'Lord of the Rings' director Peter Jackson said Amazon agreed to send him scripts for 'The Rings of Power' — but they 'never showed up'

• Peter Jackson said Amazon wanted to involve him in "The Rings of Power" series before ghosting him.
• The "Lord of the Rings" director told The Hollywood Reporter the studio offered to send him scripts.

"Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson said Amazon tried to get him involved in its upcoming prequel series "The Rings of Power" but never sent him any scripts.

Jackson spoke about the incident on an episode of The Hollywood Reporter's "Awards Chatter" podcast, which aired on Thursday.

"They asked me if I wanted to be involved — [writer-producer Fran Walsh] and I — and I said, 'That's an impossible question to answer without seeing a script.' So they said, 'As soon as we get the first couple scripts, we'll send them to you.' And the scripts never showed up," he explained.

The Oscar-winning director said it was the last thing he heard from the studio, but insisted he had "no complaints at all" and looks forward to watching the series from a new point of view.

"I'll be watching it. I'm not the sort of guy who wishes ill will. Filmmaking is hard enough. If somebody makes a good film or TV show, it's something to celebrate," Jackson said. "The one thing I am looking forward to is actually seeing it as a perfectly neutral viewer."

In a statement to THR, Amazon Studios said the new series had to be kept separate from the film trilogy, which is owned by Warner Bros.

"In pursuing the rights for our show, we were obligated to keep the series distinct and separate from the films," the studio wrote. "We have the utmost respect for Peter Jackson and 'The Lord of the Rings' films and are thrilled that he is looking forward to watching 'The Rings of Power.'"

Representatives for Jackson, Amazon, and Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

THR reports that the estate of JRR Tolkein, who wrote "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" books, is involved in the Amazon series after the studio paid more than $250 million for the rights to produce the show.

Sources the outlet describes as "close to the project" note that the author's estate was not involved in the making of Jackson's trilogy — and that it didn't want Jackson involved in the television show after criticizing the director's film adaptations in the past.

According to Gizmodo, Amazon announced the "The Lord of the Rings" prequel series in 2017. Entertainment Weekly reported in 2021 that the company is spending more than $464 million on the first season of the show, which takes place thousands of years before the events of Jackson's films.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" premieres on Amazon Prime Video on September 2.