Lord of the Rings writers working in a locked office with guard

Amazon reportedly has writers working on their upcoming Lord of the Rings TV adaption working in a locked office with a guard and fingerprint scanner.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke said the writers room is "working under lock and key" to keep the storylines secret.

"They're already generating really exciting material," she said. "They're down in Santa Monica. You have to go through such clearance, and they have all their windows taped closed. And there's a security guard that sits outside, and you have to have a fingerprint to get in there."

Amazon has reportedly committed to five seasons of their secretive streaming adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein's novels, with the production budget expected to exceed $1 billion, THR reports.

Salke also said that Amazon have scheduled a meeting with Tolkein's family in New York to see "some creative work that they haven't shown the world yet."

While Peter Jackon's acclaimed film series was shot in New Zealand, it's currently unclear where Amazon's version of the series will be filmed - though Salke told Deadline last year that they "might be in New Zealand".

"I don't know, but we're going to have to go somewhere interesting that could provide those locations in a really authentic way, because we want it to look incredible. There's no shortage of ambition for the project. We'll go where we need to go to make it happen."

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission.