Amazon has selected its showrunners for its show The Lord of the Rings

The great Middle-earth-set show of Amazon based on the work of J.R.R. Tolkien is moving slowly. During the Television Critics Association's press tour this week, the company says it has recruited two screenwriters, JD Payne and Patrick McKay, to write and develop the series.

The two writers are relatively new: both worked on the original script of Star Trek: Beyond and were part of the writer's room for Godzilla Vs. Kong and write the next sequel to Star Trek: Beyond to be skipped by SJ Clarkson. Deadline says that the duo will help manage the room of a writer for the project, and that the director of Amazon Studios, Jennifer Salke, said at a panel that They will now work on the ongoing development of the series. She also said the studio had gone through a number of locations before choosing Payne and McKay.

Earlier this year, reports showed that Amazon could make its show in the same world as the trilogies of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit of Peter Jackson. While Jackson denied being involved in the series, Deadline says that "conversations continue with Jackson about a potential involvement and the possibility of turning the series on his sets in New Zealand. . "

show will not be a direct adaptation of The Lordship of the Rings rilogy, but "" will explore new intrigues preceding JRR Tolkien The Community of the Ring "with a A series of possible spin-offs are also part of the deal.The show will not be cheap: Amazon would have paid about $ 250 for franchise fees, with estimated production costs of $ 500 million.

Bringing Payne and McKay – who have both worked extensively in other existing universes – to develop the show is an important next step the show closer to reality.In their statement, they said that "the rich world that JRR Tolkien created is filled with majesty and heart, wisdom and complexity," and that they recognize nt the "great responsibility" that they have in adapting it.

Last year, Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, ran his company's studio to find attractive upscale drama series. Since then, the studio is in full swing, acquiring great properties of science fiction and fantasy, including Larry Niven. Ringworld and Neal Stephenson Snow Crash an adaptation of Utopia of Channel 4, Peripheral of William Gibson, a program about the Nazis hunters by Jordan Peele, the art of Simon Stålenhag Tales from the Loop and picked up recently canceled shows like The Expanse and Lucifer [19659012] in addition to this adaptation of Tolkien's epic world.