Following the success of Game of Thrones, a host of studios have worked to bring other acclaimed fantasy and science fiction series to the small screen. Apple’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series is due out later this year, and Amazon has high-profile adaptations of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books in the works. Now, reports of on-set injuries on the last of these have complicated the mood of escapist entertainment around the forthcoming Tolkien adaptation.
At the AV Club, William Hughes has the details of a new report out of New Zealand suggesting that the forthcoming Tolkien adaptation was an unsafe place for several of the stunt performers working on the series. The article notes that a trio of stuntpeople incurred “serious” injuries while working on the show, with stuntperson Thomas Kiwi calling the environment there “so unsafe.”
The New Zealand Herald‘s Tom Dillane has more information on the controversy. The article there notes that several people working on the show believe that “a senior stunt supervisor has created an uneasy environment which has contributed to an unsafe workplace.” Amazon Studios has responded, stating that they have followed New Zealand’s safety guidelines.
Stuntwoman Dayna Grant faced what was arguably the most shocking of the workplace injuries described in the article — what Dillane describes as an “8mm brain aneurysm and an upper spinal injury.” A crowdfunding campaign raised $100,000 to cover Grant’s emergency brain surgery — though the AV Club’s article notes that this is not necessarily due to the injuries she incurred on the Lord of the Rings set.
At a time when audiences are more aware than ever of unsafe environments in the film and television industry, this news comes as an alarming reminder of what can go wrong there — and will hopefully spark action to create safer spaces in the future.
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