Amazon and WB discussing new LORD OF THE RINGS TV series

[Darth Richard II]

Ha, I'd watch the Star Wars Prequels over The Hobbit nonsense any day.

[Yukle]

I love the Lord of the Rings.

You know what else I love? The thought that maybe, just maybe, I might be able to go to the movies again without seeing 34 Fast, 34 Furious or turn on the TV without seeing, M*A*S*H*: Reborn and Reloaded.

Seriously, if the success of Stranger Things has taught us anything, it's that you can do nostalgia without simply redoing everything that has already been done. 

[red snow]

4 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

Ha, I'd watch the Star Wars Prequels over The Hobbit nonsense any day.

same here. For one thing the prequels actually bothered to be individual films with a beginning, middle and end. Those last two hobbits were a mess - no one involved in making them gave a shit where one film started and the other ended. I have little interest in ever watching those last two hobbit films again. I'd easily choose the star wars prequels over Hobbit if held at gunpoint.

2 hours ago, Yukle said:

I love the Lord of the Rings.

You know what else I love? The thought that maybe, just maybe, I might be able to go to the movies again without seeing 34 Fast, 34 Furious or turn on the TV without seeing, M*A*S*H*: Reborn and Reloaded.

Seriously, if the success of Stranger Things has taught us anything, it's that you can do nostalgia without simply redoing everything that has already been done. 

I guess Fast and Furious is/was original content? It's not a remake of anything. If that counts for something. We've yet to be told there's going to be a fast and furious prequel TV show exploring what happened between the first two films. I'm not ruling it out. Maybe a steam-pink prequel set before cars called "fast and fume-ious"

The danger with the streaming channels is that they are channeling their cash into big shows. Netflix started it with the Marvel deal, now we have star wars and LOTR entering the fray. As others say there'll be a Potterverse TV show in the next ten years.

But it's still the case that new shows run the risk of failing to find an audience. Netflix had several flops before getting stranger things. the appeal of remakes is you start big and have a buffer to build a show before the audience dwindles. I still think they should take a gamble as networks can make a lot of money when it works and I'm sure some like netflix must operate on a "we know 4 of these shows will fail but the breakout success of the 5th show covers that cost"

 

[Yukle]

4 minutes ago, red snow said:

I guess Fast and Furious is/was original content? It's not a remake of anything. If that counts for something. We've yet to be told there's going to be a fast and furious prequel TV show exploring what happened between the first two films. I'm not ruling it out. Maybe a steam-pink prequel set before cars called "fast and fume-ious"

But it's still the case that new shows run the risk of failing to find an audience. Netflix had several flops before getting stranger things. the appeal of remakes is you start big and have a buffer to build a show before the audience dwindles. I still think they should take a gamble as networks can make a lot of money when it works and I'm sure some like netflix must operate on a "we know 4 of these shows will fail but the breakout success of the 5th show covers that cost"

Firstly, you should copyright "Fast and Fume-ious."  Haha!

And secondly, I think that's exactly Netflix's thinking. The thing about creative risks is that risks often fail. Netflix is happy to take that risk but large companies are not. Disney, especially, has lost its entire creative soul and is now ONLY redoing what it already knows. Its purchase of Marvel and Star Wars are the worst parts of this thinking.

As a result, there's little to see that we haven't before - and when something is successful, it is immediately milked into the ground (which is why I mentioned Fast and Furious).

[polishgenius]

9 minutes ago, red snow said:

We've yet to be told there's going to be a fast and furious prequel TV show exploring what happened between the first two films. I'm not ruling it out. Maybe a steam-pink prequel set before cars called "fast and fume-ious"

Well, technically speaking all of 4, 5 and 6 were prequels taking place between films 2 and 3.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

4 hours ago, red snow said:

same here. For one thing the prequels actually bothered to be individual films with a beginning, middle and end. Those last two hobbits were a mess - no one involved in making them gave a shit where one film started and the other ended. I have little interest in ever watching those last two hobbit films again. I'd easily choose the star wars prequels over Hobbit if held at gunpoint.

I guess Fast and Furious is/was original content? It's not a remake of anything. If that counts for something. We've yet to be told there's going to be a fast and furious prequel TV show exploring what happened between the first two films. I'm not ruling it out. Maybe a steam-pink prequel set before cars called "fast and fume-ious"

The danger with the streaming channels is that they are channeling their cash into big shows. Netflix started it with the Marvel deal, now we have star wars and LOTR entering the fray. As others say there'll be a Potterverse TV show in the next ten years.

But it's still the case that new shows run the risk of failing to find an audience. Netflix had several flops before getting stranger things. the appeal of remakes is you start big and have a buffer to build a show before the audience dwindles. I still think they should take a gamble as networks can make a lot of money when it works and I'm sure some like netflix must operate on a "we know 4 of these shows will fail but the breakout success of the 5th show covers that cost"

 

What I hate is when they will not put their shows into a format I will buy, like "Man in the High Castle" refusing to be put on DVD.

I have never had any desire to see any of the "Fast and Furious" films.  Not ever.  

After watching the snoozefest that was "Star Trek: Beyond" (I fell asleep after the first 20 minutes) I seriously doubt I ever will.  Unrelenting action can be just as boring as constant exposition.

[williamjm]

10 hours ago, Yukle said:

And secondly, I think that's exactly Netflix's thinking. The thing about creative risks is that risks often fail. Netflix is happy to take that risk but large companies are not. Disney, especially, has lost its entire creative soul and is now ONLY redoing what it already knows. Its purchase of Marvel and Star Wars are the worst parts of this thinking.

The irony is that many of these companies say they want their own Game of Thrones, but they're not willing to take the same risk that HBO did in adapting a book series that may have been a bestseller but was still little known outside of epic fantasy fans.

[GallowKnight]

12 hours ago, red snow said:

I guess Fast and Furious is/was original content? It's not a remake of anything. If that counts for something. We've yet to be told there's going to be a fast and furious prequel TV show exploring what happened between the first two films. I'm not ruling it out. Maybe a steam-pink prequel set before cars called "fast and fume-ious"

Although the first movie is just Point Break with cars.

[Darth Richard II]

12 hours ago, red snow said:

same here. For one thing the prequels actually bothered to be individual films with a beginning, middle and end. Those last two hobbits were a mess - no one involved in making them gave a shit where one film started and the other ended. I have little interest in ever watching those last two hobbit films again. I'd easily choose the star wars prequels over Hobbit if held at gunpoint.

I guess Fast and Furious is/was original content? It's not a remake of anything. If that counts for something. We've yet to be told there's going to be a fast and furious prequel TV show exploring what happened between the first two films. I'm not ruling it out. Maybe a steam-pink prequel set before cars called "fast and fume-ious"

The danger with the streaming channels is that they are channeling their cash into big shows. Netflix started it with the Marvel deal, now we have star wars and LOTR entering the fray. As others say there'll be a Potterverse TV show in the next ten years.

But it's still the case that new shows run the risk of failing to find an audience. Netflix had several flops before getting stranger things. the appeal of remakes is you start big and have a buffer to build a show before the audience dwindles. I still think they should take a gamble as networks can make a lot of money when it works and I'm sure some like netflix must operate on a "we know 4 of these shows will fail but the breakout success of the 5th show covers that cost"

 

The Hobbit films didn't even have scripts for a lot of shooting. There is a great part on one of the extras of Peter Jackson sleeping through a scene he's directing.

[The Bard of Banefort]

One of the reasons why I love The Hobbit is because I find Bilbo to be so incredibly endearing. I tend to find that whenever there's a show or movie where there's one character you're really drawn to, it's much easier to look over its flaws. 

[williamjm]

6 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

One of the reasons why I love The Hobbit is because I find Bilbo to be so incredibly endearing. I tend to find that whenever there's a show or movie where there's one character you're really drawn to, it's much easier to look over its flaws. 

Whatever flaws the movie trilogy may have (and it had plenty), Martin Freeman as Bilbo was a perfect piece of casting.

[Eggegg]

2 hours ago, williamjm said:

Whatever flaws the movie trilogy may have (and it had plenty), Martin Freeman as Bilbo was a perfect piece of casting.

I'm not sure. I initally liked the idea of him as Bilbo, but I was never 100% comfortable with him in the role. Maybe it was just the script, that criminally forgot about Bilbo, but he never quite captured the character in my mind. He was always just a little too  'Tim from the Office' for my liking. Maybe I'd have preferred him to be older and fatter, more stereotypically english. I'm not sure.

[red snow]

5 hours ago, Eggegg said:

I'm not sure. I initally liked the idea of him as Bilbo, but I was never 100% comfortable with him in the role. Maybe it was just the script, that criminally forgot about Bilbo, but he never quite captured the character in my mind. He was always just a little too  'Tim from the Office' for my liking. Maybe I'd have preferred him to be older and fatter, more stereotypically english. I'm not sure.

It wasn't until "Fargo" that I thought Freeman was capable of anything other than "tim from the office". That said that type of endearing character who's often out of their depth fits Bilbo pretty well.

On 18/11/2017 at 9:47 PM, Darth Richard II said:

The Hobbit films didn't even have scripts for a lot of shooting. There is a great part on one of the extras of Peter Jackson sleeping through a scene he's directing.

That would explain a lot of the film -especially those bits that felt like cuts from Final Fantasy games.

Someday I'll try the edited version but I can't bring myself to watch part 2 or 3 yet. Part 1 I could probably manage.

[Yukle]

On 11/19/2017 at 6:29 AM, williamjm said:

The irony is that many of these companies say they want their own Game of Thrones, but they're not willing to take the same risk that HBO did in adapting a book series that may have been a bestseller but was still little known outside of epic fantasy fans.

It was still a huge risk, given the series wasn't finished. There was every possibility that they would have to write the conclusion on their own because the series could overtake the books.

[Gronzag]

Are they going to make it more 'diverse'? And how? Will they make hobbits black, or is Gondor going to be multi-culti society? What about LGBT characters?

[Werthead]

54 minutes ago, Gronzag said:

Are they going to make it more 'diverse'? And how? Will they make hobbits black, or is Gondor going to be multi-culti society? What about LGBT characters?

Gondor was a multicultural society. The kingdom was an accumulation of many different principalities and ethnic groups. At the height of its power its borders extended far beyond Umbar into Harad and there were certainly many black people living under Gondor's not-entirely-gentle rule at that point.

If they have got The Silmarillion rights, they'll also be doing stories with many more female characters (The Silmarillion was way more equal in that regard than the chronologically later books). If they're doing original stories then obviously they can do whatever they want.

[Krishtotter]

4 hours ago, Werthead said:

Gondor was a multicultural society. The kingdom was an accumulation of many different principalities and ethnic groups. At the height of its power its borders extended far beyond Umbar into Harad and there were certainly many black people living under Gondor's not-entirely-gentle rule at that point.

If they have got The Silmarillion rights, they'll also be doing stories with many more female characters (The Silmarillion was way more equal in that regard than the chronologically later books). If they're doing original stories then obviously they can do whatever they want.

 

Yes but in addition to Harad or "South Gondor" there was also the Lebennin region:

 

http://www.councilofelrond.com/map/lebennin.html

 

Quote

 

Lebennin

Province of Gondor occupying the lands south of the White Mountains between the River Gilrain and the Anduin.

When the Numenorians first arrived and began settling in Lebennin in the Second Age they found it to be already inhabited. Interbreeding since that time resulted in a mixed people where the heritage of Numenor can be seen but where many of the citizens are still short and swarthy like the original inhabitants.

 

http://www.henneth-annun.net/places_view.cfm?plid=96

 

Quote

 

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 5, Ch 1, Minas Tirith

The most part of the people of Gondor lived in the seven circles of the City, or in the high vales of the mountain-borders, in Lossarnach, or further south in fair Lebennin with its five swift streams. There dwelt a hardy folk between the mountains and the sea. They were reckoned men of Gondor, yet their blood was mingled, and there were short and swarthy folk among them whose sires came more from the forgotten men who housed in the shadow of the hills in the Dark Years ere the coming of the kings.

 

 

 

 

So contrary to the popular impression (as, for instance, derived from PJ's film trilogy), Gondor was actually described by Tolkien as a kingdom inhabited by a variety of ethnic groups with very different skin colours, including dark complexions, and cultures.

A multi-ethnic, multi-cultural society.

[Werthead]

Quote

So contrary to the popular impression (as, for instance, derived from PJ's film trilogy)

According to PJ. Gondor consisted of a flat plain and exactly one city. It was a bit lame.

[Ran]

Ecthelion II, son of Turgon, was a man of wisdom. With what power was left to him he began to strengthen his realm against the assault of Mordor.

He encouraged all men of worth from near or far to enter his service, and to those who proved trustworthy he gave rank and reward. In much that he did he had the aid and advice of a great captain whom he loved above all. Thorongil men called him in Gondor, the Eagle of the Star, for he was swift and keen-eyed, and wore a silver star upon his cloak; but no one knew his true name nor in what land he was born. He came to Ecthelion from Rohan, where he had served the King Thengel, but he was not one of the Rohirrim. He was a great leader of men, by land or by sea, but he departed into the shadows whence he came, before the days of Ecthelion were ended.

You can see the outlines of a show around this -- set in Gondor, motley crew of adventurers and warriors from lands near and far -- a shield maiden from Rohan? Some heroic freedom fighters from Harad? Could you work in a couple of dwarves and an elf (a stretch, I know)? And of course folk like a knight from Dol Amroth, etc. -- and intertwine flashes to Thorongil/Aragorn's past that are relevant to the present story (for example, his time in Rohan and the fact that Thengel's household speaks the Common Tongue and "not all thought this was good", suggesting you can have some turmoil among the Horse. Flesh out the dangers -- maybe there's a sorceress in Umbar, maybe you see the machinations of the Black Numenoreans, of course you've got the heir to the Steward, and so on and so forth... 

I mean, there's lots of possibilities in that short material.

 

[Corvinus85]

47 minutes ago, Werthead said:

According to PJ. Gondor consisted of a flat plain and exactly one city. It was a bit lame.

And the beacons, don't forget the beacons.