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T.o.b.y

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  • 11 months later...

I'm not sure if this quite fits in this thread or if it's already been discussed elsewhere, but I just read about this the other day:

 

J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings could be heading to the small screen

"'Lord of the Rings': Amazon, Warner Bros. in Talks for Series Adaptation"

 

I don't know how to feel about it.  I vacillate between curiosity and horror, "This could be exciting!" and "Noooooooooooo, this great evil must be stopped!!!".  As much as I love LotR, we already have some amazing films that set the bar quite high, and I'm afraid another adaption would just ruin it.  On the other hand, the movies weren't perfect and a TV adaption could add some of the things I loved in the book that were left out of the films.  Yet, I think the potential for it to be really awful is much greater than the potential for it to be really awesome.

 

 

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I must admit that this puzzles me. It's already been done as a movie trilogy, and fairly recently. I could see doing a remake at some point, using newer special-effect techniques, but I kinda doubt that a TV show made any time soon would do any better in that regard than the fairly recent movies.

Maybe they're thinking of delving deeper into minor scenes that Jackson either ignored or skimmed over? Guess we'll just have to wait and see. If it's even shown on any channels that I have access to, that is.

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Personally I feel it's much too soon for a remake, but others seem to think it's been long enough.  :/   I'd be far more interested in an adaption of The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, Children of Hurin, or any other of Tolkien's works.  Even The Hobbit I wouldn't mind seeing a proper redo.  But I've read that Tolkien's family won't release the rights to The Silmarillion, so I can probably give up on that.

 

My guess is that they'll pull a "Star Trek: Discovery" and only have it available via streaming, most likely through Amazon.

 

 

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Yeah, that's what it sounds like they have in mind.  As far as I'm concerned, they needn't bother -- if it's on streaming, I won't be able to see it, and I have no interest in paying for a DVD, since we already have the Jackson movies (which were a damn sight better than what he did to The Hobbit).

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I remember my nephew's wife, who majored in filmmaking, telling me with great certainty that they'd be remaking LOTR in 5-10 years. I still don't believe but she's a lot younger than me and those millennials think different than I do.....

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I wonder whether they're really going to retell the story of the trilogy or just make a story set in that universe around that time with original characters?

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Another adaptation of the novels sounds just as horrible to me... I know the Jackson Films have their flaws but I have watched them every year since they came out and to me, Ian McKellen IS Gandalf, Elijah Wood IS Frodo etc etc. I wouldn't watch any other version.

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I remember my nephew's wife, who majored in filmmaking, telling me with great certainty that they'd be remaking LOTR in 5-10 years. I still don't believe but she's a lot younger than me and those millennials think different than I do.....

 

Didn't it use to take about 20 years?  (And even then, it was mostly because they'd invented talkies, and then color film.)  Maybe the current trend is part of the "bigger, faster, louder" culture?

 

I wonder whether they're really going to retell the story of the trilogy or just make a story set in that universe around that time with original characters?

 

I would hope for the latter.  Might even watch that sort of thing, if I'd heard good reviews and had access to it.  Though there are certainly some parts of the books that Jackson never touched.  If they can do Tom Bombadil without looking downright silly, then more power to them, I say!

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Hi Carol,

I’ve just seen this. You probably already know about this but I’ll post it anyway

Edited by Carol the Dabbler
Deleted irrelevant quote
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There's already been some discussion of the proposed LotR television series in this thread, yes, but I hadn't seen that particular article, which has some info that's new (to me at least).

 

However, this bit puzzles me:

 

 

 

The new series will explore Middle-earth in a time period before the events of The Lord of the Rings — but given that Galsor says that it will concern “previously unexplored stories,” we might not be looking at another adaptation of The Hobbit either. That leaves two options: Amazon could plumb the depths of the appendices of The Return of the King, potentially detailing the early romance of Aragorn and Arwen, the creation of the Rings of Power and the history of the line of kings from which Aragorn is descended.

 

Or, in what would be more of a revelation for Tolkien fans — and provided that Amazon had also purchased the television rights to the author’s The Silmarillion — the series might have the entire history of Middle-earth from its creation to play with.

 

The author sounds familiar with Tolkien's Middle Earth stories, appendices, etc. -- yet she seems totally oblivious to what seems (to me) the most likely era to be portrayed, namely the 60-year gap between the end of The Hobbit and the beginning of LotR -- in other words, that "bridge movie" that Jackson was said to be considering at one point.

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Whichever time period they choose, it's a better idea than just remaking Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, imo.

 

Still don't think I could deal with any other actor playing Gandalf. Aragorn and Arwen aren't that important to me so they're welcome to work with them as far as I am concerned - their story as written by Tolkien actually deserves some recognition. I always wondered why the Jackson films didn't use that if they had to include a romance. What they actually did with the characters was very, very boring for me.

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New article from today has an update: This series will be set either before The Hobbit or between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

 

http://ew.com/tv/2017/11/13/lord-of-the-rings-tv-series/

 

If that's really the case, I'm a little relieved at least. With all my soul I did *not* want a LotR remake.

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Wonder if they'll have the familiar characters? (The wizards and elves would have been alive at least a thousand years back, and just about everyone would be available if they set it between The Hobbit and LotR.) Or they could have different characters who live in the same universe. Or some of each -- which I guess would be my guess, though most of the familiar characters would presumably be recast (which would feel weird).

 

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Andy Serkis involved in some capacity or other.

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I remember my nephew's wife, who majored in filmmaking, telling me with great certainty that they'd be remaking LOTR in 5-10 years. I still don't believe but she's a lot younger than me and those millennials think different than I do.....

 

Didn't it use to take about 20 years?  (And even then, it was mostly because they'd invented talkies, and then color film.)  Maybe the current trend is part of the "bigger, faster, louder" culture?

 

Or maybe she's just wrong. :smile: It seems to me some movies have such a huge impact when they first arrive that they simply don't get "remade" -- esp. Best Picture winners. Haven't noticed any remakes of Gone with the Wind or Lawrence of Arabia, e.g.

 

One movie I've always wished for a remake of, however, is Shane. Alan Ladd simply doesn't fit my idea of what Shane should look like at all.

 

I wonder whether they're really going to retell the story of the trilogy or just make a story set in that universe around that time with original characters?

 

I would hope for the latter.  Might even watch that sort of thing, if I'd heard good reviews and had access to it.  Though there are certainly some parts of the books that Jackson never touched.  If they can do Tom Bombadil without looking downright silly, then more power to them, I say!

 

I just hope it's about hobbits and not orcs.

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If there are no hobbits, then what's the point? I wouldn't be particularly keen to see a Silmarillion movie for just that reason -- no hobbits.

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Bummer.

 

By the way, I was working a crossword puzzle today and one of the clues was "Sauron's foes." The answer turned out to be "X-Men". Does anyone know what that's about, or did the puzzle creator just make a mistake?

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  • 1 month later...

Am I going to get booo-ed if I write here that I hope they will make a movie about a certain platinum blonde elven king and keep Lee Pace in the role? :D

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Not by me; I thought he made a very believable Thranduil. Almost made the character “come to life” for me in a way that didn’t quite happen when I was reading the book — could never quite picture him for some reason. His performance was one of the handful of things in “The Hobbit” that I thought was really well executed.

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