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[Spoilers]Rings of Power 3: Tolkien’s actual writing… who needs that?


Ser Scot A Ellison

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I anticipate that Marvel and DC can be used as a model for the general process of this new thing at Warner Brothers. Initially the fans will grumble. Then Warner Brothers will reveal their new movie, which very likely will be a reboot of Lord of the Rings, or some familiar character origin story. The grumbling of fans will intensify. Why it's preposterous! Why can't Warner Brothers do something interesting or original?

Then Warner Brothers will start marketing it. Trailers and behind the scenes footage will be released. Suddenly the fans are excited again. Hey, maybe a reboot/origin isn't such a bad idea? Warner Brothers could do worse! The release date nears and suddenly fans can't wait to see it. That recent trailer looked really well done!

The movie is released and is an abomination yet makes hundreds of millions of dollars. Fans are outraged. The movie's awful! The fans grumble among themselves that they saw it coming a mile away, that's why they only went to see the movie once (ok, twice).

The reboot/origin movie is successful enough that it gets a sequel. Fans grumble. The last movie was horrifyingly terrible, but if Warner Brothers improved a few details, this sequel could be good....

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Do we even know if they're rebooting or doing extended universe stuff?

Assuming the plan is to reboot/redo the original trilogy, I'll be firmly in the camp of fans saying "we need no reboot".

But I understand WB wanting to do this. How many versions of Dune have we seen? 1984, 2000, and 2021. Come 2024, we will have a third incarnation of Superman on the screen and a fourth version of Batman. Battlestar was rebooted 20+ years after original show and Star Trek was also rebooted with Kelvin timeline 15 years after last Shatner appearance and seven years after last Next Gen film (current run of TV shows not withstanding).

My only point is there's a Hollywood precedent to blow the dust of good franchises every 20 years or so and "update" it with a new vision.   

I'm not advocating redoing LotR, mainly because I can't see WB putting as much time, love, and passion into a reboot as Jackson et al down in New Zealand. For all it's flaws, those films were lovingly and beautifully made.

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They cannot be stupid enough to remake the LOTR trilogy. Who in their right mind would even go near an idea that is bound to fail.

Extended universe stuff sure, that might actually lead to a few interesting films between all the shite.

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The article specifically says they will not remake the LotR movies.

As per Embracer's earlier statement, they are looking at prequel movies and character-focused spin-offs.

As for the rights, they have the production and distribution rights to The Lord of the Rings and some production rights to The Hobbit (distribution is with MGM, now owned by Amazon). Amazon found a loophole in the rights to make a TV show derived from Lord of the Rings using just an agreement with the Tolkien Estate.

So they're most likely looking at more stuff like War of the Rohirrim, taking an episode from the LotR backstory and fleshing it out with an script and characters based on Tolkien's (very loose) framework. So further films about the Fall of Arnor to the Witch-king of Angmar. A young Aragorn origin story. Or, if they really wanted to piss Amazon off, they could make their own version of the Second Age story and promise to be more faithful to the text.

They will specifically not have the rights to The Silmarillion or anything else.

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2 hours ago, Veltigar said:

They cannot be stupid enough to remake the LOTR trilogy. Who in their right mind would even go near an idea that is bound to fail.

Extended universe stuff sure, that might actually lead to a few interesting films between all the shite.

There are three entire threads dedicated to Rings of Power, which is...well, one shouldn't use the word atrocity lightly, and yet atrocity is wholly insufficient as a description  for the experience of RoP.

I bet you Warner Brothers could not only reboot LotR, they could update it for a modern audience a la The Witcher (ie fundamentally rewrite the story into a nonsensical mess) and it would still enjoy a large audience, including folks here. Many would even declare they approve of the changes.

Quality is entirely irrelevant. Brand familiarity and marketing are generally what is important.

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Just now, Werthead said:

The article specifically says they will not remake the LotR movies.

Maybe not right away, but rebooting is such an obvious way to make money with minimal creative effort. I would be shocked if a reboot never happened.

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6 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

Then they may do a War of the Ring show which touches on LOTR but focuses on the battles in the north-east.

That does sound a plausible idea for a film/show, it would allow them to tie it in to the Jackson trilogy without having to bring back any of the original actors (although perhaps they could bring back Lee Pace as Thranduil).

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

Or, if they really wanted to piss Amazon off, they could make their own version of the Second Age story and promise to be more faithful to the text.

That would be hilarious.

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3 hours ago, IFR said:

Maybe not right away, but rebooting is such an obvious way to make money with minimal creative effort. I would be shocked if a reboot never happened.

War of the Rohirrim is the next entry in the MECU (Middle-earth Cinematic Universe) and will be explicitly a prequel to the exiting movies, using the existing designs for Helm's Deep, Edoras etc, and will even have Miranda Otto reprising her role as Eowyn to tell the story in flashback.

That immediately makes pivoting hard to a remake of LotR more difficult. That will have to wait until 10 years in and James Gunn takes over and confuses everybody.

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