Rings of Power Amazon buys up Middle-earth, it searches the One Ring! (Rings of Power news thread)

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

12 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

A Writer's room isn't the issue. The need to maintain fidelty to the source material, enforced by a third party, is.

 

Filmmakers need to be merciless - and aplauded for their mercilessness - with handling source material. Imagine if someone told Lean: "No, David, the bridge doesn't explode in the book!" or called Kubrick on his treatment of Stephen King's writing in The Shining.

 

A lot of people seem to think adapting a book is to make a movie thats as faithful to the written page as possible. PJ's LOTR worked because he didnt do that. He used the book as source material to make the films. 

 

Spielberg and indeed Kubrick also never shied away from straying away from the source material to make the film they wanted to make.

 

I admire that more than slavishly trying to stay faithful to something thats a different medium.

[Holko 9,516]

I don't mind diversions if they elevate the film and are keeping to the spirit and intentions of the original. Hell, maybe even scratch that last one, if the result turns out to be a masterpiece overshadowing the source material (it happens, who today even knows Jaws and maybe Jurassic Park were adapted from massive hit books?) But if you gut the story, throw the main themes, spirit and ideas out and what you do with it instead is nothing better than a 'meh', like with some of the latter, especially the 8th HP, or to keep on the thread's topic, the Middle-Earth: Shadow of ____ games or parts of the Hobbit trilogy... one has to wonder why they bothered going different just to be worse when keeping to the original vision you set out to adapt would've been fine, if nothing more.

[Chen G. 3,949]

3 minutes ago, Holko said:

I don't mind diversions if they elevate the film and are keeping to the spirit and intentions of the original.

 

That's just it. A good adaptation isn't a film which deviates the least that it absolutely has to from the source material. You don't need an excuse for every single change from the book: you make them as a natural part of the screenwriting process.

 

If its a good film, than bugger with the changes, necessary or not.

[mstrox 6,651]

What if you deviate heavily from the book which serves as source material, especially tonally, and it's not a good film, and there are three?? of them?

[Chen G. 3,949]

Good films.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

This series will take place in the second age right? So they're adapting what? The ROTK appendices?

[Chen G. 3,949]

It’s all you need. Really, what information is there about the Second Age in Akallabeth, which is not present in the appendices?

[Holko 9,516]

The Mariner's Wife!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

6 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

It’s all you need. Really, what information is there about the Second Age in Akallabeth, which is not present in the appendices?

 

So they're doing a show about the part of his mythology Tolkiens seems to have been least interested in, and which is mainly about Man, feuding against each other over power, rather then Elves or Sauron?

 

Amazon is just interested in doing their Game Of Thrones!

 

 

[Chen G. 3,949]

The Second Age was really only crafted as a bridge from The First Age and the Third Age. But it still has potential.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

For what?

 

 

[mstrox 6,651]

They won't have a lot to conflict with - just kind of like historical guidelines, setting - so I don't know why anyone would be concerned about the Tolkien estate protecting the text.  Amazon could do almost anything they want within that framework.

[Holko 9,516]

A quick cash-in series without having to deal with the Estate for licencing the actual stories and characters out?

1 minute ago, Stefancos said:

For what?

 

 

 

[mstrox 6,651]

Anyone else think the original poem was better than Gibson's unfaithful Braveheart adaptation?

[Chen G. 3,949]

20 hours ago, Stefancos said:

For what?

 

For interesting storylines. It has a cataclysmic event in the bending of the sea, it has themes of human corruptability, it comments on Imperialism. It would also be interesting to see Middle Earth largely under a central rule, like the republic in the prequel trilogy.

 

20 hours ago, mstrox said:

Anyone else think the original poem was better than Gibson's unfaithful Braveheart adaptation?

 

Nothing is better than Braveheart, except The Lord of the Rings.

[mstrox 6,651]

I give Braveheart an 8/10, which is a B grade.  OK to pretty good, somewhere in that range!   Poem's great.

[Holko 9,516]

A 20 line poem into a 3 hour film, was Gibson out of his mind??

[mstrox 6,651]

At least it was only one 3-hour film!

[Barnald 365]

With regard to the Tolkien Estate - do we even know what the current custodians are like with regard to the material? Obviously no one expects them to be as militant as Christopher, and the fact that they've softened their stance on licencing says a lot, but I wonder if this apparent power to veto is paying lip-service to their role as Christopher's successors, as guardians of Tolkien's work if you will. I guess we won't find out until the show is in full swing, but given how much Amazon have paid I'm not expecting the Estate to be all that meddlesome.

 

And as for Shippey, I think the fact that he hasn't really met any of the writing team yet is instructive. I read something recently about the apparent Tolkien advisor on The Hobbit and Shadows of Mordor (lol), who said something about her role being to make sure that the filmmakers/developers stayed within the boundaries of the material that was available to them. And given the scope of Shippey's interview, and the area in which he seems most knowledgeable (in relation to the production I mean), I suspect that his role here is a similar one.

 

1 hour ago, mstrox said:

At least it was only one 3-hour film!

 

And finally we're getting the 'sequel' we've all been waiting for. Angus MacFadyen about to show that upstart Chris Pine who the real Robert the Bruce is. He'll probably get his dick out as well just to hammer home the point.

[Chen G. 3,949]

Braveheart is the kind of film that doesn’t lend itself to serialization. It’s got only one of the best endings in the history of cinema, it’d be a shame to follow it up with something that doesn’t live up to it.

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

Someone actually pushed the Braveheart button with Chen G. then, eh? 

[Chen G. 3,949]

It’s one of the major inspirations of the live-action films, so it’s perfectly natural for it to emerge here.

 

If this show goes for an aesthetic that’s more Braveheart than Game of Thrones, I’ll be a happy man.

[Barnald 365]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-lord-of-the-rings-veterans-favorite-things-11563971720?fbclid=IwAR0sBbFBxT1QdeSBEd-pWvRKLiLQpoNVWtQWnuRlqLhGySRR4o5JnbuN8Jg

 

Shore has a Numenorean helmet on his desk.

 

I think we all know what this means.

[Holko 9,516]

Just pay 9.99 to actually see it!

[Barnald 365]

This will do:

 

 

[Pellaeon 593]

When reading The Lord of the Rings, I could always visualize how it would play out on screen. My visualization is not the same as PJ’s adaptation, but, PJ did obviously receive widespread acclaim for his LotR, and the reason is that Tolkien wrote great dialogue and great visuals. So PJ succeeded where he adapted Tolkien, line for line and scene for scene. This was largely the case in the first film (FotR), and less and less so as the series progressed. His invented scenes and invented dialogues were really hard to swallow, and not just because I’m some sort of purist, and not just because they were poor Tolkien pastiche, but I think just objectively they were the weakest parts of the films.

 

So, Tolkien has other works with the same sense of “immediacy” as LotR — stories in which he writes scenes and dialogue. But not a hell of a lot relating to the Second Age. The exception would be the excellent The Notion Club Papers, the framing story for Tolkien’s Atlantis epic, which was of course unfinished, and I don’t see anyone other than me talking about it.

 

So basically, sure, we can presume Sauron (Annatar/Zigûr) will be sneaking around tricking elves and corrupting men; and there will be lots of battles and yes, sex. But the grand-scale outline provided by Tolkien is an insufficient basis for writing a TV show. The plotting and the aesthetics and the dialogue are going to necessarily be almost completely from whole cloth.

 

So that being the case, given virtual carte blanche, of course it’s possible their brilliant team could come up with some material that is good TV and good Tolkien pastiche. I don’t have a lot of faith, however. Especially on the heels of the GoT last few seasons falling so flat (presumably based on GRRM outlines) — which it really ought not have, considering its budget was a blank check, and GRRM pastiche is a much lower standard than Tolkien pastiche.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

1 minute ago, Pellaeon said:

So PJ succeeded where he adapted Tolkien, line for line and scene for scene.

 

I disagree with this!

 

There are very few instances where this happens in these films anyway.

[Pellaeon 593]

That’s probably why I mostly dislike them!

[Chen G. 3,949]

When you know that something was written down in a certain way, not only do you become attached to how it was written, but you also become that much more attuned in looking for flaws in scenes which are unlike or don't exist in the novel. An audience member who didn't read the source material (who is by definition the main audience of an adapted screenplay) wouldn't have that problem, and I doubt such a viewer would be able to tell what's Tolkien and what isn't.

 

I don't think there's much of a trend of decreasing fidelty in the adaptation from film to film. This series was always forging its own creative path, almost independently from the books, all the way through all the phases of scripting going back to the ninties. Certainly, within each trilogy, it'd be hard to chart such a trend because by and large all three films in each "batch" were scripted and shot in one go.

[Pellaeon 593]

3 hours ago, Chen G. said:

An audience member who didn't read the source material (who is by definition the main audience of an adapted screenplay) wouldn't have that problem,

 

That seems a leap. The not-inconsiderable “pre-sold” audience is critical to the adaptation being realized in the first place. Anyway, those of us in that category may feel free to weigh in, presumably, without being told what our “problem” is.

 

3 hours ago, Chen G. said:

and I doubt such a viewer would be able to tell what's Tolkien and what isn't.

 

I have no idea if they could tell or not, but my guess is that most things that really struck a chord with people by and large came from the books and were not invented whole cloth.

[Evanus 217]

Yes please!

[Chen G. 3,949]

I’ll just put this here:

 

https://narniafans.com/2019/08/interview-with-narnia-conceptual-designer-john-howe/

 

specifically:

 

Quote

The showrunners are determined to remain faithful to the existing trilogies.

 

Hell yeah, Middle Earth cinematic universe!

 

PUT IT IN MY VEINS!

[Quintus 5,399]

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

You bet you're ass mate!

[Pellaeon 593]

Does a bear shit in the woods?

[Jay 37,340]

1 hour ago, Stefancos said:

You bet you're ass mate!

 

You bet you are ass mate?

[Quintus 5,399]

It's okay, I already knew Stefan thinks I'm a piece of ass.

[Chen G. 3,949]

2 hours ago, Pellaeon said:

Does a bear shit in the woods?

 

You leave Beorn’s bowl movements out of this!

[gkgyver 1,645]

Can't be that hard to get Shore to write some music for this.

Must be expensive, though.

After all, he needs to get paid compensation for having to Hansify his score to please the suits.

[Chen G. 3,949]

Now that we know its going to be in continuity with the films, one can hope.

 

It'd be fun to see Shore, say, derive an Eregion theme from his Rivendell material.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

On 8/19/2019 at 4:42 PM, Quintus said:

It's okay, I already knew Stefan thinks I'm a piece of ass.

 

You are confusing me with Kate again, I think.

[toothless 963]

‘Lord of The Rings’ Series at Amazon Casts Will Poulter (EXCLUSIVE)

 

https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/lord-of-the-rings-series-amazon-will-poulter-cast-1203321951/

[Jay 37,340]

Eustace Scrubb!

[Arpy 4,145]

Will Poulter will always be that kid from Son of Rambo to me! I think he'll do a fine job whoever he's cast as - some are already speculating he'll be playing Elrond!

[Bilbo 3,709]

 

[mstrox 6,651]

🇨🇦

[toothless 963]

They just have to announce that Shore is involved and I will sure watch it  

 

 

[Barnald 365]

2 hours ago, toothless said:

They just have to announce that Shore is involved and I will sure watch it  

 

 

 

I still might not necessarily watch it, but at least then I could watch it blindfolded.

[toothless 963]

If Shore is not interested, or not asked to do it or whatever other reason… give it to Bear McCreary then!

[KK 3,307]

Oh God, please no...