Choose Birmingham to film Lord of the Rings series, academic urges
A university academic has said filming on the Lord of the Rings TV series should take place in Birmingham.
It comes as Amazon Studios announced the £336 million production was moving from New Zealand to the UK.
Season one of the series, which is as yet unnamed, will finish filming in New Zealand before the production moves to the UK, where it is hoped another four seasons will be made.
The first season is set to air on Amazon Prime in September 2022.
Frank Mannion, producer, director and senior lecturer in film marketing and distribution, said: "Ever since Tom Cruise successfully lobbied the Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, in July 2020, to ensure an exemption for film and TV production to allow Mission Impossible and Jurassic World to continue filming in the UK and independent production to restart, the industry here has boomed, demonstrating its capacity for innovation, resilience and the highest standards of on-set Covid security.
"When coupled with the government-backed £500m film and TV production insurance scheme, as well as the 20 per cent productive rebate, the UK is the most attractive filming location in Europe.
"Birmingham now needs studio space to join the movie gold rush.
"Netflix has a 10-year exclusive contract with Shepperton, so Birmingham should initiate contacts with Amazon to find studio space for the TV series in Tolkien’s spiritual home, or at least work to highlight Tolkien connections with the city to take advantage of this development."
The series will be set thousands of years before the events in JRR Tolkein's books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien, who grew up in Birmingham, wrote books about his fantasy world set thousands of years before those titles, including The Silmarillion, which talks about the origins of the elves, men and dwarves, along with good and evil characters associated with the wider world.
