Amazon may be on the way to New Zealand, as Government signs subsidy deal

of these big deals - especially Tourism NZ's and MBIE's focus on keeping the Middle-earth locations in New Zealand.

If nothing else, people in the local film industry will have the chance to build their experience and make connections for future career growth.
 
I think New Zealand is more than capable of standing-in for Middle Earth. But there's nothing wrong with augmenting it slightly with plates shot elsewhere.

Even in The Fellowship of the Ring, Rauros is (in different shots) taken fron NZ, from an undisclosed waterfall in Peru and from Niagra falls.

If at any point they want to show us Harad, for instance, all they need do is hop across the Tasmanian Sea.
 
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I expect we'll see more benefits for the company coughed up by the NZ Government as the series continues, to ensure filming stays here. It's clear from the article that the Government's keen to not lose that marketing edge.

BTW, you had me confused about why Amazon would want to film in Tasmania, but then I realised you weren't talking about the Bass Strait (between mainland Oz and Tasmania) but the Tasman Sea.
 
Its clearly a bargaining tool, but it also makes sense in general. The vistas can only benefit from being sprinkled with shots from elsewhere: the deserts of Australia, the jungles of Solomon Island, the Glaciers of Iceland, the Prairies of Canada - you could get a lot more variety that way.

It doesn't have to be "100% New Zealand" - it can be "92% New Zealand."
 
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From a news story on Stuff.co.nz:

On Friday, April 16, it was revealed that Amazon's television adaptation of The Lord of the Rings has a budget of almost US$465 million (NZ$650 million). Stuart Nash, New Zealand's Minister for Economic Development and Tourism, announced this sum on Radio New Zealand.

"This is fantastic, it really is…What I can tell you is Amazon is going to spend about $650 million [NZ] in season one alone," Nash shared according to Variety. "This will be the largest television series ever made."

Here is the full story, although there's not much more to it:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainme...ling-to-spend-on-new-lord-of-the-rings-series
 
Fellowship of the Fans posits that the minister may have conflated the first season for the first two, which are to be shot back-to-back and will obviously share sets and costumes. That would mean a budget around $200 million, which is around twice that of a season of Game of Thrones, which is reasonable given that Amazon have to build everything: they can't shoot around existing cities and "augment" them.

It could also be that this figure IS for the first season alone, but also includes the $250 million payed for the rights.

It could even be both: Early on, a source told Reuters that

The company had offered $250 million for the rights alone; production and marketing could raise costs to $500 million or more for two seasons.
Click to expand...

If that's the case, that would mean Amazon is on budget in spite of COVID.
 
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