# Produce the SILMARILLION trilogy (or miniseries) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** middle-earth\ **Created:** [June 19, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040 "2011-06-19T16:07:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/41 "2011-06-21T19:44:16Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > I’m torn about whether to hand the project over to Rankin & Bass or Ralph Bakshi. You know, now that you mention it, Leonard Nimoy is perfect for my voice over conundrum. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/42 "2011-06-21T19:46:23Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > I’m especially thinking these cats need to be tall, muscular and fair, much moreso than the twinks in the first movies. I’m going to full-metal-geek here and note that only the House of Finarfin, among the Noldor, was fair, and only because his mother (Finwe’s second wife) was Vanyar. Feanor’s and Fingolfin’s (who shared a mother with Finarfin but apparently inherited his coloring from Finwe) houses both had dark hair. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/43 "2011-06-21T19:47:32Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > You know, now that you mention it, Leonard Nimoy is perfect for my voice over conundrum. 😉 Yeah, Cate Blanchett wouldn’t do since Galadriel IS a character in the Sil. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/44 "2011-06-21T19:56:43Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Yeah, Cate Blanchett wouldn’t do since Galadriel IS a character in the Sil. As she was in LotR. But she’s a very minor character in _Silmarillion_, and I think she’d be useful to serve as a bridge between the two; she’s a good storytelling mechanism. It could her talking to a young hobbit or elf just before she leaves Middle-earth for the West. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/45 "2011-06-21T20:04:58Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Yeah, Cate Blanchett wouldn’t do since Galadriel IS a character in the Sil. Are you being snarky? Galadriel, and none of the elves, are around during the Ainulindalë and having the voice of any characters over the Song would not make much sense unless you do it in flashback. I prefer the way it was handled in LotR in which it was simply prologue without context. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/46 "2011-06-21T20:09:41Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > Are you being snarky? > > Galadriel, and none of the elves, are around during the Ainulindalë and having the voice of any characters over the Song would not make much sense unless you do it in flashback. I prefer the way it was handled in LotR in which it was simply prologue without context. I would say that Galadriel’s prologue was _providing_ context. And I think she could do the same thing in a Sil movie. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/47 "2011-06-21T20:26:35Z")
I agree that it provided context. I’m saving that her speaking was without context. The poem starts without any framing at all, just a disembodied voice talking. It was perfect. What I don’t want is some elf or wizard telling some man or some child/hobbit that “many thousands of years ago before there was a moon and sun…” before cutting away to the Music of the Valar. Just dive into the creation scene, have a non-corporeal voice explaining things. At worse, let it be one of the Valar or Melkor doing the voice over but don’t show him/her vomiting exposition to some underling or elf as an excuse, just keep it fantastic like it was in the LotR. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/48 "2011-06-21T20:34:40Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > I’m especially thinking these cats need to be tall, muscular and fair Ooh, the elves reimagined as catgirls! But would they have wings? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/49 "2011-06-21T20:44:23Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > Ooh, the elves reimagined as catgirls! But would they have wings? That’s one. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/50 "2011-06-21T20:50:53Z")
You have to admit that a Silmarillion in which the characters were reimagined as anthropomorphic animals would be only marginally more likely to be a total trainwreck than any other attempt at dramatization. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/51 "2011-06-21T20:58:56Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > You have to admit that a Silmarillion in which the characters were reimagined as anthropomorphic animals would be only marginally more likely to be a total trainwreck than any other attempt at dramatization. Oh, no denying that. It was just the use of the word _catgirl_. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/52 "2011-06-21T21:50:16Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > Are you being snarky? Wow…that does kind of read that way, doesn’t it? No, I didn’t mean it that way. I had thought that you didn’t want a character in the movie offering the voiceover/prologue, and you mentioned Cate Blanchett but Galadriel would be in this movie. I didn’t mean it to be snarky or sarcastic. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/53 "2011-06-21T22:25:01Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I would personally finance an Anna Russell take on the Silmarillion, if I had money… [Up [del]one[/del]TWO Octaves]_The story opens in the Great Void._ IN _it_.[/Two Octaves] Yeah, I’d pay to see that. (I saw her do the Ring Cycle in concert at the Kennedy Center) ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/54 "2011-06-21T22:29:35Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > [Up [del]one[/del]TWO Octaves]_The story opens in the Great Void._ IN _it_.[/Two Octaves] > > Yeah, I’d pay to see that. > > (I saw her do the Ring Cycle in concert at the Kennedy Center) “Remember Fiiiiinwe?” I’m insanely jealous! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/55 "2011-06-21T22:40:42Z")
> [@](#): > > Oh, no denying that. It was just the use of the word catgirl. You would prefer “neko”? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/56 "2011-06-21T22:48:12Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You would prefer “neko”? :: makes note in Chronos’s file :: ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/57 "2011-06-22T01:34:56Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > There’s only one rule. Neither Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, nor Phillipa Boyens may be involved in any way. Ahh, you’ve already booked M. Night Shyamalan? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/58 "2011-06-22T01:44:33Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You would prefer “neko”? kawaii!!! ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/59 "2011-06-22T03:05:17Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > kawaii!!! Eureka! What we need is an anime adaption. There are so many ways to go with this! Hideki Anno of Evangelion fame can do a very brooding, dark, coming-of-age story chock-full of angst and quasi-Christian symbolism. Just what Tolkien would have wanted. If that isn’t your cup of ocha, then how about a hyper-big-eyed neko schoolgirl take? All the characters can be part of the same high school! Except Luthien. She goes to a different school, which is what really drives the romantic tension. Hahaha, I can just see Morgoth now with his dark emo black hair and baggy pants. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040/60 "2011-06-22T20:12:25Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > Eureka! What we need is an anime adaption. There are so many ways to go with this! Hideki Anno of Evangelion fame can do a very brooding, dark, coming-of-age story chock-full of angst and quasi-Christian symbolism. Just what Tolkien would have wanted. > > If that isn’t your cup of ocha, then how about a hyper-big-eyed neko schoolgirl take? All the characters can be part of the same high school! Except Luthien. She goes to a different school, which is what really drives the romantic tension. Hahaha, I can just see Morgoth now with his dark emo black hair and baggy pants. That’s two. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/produce-the-silmarillion-trilogy-or-miniseries/586040.md?page=4)