So that being said, what might have gotten Christopher Tolkien to sign on to this? A few possibilities:

1. Someone is manipulating Christopher in dementia and old age.
2. Chris has handed licensing decisions over to someone else in the Estate and is stepping aside to let them make the decision here even if he disagrees.
3. After declining decades of opportunities to cash in on the legendarium by licensing the Silmarillion or with official fan fiction (mostly writing obtuse academic tomes about his father's work instead), Christopher has decided to focus on the money and take the $250 million. This seems odd for someone in his 90s, but maybe he's concerned about his great-grandchildren? Who knows.
4. The contract has provisions for strong creative roles to people who Christopher absolutely trusts.

I certainly hope it's not 1 (and since he just published Beren and Lúthien, his mind is probably still good). 4 is the best-case scenario but some combination of 2 and 3 is probably more likely. Anyway, the fact that the Estate was directly involved gives me a little reason for hope. But not too much.

With Simon helping, I guess 4 might be at least partly true. How good is Chris and Simon’s relationship? Was the fallout between Christopher and Simon over his cameo in the RotK film exaggerrated, or was that another Tolkien?

Following an extensive search, Amazon Studios has tapped JD Payne and Patrick McKay (Star Trek 4, Jungle Cruise) to develop its forthcoming big-budget take on Lord of the Rings. Jennifer Salke, who made the announcement Saturday during her debut as head of Amazon Studios at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour, stopped short of saying Payne and McKay would serve as writers or showrunners.

Yov will love that article.

l I mean, sure, you could say there's no point in making the series at all, but that's hardly helpful.

Jackson also revealed that Amazon had asked him about possibly being involved in upcoming The Lord of the Rings TV series, which they plan to be "set in the same world" as the movies. But while happy to share his designs and have a look at their scripts, he ruled out further involvement because of the Tolkien estate's insistence on final approval over casting, storylines and scripts. "It would be impossible for me to [direct] without that control," he said.