Thanks for the heads up. With all that I have heard about this production, I had mostly decided to skip it.
JRR Tolkien was not happy with the Rankin/Bass animated effort in the 70's; for one thing he felt elves were terribly misrepresented. Apparently the Tolkien estate was satisfied with the Peter Jackson trilogy in spite of some notable changes.
The Tolkien estate is quite jealous of its copyrights. With my Dictionary they were super picky so that I finally posted it open on the web.
Yet they allowed Peter Jackson to expand 'The Hobbit' into a meaningless misrepresentation with three films, loosely based on a charming children's fantasy book, an early Tolkien release with a dim eye aimed at his master work, The LOTR.
From all I have heard about the Amazon production, I have to presume that the Tolkien folks are simply given over to money. It seems sad in light of the fact that LOTR was a lifetime opus of a brilliant fantasy writer and experienced linguist. Even while serving in WWI (that's 'One'), Tolkien was working on thousands of years of Middle Earth history and at least four major languages. It is an incredible effort.
Will commercial temptations and on going incomes drive LOTR to mediocrity? 😕
It would appear so. With JRR's son Christopher no longer alive to defend his father's work, the present decision-makers no longer care about quality or even adhering to the text.
Sort of like the aphorism "The first generation makes it, the second generation stewards it, the third generation squanders it" except it's not the money, it's the integrity.