In November, Amazon announced a new Lord of the Rings TV show. The company reportedly paid $250 million for the rights alone, and now a report claims the network might spend a further $250 million to produce and market the fantasy program.

This information comes from a source speaking to Reuters, which added that $500 million could be the all-up price tag for the first two seasons. The figure apparently covers the rights-fee that Amazon paid, along with estimated production and marketing costs.

Reuters added that $500 million in three times what Amazon paid for the first two seasons of its original show, The Man in the High Castle (a reported $72 million). That show reportedly helped Amazon add 1.15 million new Amazon Prime subscribers. So going by that logic, Amazon's Lord of the Rings show would need to do much better for an equal payoff.

That doesn't seem impossible, given that The Lord of the Rings is one of the biggest and most recognizable brands in all of entertainment. The Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies combined to make more than $2.5 billion, while Jackson's Hobbit films were even bigger, grossing almost $3 billion.

Little in the way of specifics is known about the Lord of the Rings show, but we do know it will be set before the events of The Fellowship of the Ring. The universe that Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien created is absolutely massive, so there are countless opportunities for great stories to be told; it's exciting to think about.

While no new films have been announced, a movie about Tolkien's relationship with with his wife Edith Bratt and his time in World War I is in the pipeline. Another film will explore the author's relationship with Narnia writer C.S. Lewis and how he helped convert Lewis to Christianity.