Many= a minority.
Modnote: OK, enough of this. Not only is this a silly and obvious slap fight it is a big distraction from the thread. Drop it immediately.
Well Ive yet to read a good review or meet someone who rated RoP. Its a poor product, on several levels.
I doubt the new stuff will be any good either.
I dont think Tolkeins universe lends itself at all to expansion by other writers. Its heart has been done already. Or mayve MERP let me down.
Ooh, that could be really good.
I feel like the best available Tolkien stories are all in the silmarillion, and I’m a little freaked that we’re getting “random new stuff about harfoots” instead of the tale of luthien and beren. I understand why, but it’s still disappointing.
Those could be good. 
Can KG play Goldberry?
There’s plenty of seeds of stuff in the Appendices, and even the “filler” stuff that is in LoTR itself, that many people tend to gloss over e.g. you can do the entire story of Eärendil just based off Bilbo’s Eärendillinwë and the people who own the Silmarillion rights would have to go pound sand.
It’s lazy if you think in terms of creativity. Studios aren’t concerned about that when it comes to these sorts of films. They are concerned about investing money.
Yes, new franchises do start somewhere. Yes, the MCU and Star Wars are examples of that. Examples ALSO abound of attempts to start new ideas that flop and lose ridiculous sums of money. The fact is that going to the same well over and over is safe. It’s good finance.
It’s the same thing as why TV networks keep making lousy reality shows. With a few exceptions, reality shows don’t garner especially high ratings. However, they’re VERY cheap to make as compared to scripted shows, so if they get even a mildly decent audience, they make money. The TV executives don’t think reality shows are good, they’re just safe.
This is the same argument/discussion I’ve been having with a student. From a studio POV, why take the chance on a new property when there’s safe money to be made? I’d love new stuff, but I get their reasoning.
I mean, seriously - here’s the top 10 domestic box office from last year. Mining existing intellectual property is hugely profitable.
| 1 | Top Gun: Maverick | $718,318,561 | 4,751 | $718,732,821 | May 27 | Paramount Pictures |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | $436,499,646 | 4,396 | $453,251,600 | Nov 11 | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
| 3 | Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness | $411,331,607 | 4,534 | $411,331,607 | May 6 | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
| 4 | Avatar: The Way of Water | $401,007,908 | 4,340 | $625,620,442 | Dec 16 | 20th Century Studios |
| 5 | Jurassic World: Dominion | $376,851,080 | 4,697 | $376,851,080 | Jun 10 | Universal Pictures |
| 6 | Minions: The Rise of Gru | $369,695,210 | 4,427 | $369,695,210 | Jul 1 | Universal Pictures |
| 7 | The Batman | $369,345,583 | 4,417 | $369,345,583 | Mar 4 | Warner Bros. |
| 8 | Thor: Love and Thunder | $343,256,830 | 4,375 | $343,256,830 | Jul 8 | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
| 9 | Spider-Man: No Way Home | $231,808,708 | 4,336 | $804,793,477 | Dec 17 | Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) |
| 10 | Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | $190,872,904 | 4,258 | $190,872,904 | Apr 8 |
It has premiered with essentially no fanfare and mediocre reviews.
I saw the previews- I rate it “Meh”.
Given that a LOT of de-aging CGI would be required, maybe he simply wasn’t still in good enough shape to pull the role off again convincingly.
Or maybe he has principles.
I understand that Ian McKellen is reprising Gandalf, which to me is yawn-inducing, and that Elijah Wood for some reason at age 55 or so is reprising Frodo, which to me is cringe-inducing. This appears a clear money grab for both of them, I’m sure they have nothing new to bring to either role, and for Wood especially. I think it would be more interesting to re-cast all those roles, and do the work to find something different in them. But then I wasn’t very interested in seeing this product in the first place.
Where is “The Silmarillion” in terms of rights? Still Tolkien Estate?
It would be incredibly difficult to make a good screenplay out of it (which, by need would need to include Narn a Hin a Hurin and several HoME books). It’s mostly Elves, and when not so much, you get Beren and Luthien.
ETA: Aurë entuluva! (Day shall come again - Hurin’s battle cry). So of course he too, who took out 70 Orcs or whatever stood in his way.
Fëanor is the greatest, yet he instigated all of this. Burning of the ships. Ice crossing at Helcaraxe. So much happens. I reckon I just want to know if it’s being kicked around and a chance of making it. I’ll be content if they leave the 1st age be.
Correct. The film rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were originally sold by the Professor in the 1960s, when, AIUI, he needed the money (and, years before The Silmarillion was posthumously published).
The family has indicated that they have no interest in selling the film rights to The Silmarillion, in large part because they haven’t been particularly happy with the film adaptations of the other books.
Amazon’s deal with the Tolkien Estate, which yielded The Rings of Power, required them to develop a series which used only source material in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and prohibited use of any material which is only in The Silmarillion – and also required them to develop something which was not duplicative of the content of Peter Jackson’s films. Thus, they were fundamentally precluded from anything set in the First Age, and could only use information on the Second Age which appeared in the appendices of LotR.
This article has a good summary of that situation:
Wood’s only 44 now – he was only 18 when production started on the original films. But, yeah, even as much as I adored those films (and still re-watch them regularly), I have no interest in these, especially given how frustrating I found The Hobbit films to be.
That is pretty firm. I’m agnostic on PJ yet good that neither he or Amazon will get the rights. Within a year or two AI will be able to generate a film, complete with Cate Blanchett narrating. There will be thousands of them “Just do Beren and Luthien”, “Just do Fingolfin till he puts the hurt on Morgorh”. And whomever owns the rights will have to fight the fight,
Those were really bad.
I won’t re-litigate why I disliked the Hobbit films so much, as I’ve done so on the boards before, and it’s not the topic of the thread, but the short version is that they strongly deviated from the book in a dozen ways.
That’s my fear about these new films, too – that they’ll be based on small scraps of story that are actually in the books, which Jackson will flesh out into something that simply does not feel true to the original films, much less the actual novels.