a major coup for Britain's film industry. Amazon has just finished filming the first season in New Zealand, where the film trilogy was also shot. It located filming there after competitive bids from around the world.
Amazon rejected tens of millions of dollars in incentives to continue shooting the TV show in New Zealand, the Guardian reported. The paper said the estate of JRR Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings books, were keen for the series to be shot in the UK as it had inspired the original novels.
Amazon said the shift in location "aligns with the studio’s strategy of expanding its production footprint and investing in studio space across the UK, with many of Amazon Studios’ tentpole series and films already calling the UK home," including Good Omens and Sex Education.
UK culture secretary Oliver Dowden told the BBC "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."
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Amazon will get a 20% tax credit from the New Zealand government for the first season, but is giving up an another 5% it could have received if it had shot more episodes.
"As we look to relocate the production to the UK, we do not intend to actively pursue the season one MoU 5% financial uplift with the New Zealand government or preserve the terms around that agreement, however we respectfully defer to our partners and will remain in close consultation with them around next steps," said Albert Cheng, COO and co-head of TV, Amazon Studios.
New Zealand's economic development minister Stuart Nash said his government was "disappointed" by the move.
New Zealand's strict COVID policies could have made continuing to shoot there difficult. The country’s borders are closed until the end of the year and about half the cast is from the UK.
Season one of the Lord of the Rings TV series reportedly cost $465m ($337m) to make and is scheduled to premiere on Prime Video on 2 September, 2022. Four more seasons of the show are expected to be made.
The show starts off thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings books. The latter was named Britain’s best-loved novel of all time in BBC’s The Big Read in 2003.
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