Amazon's big-budget Lord of the Rings TV has resumed production in New Zealand, and the team is making good progress, it seems. Director JA Bayona posted to his Instagram story recently, sharing a photo of himself and various emojis pertaining to a fantasy show like Lord of the Rings. The news here is Bayona has now completed "more than half" of the weeks of shooting on the show.

　　"This is my face of having completed more than half the weeks of shooting. More tomorrow!" he said.

　　Bayona, who previously directed Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, was announced as the director of the first two episodes in the series, but whether or not his role has expanded due to COVID-19 is unclear. Whatever the case, the production is surely behind schedule given the impact of the virus. That being said, New Zealand just recently lifted all restrictions for Auckland, which is one of the sites where the Lord of the Rings show is being filmed.

　　The timing of Bayona's message is curious, given that it came within a day of the 21st anniversary of the start of filming on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy back on October 11, 1999.

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　　There is still no word on when Amazon's Lord of the Rings TV show will premiere, but when it does, it will be exclusive to Amazon Prime. Amazon reportedly paid $250 million for the rights alone, and the negotiations included none other than Amazon founder and fantasy fan Jeff Bezos.

　　In addition to the TV show, one of Amazon's game studios is developing a new Lord of the Rings MMO, though it's not connected to TV show.

　　More recently, it was announced that Jackson's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogies are getting new 4K UHD releases in December, just in time for the holidays.