Jump to content

Two Tolkien biopics in the works: "Middle-earth" and "Tolkien"


Bilbo

Recommended Posts

BB has a serious thing for Whishaw. 

Anyway, I can't wait for them to announce someone like Lorn Balfe or maybe Junkie XL as the composer!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IMO, they're doing this wrong. I understand the impulse to focus on Tokien's early "war" years and those burgeoning friendships. There's some dramatic potential there, whereas a movie about an Oxford prof writing a book might not be so exciting.

 

The problem is, inevitably it will have forced and predictable scenes of Tolkien seeing the horrors of war close up and draw parallels which will eventually become LOTR. In fact, it will probably do that with every aspect of his life. Oh, look, he likes trees. Oh, look, the hates that factory. It will be like Indy and the hat/snakes/whip/scar all over again.

 

I'd rather see the film portray an older Tolkien, using something like Shadowlands as its template. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, BloodBoal said:

 

Tolkien seeing explosions around him, and out of the flames, a Balrog appears in his mind!

 

That in and of itself sounds like a fucking amazing image.  A balrog in no man's land?!  Come on.

 

But obviously this movie won't have that kind of budget.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, BloodBoal said:

 

But this is brilliant! Imagine: Tolkien seeing explosions around him, and out of the flames, a Balrog appears in his mind! And as he hears German soldiers speaking their wretched language, because of the noise of the battle, the words come to his ears in a distorted form... "Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul..."!

 

This is going to be excellent!

 

Sad as it is to contemplate, something just like this is likely to happen.

 

14 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

 

That in and of itself sounds like a fucking amazing image.  A balrog in no man's land?!  Come on.

 

But obviously this movie won't have that kind of budget.

 

:mellow:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tolkien worked as a codebreaker for a while, so hopefully they'll delve into that!

 

Gruff Codebreaker Boss: Now pip pip cheerio Tolkien, be a good lad and break this code the Jerry's have cooked up.

Lt. Tolkien: Very good sir. 

Gruff Codebreaker Boss: Now see here, it's not going to be easy Tolkien, it's like the Germans have invented their own black language, bloody Krauts. We're going to have to invent our own if we're going to win this thing!

(Tolkien gets quizzical look on face, strokes chin and nods to self)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

You can really see the resemblance. 

Colm Meaney                                                                                                                 Father Francis Morgan

gettyimages-185333072.jpg?w=446&h=299&crtolkien-father-francis.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
5 minutes ago, Bilbo Skywalker said:

its a pity they have to include Tolkien’s dirty little secret. 

Rugby

 

It will be in this scene that Tolkien will imagine the Uruk-Hai, as unstoppable muscular rugbymen will run towards him. Brilliant!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Ah I forgot to say, I saw Hoult filming a bit of this in Oxford about a month ago - there was a huge board of war posters put up, and horses and soldiers in the streets, which was pretty cool to see

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

This would've been a great series for the History Channel's 'Genius', the first two seasons followed the lives of Einstein and Picasso. In both series they had two actors at different ages portray the character.

 

My biggest setback with this film is that Hoult looks a little too young.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

56 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

A film about an older guy writing a long book in his free time why teaching at uni just doesn't seem very interesting.

 

That's why the film will only be inspired by true events.

 

57 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

Tolkien wasn’t always an old man.

 

Actually, he was.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/26/2019 at 12:47 PM, Holko said:

Images from Tolkien:

 

Tolkien seems to have been some kind of crackpot conspiracy theorist if that first photo is anything to go by. Runes, maps, pictures of spiders and elves on his walls are exactly how I pictured his room looked like before WWI. A classic literary world building teenager's room. All that is missing are red strings connecting various pieces of art, maps and "evidence" on that wall. :P 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what I so far read of HoME, I really cannot picture him that way. It was all there in his head ready to explore, he just wrote it down in all kinds of notebooks, pieces of paper, over previous texts or on the backs of papers to be graded. That collection of random art, cirth texts and neat maps is not nearly messy enough to convey him - even the maps he made up as the story went along. He did not linger on older ideas, looking at them on the wall, trying to tie them together, he rather gave it all up and started from scratch if something wasn't working.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, Incanus said:

Tolkien seems to have been some kind of crackpot conspiracy theorist if that first photo is anything to go by. Runes, maps, pictures of spiders and elves on his walls are exactly how I pictured his room looked like before WWI. A classic literary world building teenager's room. All that is missing are red strings connecting various pieces of art, maps and "evidence" on that wall. :P 

 

 

MealyDishonestBadger-size_restricted.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Bilbo said:

Tolkien wasn’t always an old man.

 

Did you not know? Academics live to be 120 years old. They're just born already at the age of 30 or 40. 😉

 

When I think of Tolkien, I certainly think of a professor. His academic tendencies are woven into everything he wrote.

 

But than, professors, as such, don't make for very interesting filmic subjects, so while I totally get @Arpy on this, I'm fine with what we're getting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/28/2019 at 8:10 AM, Stefancos said:

A film about an older guy writing a long book in his free time why teaching at uni just doesn't seem very interesting.

 

Well so much for my selling the film rights to my autobiography!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Saint Nicholas MLXVI said:

 

Well so much for my selling the film rights to my autobiography!

You're alive!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not really; This thread was initially about a biopic called "Middle Earth" to be directed by James Strong.  That still hasn't started filming, I don't think, but in the meantime, a completely separate Tolkien biopic called "Tolkien" directed by Dome Karukoski was announced, filmed, and now has a trailer

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.