Hi there, Lord of the Rings fans (an assorted other posters)!
Some friends of mine are trying to put together a fan-made movie of The Silmarillion, the post-humously published book by J. R. R. Tolkien that tells some of the history of Middle-Earth before the time of The Lord of the Rings. It will be a very low-budget film, probably posted to the Internet in Quicktime segments or something; its purpose is to have a resource to which we can point new fans of LOTR who wonder about Middle-Earth history but don’t have the time or inclination to read the Silm, which can admittedly be a bit dry at times. We hope to use it specifically as a reference for writers of fanfiction, particularly those who have only seen Peter Jackson’s movies, since we have become very, very tired of people writing the backstory for LOTR characters in a wildly inaccurate fashion because they don’t know or don’t care that there already IS one written.
Anyway, I just thought that some of the SDMB LOTR fans might be interested in knowing about this project. We’re also looking for anyone with skills in acting, costuming, video/cinematography, music, choreography, etc, and especially anyone who knows about legal stuff, such as whether we would need clearance from the The Tolkien Powers That Be, who these Powers would be, and how to go about doing that. Any copyright lawyers in the house?
Oh, and if anyone knows of someone else working on a similar project, we’d absolutely love to hear about what they’re doing and how they’ve done it and if our efforts have already been superceeded by another Silm Film…
If anyone’s interested, reply to this post or drop me a line at my email address (which should be in my profile–if not, it’s lana9842@hotmail.com). We’re just in the script-writing and concept-art stage right now, but will be working on it more over the summer and the coming year.
–Nenya of the PPC: Protectors of the Plot Continuum, a Lord of the Rings fan-fiction movement
Okay, so that was about the entire purpose of this post, since I have no skills like those listed… ^^; I think you do need to get the OK from Tolkien’s heir(s?), though. Are you familiar with the Council of Elrond Forums? I’m sure they’d be interested, and they’d definitely have more information than I do.
Ahh, Council of Elrond…yes, I should talk to them.
Didn’t know anyone here was aware of the PPC. My partner and I are in the LOTR: General Fiction division, aka the Department of Multiple Offenses (though that name was coined by another writer). We get a lot of Mary Sues, though, so we might as well be in the Dept. of MS…
The cats of Queen Beruthiel ate our latest victim.
> will be a very low-budget film, probably posted to the Internet
> in Quicktime segments or something . . .
As soon as it gets posted to the Internet, you will receive a cease and desist notice from the Tolkien estate (or from the owners of the movie rights) ordering you to quit distributing this film in any manner. There’s simply no chance that they will allow you to show this film in any public forum. I’m sorry to have to tell you this. I really don’t want to hurt your feelings, but there’s no way that the copyright owners will allow this to happen. If you were to make an amateur film production that you only show to friends, you could probably get away with it because the estate wouldn’t find out about it, but if you show it publicly, they will find out and will stop you.
Fingolfin, do you have a cite for that? I have heard about the Hobbit (tho I have also heard it was tied up with legal problems), I have heard nothing about the Silmarillion.
Since it was published posthumously(sp?), when does the Silmarillion go into public domain? is it after CT’s death? Of couse, copyright will probably be extended several times in the next ~50 years…
Ah yes, Brad Pitt playing the middle child in a blended, dysfunctional family. Who will play Fëanor? Maybe James Caan. Finwë? Jack Nicholson! Indis and Miriel? Bette Midler and Cher! And Manwë of course will be Charlton Heston!
On a more serious note, I dont see what would be wrong with certain parts of the Silmarillion being moviefied. Parts wouldnt work and I would be opposed to them; any time before the Elves, for instance.
But the Beren and Luthien story would, of course, make a good movie in itself. The War of Wrath would look good in anime (especially the Vanyar, anime does bright and skinny yet powerful very well.)
I agree that making films of parts of Silmarillion would be a good idea. Beren and Luthien and the War, but the whole thing would be…long. Very long. It would make the Ring cycle seem like a Bugs Bunny cartoon.
what about just making it a fan film? Can’t that be done? Star Wars is by far the biggest movie franchise and it has hundreds of films based on it. Why not start with Lord of the Rings? I thought it was only a problem if it was distributed for sale…
My partner and I are in the LOTR: General Fiction division, aka the Department of Multiple Offenses (though that name was coined by another writer). We get a lot of Mary Sues, though, so we might as well be in the Dept. of MS…
