LOTR prequel TV series 2.0

[Krishtotter]

I have never heard of the actress but the name 'Tyra' is likely an audition name, because it was already in use for the auditions at a UK drama school months ago.

I don't think they would have let actual character names get out that far back, as it would have given the game away about the plot much too early, even before casting had been done. And they are being especially secretive about this production, after all.

Her character name, as well as a few others, were circulating in the rumour-mill on a sub-reddit 2 months ago. See this post and thread by a redditor called Lost_And_NotFound:

 

/r/LOTR_on_Prime/comments/bprfwq/character_names_in_audition_scripts/

 

Auditions are well underway for the show and I have been told that four names in an audition script are Eldien, Beldor, Aric and Tyra. These could likely be fake names for audition purposes or real names to be used in the show. Wish I could have found out more about the contents of the audition script...These auditions that I know about were held at a U.K. drama school so they were getting brand new actors.

 

So this news proves that the "leaker" 2 months ago was legit and right. (Tyra and Aric are NOT Tolkienesque names - Eldien is like a poor attempt at doing so).

Eldien is suspiciously similar-sounding to Aldarion, if you ask me, pretty much a phonetic corruption of it. 

[Werthead]

Beldor could also be a nod at Brimbor aka Celebrimbor.

[Ser Drewy]

https://www.esquire.com/uk/latest-news/a28516511/game-of-thrones-showrunners-in-for-lord-of-the-rings-tv-series/

So rumours circulating that everyone's favourite writing duo might be involved in the show. 

[Werthead]

Full creative line-up announced.

This is a very strong team of writers. Very impressive pedigree on some of these guys: Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Halt & Catch Fire, Toy Story 4, Hannibal, Game of Thrones (fortunately the good episodes) and a few others.

Tom Shippey and John Howe being 100% onboard as consultants and storyboard artist is also fantastic news.

16 minutes ago, Ser Drewy said:

https://www.esquire.com/uk/latest-news/a28516511/game-of-thrones-showrunners-in-for-lord-of-the-rings-tv-series/

So rumours circulating that everyone's favourite writing duo might be involved in the show. 

They're not.

[DMC]

2 hours ago, Ser Drewy said:

https://www.esquire.com/uk/latest-news/a28516511/game-of-thrones-showrunners-in-for-lord-of-the-rings-tv-series/

So rumours circulating that everyone's favourite writing duo might be involved in the show. 

Gotta say, this quote from the article made me LOL:

Quote

HBO itself is fairly relaxed about Benioff and Weiss toddling off to make their enormous fortune and anger Tolkien fans by suddenly turning Gandalf into a vengeful dragon-riding bastard who leaves halfway through the Battle of the Pelennor Fields to torch the Shire.

Anyway, yeah a quick look seems to show this isn't true, and the two are just shopping around their services to sign an exclusive deal with someone, which may be Amazon but may not.

[Ran]

The original piece from Variety does not claim the consulting producers (Cogman and Folsom) are writers on the show.

[Werthead]

20 minutes ago, Ran said:

The original piece from Variety does not claim the consulting producers (Cogman and Folsom) are writers on the show.

The Twitter announcement does.

I was actually surprised by this, as Cogman joined after the point that I assumed the Season 1 scripts would need to have been completed for shooting to begin next month. However, some reports floating around are that there will be some "early shooting" next month - presumably to satisfy the contractual agreement with the Tolkien Estate for production to begin before November or they lose the rights - and full-scale production will begin in the Spring, which means they have a few more months for rewrites.

[Krishtotter]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

The original piece from Variety does not claim the consulting producers (Cogman and Folsom) are writers on the show.

This was announced first by Amazon directly to fans on the LoTR on Prime subreddit and then on their Twitter account before hitting the press. 

And yes, Bryan Cogman is part of the writers team and a consulting producer on the show. This is made clear in the video released by Amazon, as Werthead notes, that specifically refers to Cogman as one of the show's writers. 

Somewhat humorously, a contrived rumour was floating around yesterday that D&D (Benioff and Weiss) were in "talks" to become showrunners for the LoTR adaption. It was in fact based upon unfounded supposition from a Deadline article about D&D "shopping" an overall deal to different providers (including Disney, Amazon and Netflix) that had reproduced a Variety press report almost verbatim but added in the author's own credulous musings about why Amazon might be wanting to take D&D on board and surmising that it had something to do with LoTR. 

Well now, with Amazon itself revealing the full creative team, we know that was untrue.

[Corvinus85]

I would love it if some of the D&D rumors were true, in that maybe they tried to get involved, and Amazon responded with an emphatic FUCK NO. 

[Ran]

I'm not so sure Bryan is a writer, regardless of what the video says. We'll see.

[Krishtotter]

8 minutes ago, Corvinus said:

I would love it if some of the D&D rumors were true, in that maybe they tried to get involved, and Amazon responded with an emphatic FUCK NO. 

That would have been fun. 

1 minute ago, Ran said:

I'm not so sure Bryan is a writer, regardless of what the video says. We'll see.

Hmm. I find it hard to believe they would produce a video with the purpose of introducing fans and their Twitter following to the "team" and specifically referring to Cogman as one of the writers only for him not to be. (That would be akin to self-fake news spreading in my mind). 

Are you basing your scepticism on the Variety article alone? 

[Ran]

Just now, Krishtotter said:

Are you basing your scepticism on the Variety article alone? 

No. Though the Variety article, and a bunch of others, are clearly referencing a press release from Amazon which lists him and Folsom only as consulting producers. 

[Krishtotter]

5 minutes ago, Ran said:

No.

Ah, OK. That is interesting then. 

Him being a consultant would fit better with the timeline for shooting that was mooted earlier, to be fair, as beginning next month. 

But I can't figure out why he's being classed as a writer on the video if a press release is saying otherwise - unless they haven't been entirely sure of his role as of yet. I note he was listed on the video as the last writer - perhaps there was/is some ambiguity or last-minute change to his status, hence the apparent discrepancy. 

Hopefully they will clear it up in future. 

Or maybe...he's a consulting producer for the first season (because he joined late) but is being introduced on the video as part of the writer's team because he will be a writer going forward. 

Or maybe I'm just overthinking this. 

[Werthead]

29 minutes ago, Ran said:

I'm not so sure Bryan is a writer, regardless of what the video says. We'll see.

I think we can safely say that an Amazon Prime video produced by Amazon Prime for the express purpose of advertising an Amazon Prime show is going to be a reliable source of info. It's not like it's a fan video produced by TORN, which I would regard with heavy scepticism.

Still, there is clearly a discrepancy between the video and the Variety article, and I like Krishtotter's suggestion that Cogman and Folsom joined the project too late to be episode writers on Season 1, but will have that role on Season 2 (which I suspect Amazon will greenlight before Season 1 airs, given they seem to be doing that a lot recently to try to minimise gaps between seasons). With the bulk of filming now not due to start until early next year, that also puts them in the writer's room as far as rewrites goes.

It also doesn't make a huge amount of sense to hire people who are, first and foremost, writers and then not have them write.

[Krishtotter]

2 minutes ago, Werthead said:

I think we can safely say that an Amazon Prime video produced by Amazon Prime for the express purpose of advertising an Amazon Prime show is going to be a reliable source of info.

Agreed. I honestly don't think they would make an error about one of their own employees' on the project, in a carefully produced official video, issued for the express purpose of advertising the show. 

Quote

 

With the bulk of filming now not due to start until early next year, that also puts them in the writer's room as far as rewrites goes.

It also doesn't make a huge amount of sense to hire people who are, first and foremost, writers and then not have them write.

 

You raise some very sound points. 

[DMC]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

I think we can safely say that an Amazon Prime video produced by Amazon Prime for the express purpose of advertising an Amazon Prime show is going to be a reliable source of info.

I think you're probably right, but this seems a rather haughty way to prove your point that kind of is silly to me in terms of referring to "reliability."  Amazon is going to want to puff things up, so whether he gets a writing credit - which I doubt - on the pilot, they're gonna hype the dude from GoT as on their team.  This would be like arguing the veracity of a point by citing a WH correspondent saying "well, the press secretary, Pentagon, and CIA all agreed that the drone only took out 9 civilians."  K, doesn't make me believe it any more so than before.

Will Cogman help with the creative direction of whatever they do and probably be in the writer's room?  I have no doubt.  Does that make him a writer that gets credited?  Maybe, but I doubt he'll be involved enough to deserve it.

[red snow]

12 hours ago, DMC said:

Gotta say, this quote from the article made me LOL:

Anyway, yeah a quick look seems to show this isn't true, and the two are just shopping around their services to sign an exclusive deal with someone, which may be Amazon but may not.

You'd think they'd have their hands full with making star wars films. I guess they are at that phase in their careers where they can executively produce in title only though.

[Werthead]

9 hours ago, DMC said:

I think you're probably right, but this seems a rather haughty way to prove your point that kind of is silly to me in terms of referring to "reliability."  Amazon is going to want to puff things up, so whether he gets a writing credit - which I doubt - on the pilot, they're gonna hype the dude from GoT as on their team.  This would be like arguing the veracity of a point by citing a WH correspondent saying "well, the press secretary, Pentagon, and CIA all agreed that the drone only took out 9 civilians."  K, doesn't make me believe it any more so than before.

Will Cogman help with the creative direction of whatever they do and probably be in the writer's room?  I have no doubt.  Does that make him a writer that gets credited?  Maybe, but I doubt he'll be involved enough to deserve it.

That's an absolutely bizarre comparison about people denying a crime versus marketing fluff for an upcoming TV show.

This is Amazon releasing information about their show, in which they have clearly identified Cogman as a writer and a creative consultant/consulting producer (for comparison, Harlan Ellison also held both roles on the final season of Babylon 5). He's not the showrunner (so TORN was wrong on that, and the final nail in the coffin on expecting any reliable leaks out of them on this project), so they're not over-bigging his role, and 99.9% of the audience won't care he was involved peripherally on Game of Thrones. In fact, looking on various LotR fansites, people are angrily lamenting his presence because of the drop in quality of GoT in its final seasons (despite people pointing out that wasn't on Cogman and his scripts are the best out of that period), so it can be seen as a liability as much as a talking point. Amazon aren't exactly making as much fuss about fellow GoT writer Dave Hill working on Wheel of Time.

Amazon have said he's a writer on the project, regardless of if that's a writer on Season 2 or Season 1, or if he is only working in the writer's room on completed material as a script editor. Splitting hairs over the issue feels unnecessary.

I am a bit puzzled as to why all of the writers have got a producer credit as well. That is definitely unusual, unless they had to do that to attract such a top team to the project as we know they seemed to be heavily struggling finding people to come aboard in the early going. The fact that almost all of the writers are far more experienced than the actual showrunners is also unusual.

[Krishtotter]

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

The fact that almost all of the writers are far more experienced than the actual showrunners is also unusual.

I reckon that is the reason why they are all producers in addition to being just writers. They are being given a more expanded role in this production than is the case in most writers' rooms, unusual as that may be, out of respect for the fact that they really are more experienced than the showrunners in this case. 

It seems like Amazon struggled initially but selected McKay and Payne (a) because they must have really loved their Second Age pitch & (b) Amazon thought their portfolio of work (whilst unproduced) would be good for their LoTR adaption, inasmuch as the duo already had a niche reputation behind-the-scenes in Hollywood of taking ancient mythic epics (King Midas & Goliath were the two unproduced specs that got them attention in the industry years ago), with complex and archaic themes, and converting them into mass market-appealing scripts for a contemporary audience.

Now Amazon have surrounded them with a top team of some really crème de la crème writer-producers (with Gennifer Hutchinson from Breaking Bad, Justin Cahill of the Sopranos and Justin Doble from Stranger Things apparently leading the pack, alongside Helen Shang from Hannibal and Cogman from GoT, as well as Folsom) to provide the experience needed to complement the 'vision' of these relative amateurs.

It is certainly the inverse of the norm in such televised productions, but it makes me even more interested to see how it pans out - not least with the colossal expenditure being put into this. 

[DMC]

5 hours ago, Werthead said:

That's an absolutely bizarre comparison about people denying a crime versus marketing fluff for an upcoming TV show.

The analogy was strained to say the least, and colored with brown liquor, but I still kind of like it.  Maybe I've been watching too much Sorkin lately.

5 hours ago, Werthead said:

I am a bit puzzled as to why all of the writers have got a producer credit as well. That is definitely unusual, unless they had to do that to attract such a top team to the project as we know they seemed to be heavily struggling finding people to come aboard in the early going. The fact that almost all of the writers are far more experienced than the actual showrunners is also unusual.

Right?  It's like they did things ass-backwards.  Which..is a bit concerning, but in a glass half full way at least they got those experienced hands now, so whatever I guess.