By Ethan Anderton/July 28, 2018 4:23 pm EST
Payne and McKay have been writing partners since meeting on the high school debate team more than two decades ago. In addition to the aforementioned scripts in development, the writers were also behind a 2017 Blacklist drama script called Escape, which is currently set upwith Academy Award-nominated producer Mike DeLuca.
“We have closed a deal with a writing team, Payne and McKay who come out of the world of Star Trek. It was a very thoughtful process. It’s such a vast world, there are so many different ways to go with that property. Thanks for Sharon Tal Yguado on my team she led the charge bringing in people. We had an abundance of enthusiasm in the creator/ writer arena and a lot of time spent talking about different takes. The next phase is a big development process as they build out this world.”
As for Peter Jackson’s possible involvement in the new Middle-earth project, there hasn’t been an update since June when there were conversations about bringing the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchises’ director into the fray. Perhaps we’ll hear more about that as the project gets closer to getting in front of a camera. But with a multi-season commitment for this Lord of the Rings series, we might be waiting awhile for that to happen.
Additional reporting provided by Fred Topel from the Television Critics Association panel.
