Following its purchase last November of global TV rights for J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Amazon is planning some alterations in the beloved tale of Middle-earth. What some at Amazon Studios are calling "the new story orc" aims for a less "heroes vs. bad guys approach," one executive said. "Tolkien's treatment takes a traditional, legacy view: creatures are essentially either good or the other thing. A few 'good' characters have crises but recover. On the other hand, several--Gollum/Sméagol, who we may rename Donald, and Saruman--go over to the so-called darkness. That's considered a very big negative and in version 1.0, it's always the fault of a small household-friendly round object, almost but not quite as powerful and magical as the Amazon Echo."
Suggestions to add a bit of evil to the hobbits--perhaps Samwise Gamgee takes the ring from Frodo forever--have been rejected for now because Amazon fears damaging the franchise. Thus, the first season, which will be called LoRings, will concentrate on portraying familiar "bad guys" in a brighter light.
"We're envisioning a more forward-looking world," the Amazon exec said. "For example, Sauron will be a multi-faceted character with an intriguing, sympathetic back story. Instead of a simplistic, evil creature, he's more of a friendly disrupter of civilization." Insiders say the new, more benevolent Sauron will, in contrast to Tolkien's version, have a bodily form: he will be a 50ish, bald, almost childlike creature with large, all-seeing eyes, big ears and a hyena-like laugh. --John Mutter
