Nick1Ø66

The Lost World is first in a string of unnecessary and uninspired sequels. And it's not even the best of those. Ready Player One was a fun book, and could have been a fun movie, but Spielberg was the last person who should have been directing that film. Abrams, who is a hack, would have been a better choice. While I can't specifically disagree that Hook isn't a great film (a woefully miscast and distracting Julia Roberts saw to that), I have a certain nostalgia for it. There's an innocence to it, though perhaps a belaboured one, and it's the last Spielberg directed kid's film before Spielberg forgot how to direct kid's films. And whatever you may think the Baseball Cap's worst firm is, I say without a hint of hyperbole that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is worse by a magnitude. No, not just his worst Indy film, the worst film of Spielberg's career. A complete embarrassment all around.

Must be an American thing. 😜

I like you Chen, and will drink with you, but you start spouting Wagner inspired poetry about your Canadian girlfriend and I’m outta there.

Handy list of lessons for these kids: LESSON ONE: Stay off the internet for the next ten years. LESSON TWO: Since you’re going to ignore lesson one, bank your money as you will need the cash for rehab one day. Here endeth the lesson.

The Hunt for Gollum is going to have to make a cool billion to break even. Which means it's going to roughly have to make as much as each of the other six films. I find this...unlikely. Where is the massive public appetite for more LOTR "content" on the big (or small) screen? I just don't see it, and neither ROP nor WotR has done anything to suggest otherwise. I'd say WB knows what they're doing, but given that a Rey movie was given the green-light, I'm not entirely convinced these studios understand the appeal (or lack thereof) of some of their own properties. But who knows, it might not matter. Seems like almost every DCU & MCU film these days is a flop, yet the studios keep churning them out.

LOTR is also pretty much done in terms of wide-spread pop culture appeal. WB (like Amazon) is seriously overestimating the popularity of the franchise, beyond adapting the books that have already been adapted. I mean, IMO, New Line and Jackson & Co. are just misjudging the appeal of more Tolkien on screen. They're going to find out the hard way.

Guys, it ain't gonna be Bear. Just put that out of your minds. There's more chance of me composing it than Bear McCreary. And I can't carry a tune.

Here's one of the many times Shore suggested he viewed LOTR (and by extension, The Hobbit) as one, singular work. I just can't imagine he'd want to see someone else compose the music for a story so tightly intertwined with the musical journey he's already told.

OK. I bet Leonard Rosenman's ghost.

What are we betting?

You're probably right, but the question is...why wouldn't it happen? Why shouldn't it happen? What's stopping it from happening? It frankly makes more sense that he would do it than wouldn't. I seriously doubt there's lack of interest in the material on Shore's part. So is he just too old and retired? I mean, he just did another film with Cronenberg, right? Or is there still something lingering from the King Kong fall out? (which we've never got the full story of).

Anyway, given this project’s ambitions, anyone but Shore will be a profound disappointment. I know people like to compare this to Rogue One, but despite that film's loose association with ANH, that film was by a completely different creative team, different characters, difference in tone, etc. The Hunt for Gollum is presumably much more seamless with its cinematic siblings, and for that you really need musical consistency. I mean, who else other than Shore wouldn't be a disappointment on some level? He's certainly the only composer that would get me excited about it. If Jackson could pull off AI Beatles, he’d have them compose and star. Make no mistake, PJ would jettison Elijah, Sean, Dominic & Billy for John, Paul, Ringo and George faster than you can say Kia Ora given the chance.

I mean, how many feature-length Jaws docs have there been now? Half a dozen? To say nothing of the myriad of shorts. I love the film, but yeah, I'm pretty sure I've heard all these fish stories many times before.

Anyone else hear Hamlisch’s electronic “Pyramids” abruptly come crashing in when they see this?