Lord of the Rings TV Series in Development - How could this POSSIBLY go wrong...

[Your Weird Fetish]

The first Hobbit is thoroughly "OK". Battle of Five Armies is a disaster though. Just watch the Rankin Bass version.

 

[Kulee Baba]

The first Hobbit is thoroughly "OK". Battle of Five Armies is a disaster though. Just watch the Rankin Bass version.

I think what hurt the Hobbit trilogy most of all is that the most important scene of Bilbo meeting Gollum and getting the ring is in that first movie.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

I think what hurt the Hobbit trilogy most of all is that the most important scene of Bilbo meeting Gollum and getting the ring is in that first movie.

They fucked it up anyway with cutesy Gollum instead of scary Gollum. Andy Serkis had it in him to do it right, Jackson just dropped the ball.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

>Making LotR like Game of Thrones

Reminder Tolkien personally reviewed a proposed film script for his books and sent it back with all the action scenes crossed out.

Why? Did he have some moralistic objection to violence in movies? Thought action would distract from its other qualities?

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Just hoping they don't wave titties around like most fantasy shows do nowadays. I'm not a Puritan but graphic sex in LotR is like mayo on chocolate. Just doesn't fucking go together.

I've heard that they're going to have an episode entirely about Gandalf Raping Day.

 

[Intelligent Calcium]

There's Imaro, who is apparently black!Conan in fantasy!Africa. Never read, not sure if it's any good, but I was able to find that with five minutes' searching on Wikipedia. The stuff is out there if people actually bother to look (and I'm guessing the license to Imaro is a fair bit cheaper than the license to LotR) but they want the name recognition and lack of effort that comes with the LotR IP.

Plus there's arguably more social capital in "correcting" a problematic, white-centric work of fiction than in just adapting something that naturally fits better with [current year] sensibilities. They have a weird obsession with planting their flag like that.

 

[Replicant Sasquatch]

Why? Did he have some moralistic objection to violence in movies? Thought action would distract from its other qualities?

Tolkien had a severe distaste for violence, probably because he saw a lot of people die in the trenches during WWI.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

Tabletop games still have not fallen due to the barrier of needing a fucking rulebook in order to play the game. You may get a small infestation but within a few months they're tossed out because table top mechanics are all by the numbers and are not a CYOA story.

I don't think tabletop games ever will entirely fall, simply because GMs and players will merrily take chainsaws to themes or mechanics they find annoying, irritating, or loathsome, and there's nothing SJWs can do about it. Oh, sure, they can insist on 'official' rules during events like conventions... but comparatively speaking, those are a drop in the bucket compared to all the kids and grognards playing in the basement or at the kitchen table.

Tolkien had a severe distaste for violence, probably because he saw a lot of people die in the trenches during WWI.

There are certainly worse reasons.

 

[frozenrunner]

I actually just started watching the Hobbit today (have already seen the lotr trilogy many times), saw the first one at least. Not as bad as I thought it would be, though I haven't read the book. I'm not a huge LOTR nerd and I tried getting into the books but never did, however so far it seems alright. It might not be as good, but a movie is seldom as good as the book so I don't count that a valid complaint. The acting, effects, story, all seemed correct. I liked the casting choices, the score, it was all pretty enjoyable. Maybe it gets worse come the next movies but I feel like the hobbit is fine.

You really should read the book. It's a lot closer to a (brilliant) children's book than the more mature LotR novels, something the films completely failed to capture. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are entirely different in tone.

It however has the advantage of working with a source material, of which I seriously doubt this show will be using. Has anyone confirmed if this is going to actually be the original LOTR story, or is it going to be derivative of the source material? There is hope yet if they are just going to use the original script but turn it into a series. However, there were so many actors from the LOTR trilogy that just completely stole the show, like Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee, Viggo Mortensen, that it will be a major set of shoes to fill.

This is going to be complete fanfic, not even based on sketches from The Silmarillion. It's going to be awful.

I don't know if anyone has done autistic research into whether the color of the skin of all the races were specified, but all I can remember is that it would have been specified for the Elves. It doesn't make sense for dwarves or hobbits, and orcs are going to have too much makeup to tell, so I'm betting the black actors will either be humans or orcs. You can replace side characters with people of color maybe, but the fellowship is just too solidified a group of characters to be changed like that come the show. Worst case scenario is the House of Isildur is blacked. Again I don't have a problem with hiring more people of color, but you cannot and should not change established characters like that.

Hollywood doesn't care about the source material at all. They're going to have blacks in random roles that don't make any sense, just like The Witcher, mark my words.

And if they don't, it will be because the estate of Tolkien forces them to exercise restraint. Hollywood is filled with self-loathing shitlibs who want to market everything they make to the entire world, and they cast accordingly. Random, illogical races will be shoved into everything from now on unless they literally can't.

I wonder if they'll add Tom Bombadil?

Even though this will take place hundreds (thousands?) of years before tLotR, Bombadil is ancient and could show up if they wanted to have him make a cameo.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

Tolkien had a severe distaste for violence, probably because he saw a lot of people die in the trenches during WWI.

What a pussy.

 

[Cyril Sneer]

Cut the longer, less plot relevant scenes like Bombadil, ended the story with the destruction of the Ring instead of the Scouring of the Shire, and made Aragorn an actual character with an arc instead of a stern-gazed superman who could make even the Mouth of Sauron quake with just a look.

I like Tolkien's Aragorn better. Viggo Mortensen is a great actor, and as such, it was disappointing to see him go with the clichéd "reluctant hero" characterization.

 

[Pokemonquistador2]

I like Tolkien's Aragorn better. Viggo Mortensen is a great actor, and as such, it was disappointing to see him go with the clichéd "reluctant hero" characterization.

I think Bakshi's Aragon (voiced by John Hurt) was probably the best. He was unconventional looking and built like a brick shithouse, and seemed like just the kind of stern anchor personality that you'd want helming an important mission like delivering the One Ring to Mount Doom. I'm not sure he really needed an arc as I kind of considered him the "Dad" of the group, the one who has to keep everyone together and moving forward. Giving him an arc and making him softer was, I feel, a concession to the slashfic writers the more romantically inclined viewers.

 

[Cyril Sneer]

I think Bakshi's Aragon (voiced by John Hurt) was probably the best. He was unconventional looking and built like a brick shithouse, and seemed like just the kind of stern anchor personality that you'd want helming an important mission like delivering the One Ring to Mount Doom. I'm not sure he really needed an arc as I kind of considered him the "Dad" of the group, the one who has to keep everyone together and moving forward. Giving him an arc and making him softer was, I feel, a concession to the slashfic writers the more romantically inclined viewers.

Absolutely. The thing is, Aragorn by all rights shouldn't have an "arc" as such, over the course of LOTR. By the time that the story begins, he's a 90-year-old near-demigod who's been fighting (quite often literally) towards the goal of ascending his ancestral throne for longer than many of the members of the Fellowship have been alive. Treating him like a wishy-washy millennial thirty-something was quite ridiculous.

 

[Bioniclelover]

Christopher Tolkien has passed away today, and with him goes the single most ardent defender of the Tolkien legacy from dumb media fads and garbage pandering.

Could he get heart attack after seeing the cast for the new lord of the rings series?

 

[Finrod Felagund]

Has anyone confirmed if this is going to actually be the original LOTR story, or is it going to be derivative of the source material?

This is going to be complete fanfic, not even based on sketches from The Silmarillion. It's going to be awful.

To be fairly some sources tell it's mainly Second Age fanfic to bridge between the Akallabeth and Of the Rings of Power i.e the last two stories of The Silmarillion. Still, that's not to say it's not going to be awful.

And if they don't, it will be because the estate of Tolkien forces them to exercise restraint.

I personally believe the estate will not even let Amazon try. They've (the estate) been very generous to let Hollywood make fanfic out of Middle-earth this time only. Remember WB got under fire for making The Hobbit and Shadow of Mordor/War?

Speaking of Shadow of Mordor, we're going to see an upcoming video game featuring anxiety friend Gollum and Amazon is planning to make LOTR Online 2: Electric Boogaloo, totally not related to the Prime series. Right, right???

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

Someone's making a monthly fee theme park MMORPG in current year? Fucking weird.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

I will say this. The new girl playing Galadriel....does look like Galadriel

 

[not william stenchever]

By the time that the story begins, he's a 90-year-old near-demigod who's been fighting (quite often literally) towards the goal of ascending his ancestral throne for longer than many of the members of the Fellowship have been alive.

In the Medieval II Total War mod Third Age: Divide and Conquer Aragorn and his bodyguard unit are absolute badasses that reflect this fact. They are a unique unit of horse archers/medium cavalry that can reap a heavy toll when micromanaged well. Once you get the enemy fleeing his killcount starts to skyrocket

 

[Duke Nukem]

there's already the movies, what's the point of this?

They've already destroyed Terminator, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Dr. Who, among other franchises.

Why not throw this one on the funeral pyre too?

 

[Zaryiu]

If you're talking about the Rankin-Bass version instead of the Rakph Bakshi version I will find you and kill you and yes this is a written threat.

Fight me, heretic.

Actually, I was thinking of Bakshi's version. I'll be honest I don't even remember the Rankin-Bass one (I don't even think I saw it).

Although I really can't match this guy's critique.

Both of those are fine art compared to (i) don't dislike them, i need to rewatch them to make sure i can remember it all) the bullet that was John Boorman and Rospo Palienberg script which had the following changes among other: Gimli would have been put in a hole and beaten so he can retrieve from his ancestral memory the password to get into Moria, Frodo and Galadriel have sex, Arwen is instead a teenaged spiritual guide to Aragorn while Êowyn is his love interest and remember how Aragorn heal Êowyn? In this script he heals her on the battlefield and it has sexual undertones, i'm dead fucking serious.
And yet i can feel it in my very being that i will be utterly shocked if it doesn't take a short time before freaks out there will create something worse