Amazon will shoot its Lord of the Rings show in New Zealand

Amazon Prime is making a very expensive Lord of the Rings show set during the Second Age of Middle-earth, back when elves were elves, men were Númenoreans, and Sauron was really getting into making jewelry.

News about the show has been sparse, but there have been a couple of actors cast, and we know a little about the creative team, which includes Game of Thrones scribe Bryan Cogman.

Hopefully, news about the project is about to pick up, because on Tuesday, Amazon Studios announced it would be filming the show in New Zealand, the same place where Peter Jackson filmed his Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movie trilogies. “[P]re-production has started, and production on the series will begin in Auckland in the coming months,” the studio said in a statement.

Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay also released a joint statement:

"As we searched for the location in which we could bring to life the primordial beauty of the Second Age of Middle-earth, we knew we needed to find somewhere majestic, with pristine coasts, forests, and mountains, that also is a home to world-class sets, studios, and highly skilled and experienced craftspeople and other staff. And we’re happy that we are now able to officially confirm New Zealand as our home for our series based on stories from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. We are grateful to the people and the government of New Zealand and especially Auckland for supporting us during this pre-production phase. The abundant measure of Kiwi hospitality with which they have welcomed us has already made us feel right at home, and we are looking forward to deepening our partnership in the years to come."

So we now know where the show is being filmed and that it is currently in the pre-production phase, with filming to begin in “the coming months.” Stay tuned.

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Also, fun sidebar: if you want an indication of how important the Lord of the Rings films have been to the area, there’s a giant statue of a dwarf in the Auckland airport:

And Gandalf’s face on a stamp on the side of a building in Wellington:

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND – NOVEMBER 28: A giant stamp mural of Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King hangs on the side of the New Zealand Post Building, Wellington, Friday 28th November, 2003 as part of the buildup to the world premiere of the Peter Jackson directed movie in Wellington, Monday the 1st December, 2003. (Photo by Ross Setford/Getty Images)

We daresay Amazon will fit right in.

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h/t TheWrap