Lord of the Rings TV show

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by ianuaditis, Nov 13, 2017.

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  1. ianuaditis

    ianuaditis Matthew 21:17 Thread Starter

    Location:
    Long River Place
    Hello - I did a search, and no thread on this yet:

    Why Amazon Thinks You Want to Watch a 'Lord of the Rings' TV Show (or Five)

    Amazon just bought the TV rights to 'Lord of the Rings.'

    The article I linked talks about multiple series set in Tolkien's world.

    It also addresses the potential for 'fantasy overkill' after the successes of the LOTR films (in spite of the inferiority of those Hobbit movies,) and 7 seasons of Game of Thrones.

    Other things I've read make it sound like what's planned is back story stuff set prior to 'Fellowship of the Ring,' but I wonder if a miniseries reworking of the original trilogy might someday be in the cards.

    Anyway, this seems like it will be a long way off, but the price of $200-250 just for the rights means they will probably want to get something on the air as soon as they can.
     
  2. xdawg

    xdawg in labyrinths of coral caves

    Location:
    Roswell, GA, USA
    Jeebus! I'm all for more LOTR content as long as it doesn't stray too far from the books.
     
  3. ianuaditis

    ianuaditis Matthew 21:17 Thread Starter

    Location:
    Long River Place
    IIRC the rights include everything in the Hobbit and LOTR, which includes the appendices (which much of the 'extraneous' matter in the Hobbit movies was based on.)

    There's tons of material there, but most of it in the form of annals and disconnected short passages. So it would have to be embellished; there's not much characterization.

    I believe it can be done, but would require a certain touch (which the Hobbit movies mostly lacked IMO.)
     
  4. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    A losing proposition, IMHO. LOTR fans make Beatles fans look casual in comparison and the chances of it being appealing to the fans are quite slim. Waste of money from Amazon.
     
  5. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Depends on whether you think your target demographic is a couple thousand, well-read obsessives who will go over every attempt with a fine-toothed comb (and go apoplectic with the instance of every continuity gaffe over social media with the over-torqued spasms similar to that poor Star Wars fan who found himself embarrassed for all time on YouTube)...

    OR, casual fans of the stories with little or no allegience to faithful storytelling but rather comfortable supporting another attempt at GOOD storytelling - who probably more accurately number in the scores of millions. :shrug:
     
    Last edited: Nov 14, 2017
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  6. Denim Chicken

    Denim Chicken Dayman, fighter of the Nightman

    Location:
    Bakersfield, CA
    Gimme Gimme! I'll watch anything Tolkien related.
     
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  7. budwhite

    budwhite Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

    Location:
    Götaland, Sverige
    So basically a remake/reboot of The Hobbit and LotR movies then?
     
  8. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    This was directly licensed from the Tolkien Estate, so I think they have some say in how the shows are done. They have disowned the Peter Jackson movies for years and years -- despite the fact that the movies made them a great deal of money and sold a helluva lotta books.
     
  9. budwhite

    budwhite Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

    Location:
    Götaland, Sverige
    The reason for that must be the changes Jackson&co did?
     
  10. ianuaditis

    ianuaditis Matthew 21:17 Thread Starter

    Location:
    Long River Place
    Is that right? I assumed it was like the Jackson license (yes, that's right, I didn't carefully read the article I linked...) that only included LOTR and the Hobbit. Does Amazon own the first age now too? Because THAT would be something. The Silmarillion was Tolkien's life's work, LOTR was just something he tacked onto it after the Hobbit was a success.
     
  11. ianuaditis

    ianuaditis Matthew 21:17 Thread Starter

    Location:
    Long River Place
    No it was the emphasis on action and hack and slash vs. the more subtle elements of the original.

    Tolkien's heirs were upset before the recent Hobbit movies were even conceived.
     
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  12. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Yeah, apparently they made a deal for everything published. I think essentially what Amazon wants is a show that generates the same kind of mass audience as Game of Thrones.

    This goes into some of the gory details on what the Tolkien family didn't like:

    Why JRR Tolkien’s Son Hates What Peter Jackson Has Done

    I think the basic deal is: Jackson combined certain scenes and didn't let them play as written; he wrote additional material for certain characters (and even added characters not in the original novels); and the Tolkien family was also held to a fairly cheap licensing contract that was signed decades ago, a contract that they couldn't get out of. So I think it boils down to lack of creative control, changes done for "dramatic" purposes, and getting low money.
     
  13. budwhite

    budwhite Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

    Location:
    Götaland, Sverige
    Now that is exciting news!
     
  14. The Hermit

    The Hermit Wavin' that magick glowstick since 1976

    JRR Tolkien sold the film rights to both (and only) The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in 1969 for tax purposes; everything in those books, including appendices, was available to Peter Jackson, everything not contained therein was not, simple as that.

    Christopher Tolkien, JRR's last surviving son, despises Peter Jackson's films... and has done so since the release of The Fellowship of the Ring, that's no secret, but the younger Tolkien brood have both voiced their approval of Jackson's work and appeared in cameos (I believe the Rohan soldier blowing the trumpet in ROTK prior to the Rohirrim riding into the Minas Tirith battle is Royd Tolkien, JRR's great-grandson). That being said, if I was Christopher Tolkien, I wouldn't be happy with the Hobbit films either... I think it's one of the great 'what if's' of recent cinema that Guillermo del Toro had to walk away from that project, alas...

    With the Tolkien Estate involved, and the confirmation that they will be telling "unexplored" new stories set in that world, I think it will be a much more conservative show than most of the cable output of late - no excessive blood and boobs in Middle Earth, in other words! - and it may just be The Silmarillion they'll adapt... which would be the natural and logical choice, not to mention a book with enough material to keep them going for a decades' worth of seasons if not much more.

    I truly despise Bezos and everything he stands for, but I'll give this series a chance... so long as they keep any and all political propaganda out of it, but I don't think the Tolkien Estate would allow it anyway... let's hope so.
     
    Last edited: Nov 14, 2017
  15. His Masters Vice

    His Masters Vice W.C. Fields Forever

    I agree, for the amount of money Amazon have paid they MUST be getting more than just LOTR and The Hobbit! It's a huge amount.

    The original deal the Tolkien family did (in 1968) was for 7% of the net ... plus some money up front. Of course New Line did their best to make it look like the movies never made a profit so they wouldn't have to pay. But lawyers were called in and there was a substantial settlement in favour of the Tolkiens.

    Definitely it was the STYLE of (parts of) Jackson's LOTR adaption that they didn't care for. Plus, just consider what Jackson what did to The Hobbit! Surely anybody who has read that book can see why the Hobbit films are a dismal failure at capturing much of the mood or intent of Tolkien's story. PJ was much more restrained when he made the LOTR films, but there's still elements of the same sort of thing that he just turned up to eleven in the Hobbit films.
     
  16. I am skeptical, I don't think Amazon can make a consistently good series from the material but the good thing is I won't have to watch it if I don't like it. Right now there is way too much for me to watch that I am confident I would like, Netflix, Amazon, HBO and even some network TV shows. There is not enough time to watch it all.

    As far as Jackson's six movies, I like all of them but I haven't read any of the books.
     
  17. goodiesguy

    goodiesguy Confide In Me

    Location:
    New Zealand
    Never watched the films. Can't stand Peter Jackson's films. Far too much CGI that really ruins any immersion.
     
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  18. mBen989

    mBen989 Senior Member

    Location:
    Scranton, PA
    I guess this means Tom Bombadil. His non-appearance in the Peter Jackson films seems like it was an issue for some fans. (Of course, don't tell those fans Ralph Bakshi dropped him too.)
     
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  19. Bobby Buckshot

    Bobby Buckshot Heavy on the grease please

    Location:
    Southeastern US
    I also think I read elsewhere in which the "didn't let them play as written" and combo scenes criticism pivoted on Jackson's adoption/use of tropes which I too disliked, and which was carried further in the Hobbit series. Tropes tend to insult the intelligence of the audience, and if it's done for money's sake then it's all the worse.

    I'm interested in this Amazon series too. Will be interesting to see how they handle it.
     
  20. Erik Tracy

    Erik Tracy Meet me at the Green Dragon for an ale

    Location:
    San Diego, CA, USA
    No, I don't think so.

    Some of the other linked articles state that the Amazon LOTR Original Series will be a *prequel* to events in The Fellowship of the Ring.

    If I were to guess as to what would make for a ready set time period it would be the Third Age struggle of Arnor vs the rise of the Witch King.

    That might be cool.
     
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  21. budwhite

    budwhite Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.

    Location:
    Götaland, Sverige
    I know, read my other post
     
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  22. Erik Tracy

    Erik Tracy Meet me at the Green Dragon for an ale

    Location:
    San Diego, CA, USA
    Sorry.
     
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  23. Also cool would be the story Turin.
     
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  24. xdawg

    xdawg in labyrinths of coral caves

    Location:
    Roswell, GA, USA
    LOL!
     
  25. Erik Tracy

    Erik Tracy Meet me at the Green Dragon for an ale

    Location:
    San Diego, CA, USA
    Personally, I think some of the Silmarillion would make for compelling on-screen stories.

    But, this is just me, the majority that Amazon is banking on for that blockbuster payoff (which the first article linked in this post goes into), won't 'get' it.

    There are no Hobbits, and the landscape (literally) is very different than what people would be expecting (based on the movies).
     
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