Jeff Bezos’ son had a simple instruction for his father when he found out Amazon was doing his own Lord of the Rings show: “Don’t break this.”
The founder of the e-commerce giant and second richest man in the world shared his son’s warning at the UK premiere of the new Amazon Prime Video series Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
The 58-year-old billionaire reflected on his lifelong passion for author JRR Tolkien’s work in front of A-list audiences, Variety reports, and said he passed his love for Middle-earth on to his own children.
After Amazon was involved in this project, my son came to me one day, he looked me in the eye, very sincerely, and he said, ‘Dad, please don’t make it so high.’
When one of his sons learned that Amazon had plans to create a Lord of the Rings series — reportedly paying $250 million for the rights alone — he asked Bezos to make sure it was good.
“After Amazon got involved with this project, one day my son came up to me, he looked me in the eye very sincerely and said, ‘Dad, please don’t make that up,'” Bezos said. “And he was right. We know this world matters to so many people, we know it is a privilege to work in this world and we know it is a great responsibility.”
Bezos joked that showrunners Patrick McKay and John D. Payne partially lived up to the task by ignoring the notes and feedback he provided during production of the show’s first season.
“The dream of every showrunner – and I mean every showrunner – is to get script and early cut notes from the founder and CEO,” Bezos said. “They loved that. I have to thank you both for listening whenever it helped, but most of all I have to thank you for ignoring me at just the right time.”
Bezos famously laid out the ingredients for “a great show” in a meeting author Brad Stone wrote about in his book Amazon Unbound.
The 12 key elements identified by the then-CEO include “a heroic protagonist who experiences growth and change,” “wish fulfillment,” cliffhangers, and “civilizing high stakes.”
Set thousands of years before the events of the Lord of the Rings books and films, The Rings of Power chronicles the “reemergence of evil in Middle-earth.”
The first season reportedly cost $715 million to produce.
The first two episodes of the series will air on September 2 on Prime Video, with the following six episodes airing weekly. Showrunners said in June that the story will span five seasons.
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