Amazon Confirms 'Lord of the Rings' TV Series Will Be Filmed In New Zealand (nzherald.co.nz) 106
New submitter mikaere writes: The New Zealand Herald reports that Amazon will base their upcoming Lord of the Rings TV series in West Auckland (home to fantasy series such as Hercules, Xena: Warrior Princess,Legend of the Seeker and The Chronicles of Shannara. The article mentions that Sir Peter Jackson may have some involvement, and it is likely that iconic locales, such as Queenstown, could be used for location shoots as they were in the original screen trilogy. As for how much the Amazon LOTR production would cost, a local industry insider suggested it could have a $3 billion price tag. Actual filming for the TV show is not expected to begin until 2020.
No zombies here (Score:1)
You're gonna have to shower for these auditions. They already have enough Orcs.
Better have Tom Bombadil (Score:2)
Jus' sayin'
Re:Better have Tom Bombadil (Score:4, Insightful)
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We've seen enough of LoTR.
There is enough content in Silmarillion for years and years of series.
Damn, just the stuff they had to do to get rid of Morgoth could take up the first five years of the series...
It would be amazing to see who they would cast for the Sons of Feanor, Turin, Beren and Luthien, etc.
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it'll be an ethnically diverse, transgender cast. Hobbit immigrants from south of the shire will make an appearance, as will dark elves.
Oh wait, this is amazon, not Netflix? Nevermind.
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Apparently it's a prequel, set in the Second Age of Middle Earth so long before the events of LOTR. It will feature Sauron and some familiar Elves, but otherwise have different characters to the movies.
I'm surprised, I thought The Hobbit movies pretty much killed off the franchise, but it seems they are betting on filling the void left by Game of Thrones ending. If that is the case it might diverge significantly from the source material.
Re:Better have Tom Bombadil (Score:5, Funny)
Apparently it's a prequel, set in the Second Age of Middle Earth so long before the events of LOTR. It will feature Sauron and some familiar Elves, but otherwise have different characters to the movies.
I'm hoping they get J.J. Abrams to direct it; they can go down an alternate timeline where Gandalf is a street fighter instead of a wizard. Lord of the Rings with lens flare and lots of explosions is sure to be better than the original. Perhaps have the hobbits be taller so they have more sex-appeal; and have female elves showering a lot.
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Oh man, can you imagine if it's like the JJ Star Wars? The outrage... The nerd trifecta, Star Wars, Star Trek and LOTR, all destroyed by one guy.
Actually I wish he'd do a new D&D movie. The direct to video ones were actually not terrible. I mean not great but for fans they did play out exactly like a real D&D session.
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Eh, I don't know if we need a movie that predictably ends with stale cheeto fingers and unfathomable loneliness. Kind of a bummer.
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
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I imagine they will include more women than Tolkien did originally, just to balance the cast out a bit and give it a more GoT feel. Hopefully they will be better than that elf in The Hobbit though.
It's been a long time since I read the books but I don't think Gandalf was around at this time. They might decide to just shoehorn him in anyway. Maybe a young Gandalf. Ugh.
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From what I understand, Gandalf is maaaaany thousands of years old, possibly older than time itself. However, he's "only" about 2,000 years old in human form. In short, unless they make a mega travesty out of this (currently praying to all Gods I can think about for this not to happen), either he'll be an old gandalf (like in the LotR series) or won't be there at all. No Gandalf origin story :-)
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Just wait until "the rush" hits you.
Re:Better have Tom Bombadil (Score:4, Informative)
Amazon does not have the rights to depict anything which Jackson's movies covered, or anything not in the 2nd age. The rights are also not to Silmarillion; those are not yet sold to anyone, to the best of my knowledge, so they can not use that.
The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings both take place during the 3rd age, which Amazon does not have the rights to.
So none of what you ask for will be covered, except possibly Tom Bombadil doing something which Tolkien did not write about.
https://www.theguardian.com/bo... [theguardian.com]
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There have also been rumours that Sir Peter Jackson, the New Zealand director who adapted the J. R. R. Tolkien tales for the big screen, could be involved with the LOTR series. "The Peter Jackson conversations, right now we're right in the middle of them," said Salke. "It's like, 'How much do you want to be involved, how little?' I know there's been some discussion, and he's even said some things, but as far as I'm aware, the latest is that we're just in a conversation with him about how much or how little he would be involved."
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I don't even know what they can show from the Second Age. While the knowledge of that era is the thinnest; I doubt they can depict the Akallabeth (Downfall of Numenor) nor anything that Tolkien himself wrote about it. It sounds like a kind of "shared universe" thing, nothing I'm particularly interested in. I didn't particularly like the LotR movies, and The Hobbit was just a travesty.
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It's a prequel, so it won't have.
I'm a bit worried about the phrase "original storylines", though... Are the using the material that already exists, or coming up with their own stuff and just using the 'Middle Earth' backdrop to get people to watch it? Or are they using the stories already in the Silmarilllion?
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I've not read the Silmarillion, but I know a lot of LOTR fans have, and have described it as a real chore to get through; even for die-hard Frodophiles. The show might have more chance of success if it is "inspired" by the Silmarillion but not outright from the Silmarillion.
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I've not read the Silmarillion, but I know a lot of LOTR fans have, and have described it as a real chore to get through; even for die-hard Frodophiles
Yea, I've never understood that.
I think it is actually better than LoTR.
Richer and more varied.
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Yea, I've never understood that.
I think it is actually better than LoTR.
Richer and more varied.
I've never read it, so I couldn't give an informed opinion on whether it is or not. Perhaps it comes down to familiarity. I think most people, even those who hadn't read the books, know the basic premise of LoTR (even pre movies). The Silmarillion isn't as pervasive in our culture. You only know it if you've read it.
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You only know it if you've read it.
That is not correct.
You only know it if you've read it several times. Recently. It's a massive, sprawling book, covering thousands of years of history. It really isn't an approachable book in the least. You really do need to be a bit of a diehard Tolkien fan to be willing to wade through it. If you are, however, it really explains what was happening leading up to the LotR series.
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The reason it's a chore to get through is because Tolkien was a linguist, and the whole thing is written in some sort of archaic dialect. It's no the stories in the Silmarillion that are the chore, it's the writing style. Often you're battling with the language to work out what's going on.
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They can't use material that already exists. The Tolkien Estate hasn't licensed anything, and the only reason The Hobbit and LotR got made at all is because Tolkien had sold the rights during his lifetime. So no Silmarillion, no Akabelleth, not likely anything about the wars between Sauron and Eregion.
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Which role is the infamous New Zealander Kim Dotcom going to play?
Maybe they can create a Jabba the Hut type character?
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Don't know if they can manage that, but I'm pretty sure they'll figure out how to work in some full frontal nudity.
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No thanks, couldn't stand Bombadil and his goofy singing. You want to turn LotR into a musical?
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His character was....odd. However, from the bit that I know (never read the series and I'm halfway through Fellowship), he actually seems to be quite an interesting character. A forest God of sorts with incredible, but also limited, powers.
I'd actually really like to see them explore his lore more, weirdness and all. Minus the musicals. That part can stay in the books where they belong.
Can't help thinking... (Score:3, Interesting)
... that they could quite happily film it in northern europe just like GoT which has equally spectacular scenery but the bonus of real castles to film at which would save a lot of money not to mention carbon emissions of flying most of the cast and crew to the other side of the planet.
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...europe [sic] has ...the bonus of real castles to film at...
Apart from Minas Tirith, which doesn't really have a castle and maybe Minas Morgul, what castles are you imagining are in LotR?
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No idea, can't remember much about the story TBH. But it doesn't detract from my point - why NZ? There's nothing special about the place other than peter jackson lives there and he's not even involved with this AFAIK.
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Clean air.
Re: Can't help thinking... (Score:2)
For its size its quite diverse in scenery and climate. I once watched this hiking type race held there. It was on discovery. Each country submitted a 4 man team to do a cross county hike. But the path was not predetermined. You had to navigate maps and could choose your terrain. Within this area there was high altitude snow capped mountains, bogs, creeks and marshes, woodland, etc. its extremely diverse.
I was not surprised in the least they filmed LOTR there. Can do so many different settings with not much
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" bogs, creeks and marshes, woodland, etc. its extremely diverse"
So is europe. Maybe visit us sometime.
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" bogs, creeks and marshes, woodland, etc. its extremely diverse"
So is europe. Maybe visit us sometime.
Maybe they want to avoid looking to similar to the upcoming Witcher series?
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I know, but not so closely packed together right? Within 100 miles all of that stuff exists. Imagine having to travel all over europe to film all those different regions. Each town, city, country, having to go through all the permitting process, etc. I know the EU helped streamline that a little, but Im sure that given the choice, the red tape would be a lot less in 1 small country where everything you could ever want to do exists within 100-200 miles. Between that mega, plot your own course, hiking maratho
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Scotland is 100 miles across and you have all that within it and its a 1 hour flight or 4 hours on the train from the film production and CGI hub of europe - London. Ireland is similar. Sure, the mountains arn't high enough but you just send the 2nd unit on a short flight to iceland, norway or the french pyrenees to film those scenes (probably not the Alps , too built up now with ski resorts and villages now).
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So is europe. Maybe visit us sometime.
So is Oregon (we even have sand dunes) maybe just look it up online, or buy a photo album.
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why NZ? There's nothing special about the place other than peter jackson lives there
Others have pointed out that it is special, lots of uninhabited fantastic nature with a wide variety in a relatively small area. There's probably a lot less red-tape to go through, especially if they end up having to film in 5 different countries; and, more importantly than all that, consistency. Oh, and, favourable tax laws for filming.
If they're trying to maintain the atmosphere and feel of the movies, filming in the same locations is a great way to start.
Why not New Zealand? It seems ideal for what th
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WETA is based there too, and it's not unlikely that they'll use their services given their work on LotR.
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...europe [sic] has ...the bonus of real castles to film at...
Apart from Minas Tirith, which doesn't really have a castle and maybe Minas Morgul, what castles are you imagining are in LotR?
As the one time capital Osgilliath would probably have been fortified and would have something resembling a castle. Safe to say pretty much any major fortification or large city/capital built by Men would resemble a castle (or at least portions resembling a castle).
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Durthang, one of the Gondorian fortresses in Mordor taken over by Sauron, was described as a castle.
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...europe [sic] has ...the bonus of real castles to film at...
Apart from Minas Tirith, which doesn't really have a castle and maybe Minas Morgul, what castles are you imagining are in LotR?
Did you ever read the Two Towers?
There is a great battle scene in there that takes place in something similar to a castle.
But in the book, the Elves don't show up to "save the day".
Oh yea, and then there is Orthanc...
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Did you ever read the Two Towers?
Yes, I have. At least six times. Orthanc is not a castle, it's a tower. Have you ever seen a castle? A real one? Not the Disney caricatures.
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Did you ever read the Two Towers?
Yes, I have. At least six times. Orthanc is not a castle, it's a tower. Have you ever seen a castle? A real one? Not the Disney caricatures.
Well, for someone who has read it "At least six times" to say this:
Apart from Minas Tirith, which doesn't really have a castle and maybe Minas Morgul, what castles are you imagining are in LotR?
you should expect replies like mine.
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Did you ever read the Two Towers?
Yes, I have. At least six times. Orthanc is not a castle, it's a tower. Have you ever seen a castle? A real one? Not the Disney caricatures.
Orthanc is a tower(keep). In a courtyard surrounded by fortified walls(bailey/curtain wall).
The walls were big enough to contain barracks, storage rooms, and workshops. It had several entrances within those walls with gatehouses. That's a castle. It's a simple castle with no motte, no inner bailey, no battlements, etc, but still a castle.
And if you look at this sketch [tolkiengateway.net] supposedly by Tolkien you have the outer wall, the inner courtyard, and the keep sitting on top of a motte. Again, not your stan
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Orthanc
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Re: Can't help thinking... (Score:2)
More like a fake new small section of castle and a lot of CGI.
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Believe it or not, there are many medieval castles still in one piece in europe, Or did you think they were all abandoned?
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I suspect you are likely way off in what you believe production cost differences are between Europe and NZ for a large production.
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You think so many TV dramas and films were filmed in Ireland because the directors liked Guinness?
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European castles wouldn't be right. Numenor was basically Atlantis. Although there are parallels between Gondorians and medieval Europeans, living in the ruins of a more advanced civilization (i.e., Rome), Numenoreans were more advanced than Rome, and Gondorians were far more advanced than Europeans in architecture, military tactics, and political organization.
Gondorean civil engineering built structures that were beyond even present-day technology.
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Depending where in the world the core cast and crew are from, they will likely be flying anyway. New Zealand has already proven it has capable crew locally, and many of the minor roles and extras can be sourced locally as well (as has also been proven with previous films).
New Zealand has a diverse range of scenery within small area, from mountain ranges, to desert, to sub-tropical, and so on. It has proven it has the locations to mimic Middle Earth, from the Shire to Mordor. While Europe has similar locatio
And what story doe they want top tell? (Score:3)
Or is having money, scenery and a very general topic enough these days?
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is having money, scenery and a very general topic enough
Going by the vast majority of blockbusters of the last 5 years or so, I'd say yes. Did the strike of the American Writers Guild actually end, or is it still going?
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Did the strike of the American Writers Guild actually end, or is it still going?
Hard to say. Some series seem to not seem have good original writers available at least. The end of GoT comes to mind. For "blockbusters", I have stopped even pirating them. They are not worth my time.
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Scenery is the only reason i watch the Tour de France, to be honest. I wish they'd get all those bicycles out of the way.
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I guess like the movies but longer.
and yeah they don't have any writers or stuff like that who were competent on the staff so they can't come up with new concepts.
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and yeah they don't have any writers or stuff like that who were competent on the staff so they can't come up with new concepts.
TV and movies long ago gave up trying to come up with new concepts. There are plans in the works to remake Tango and Cash FFS, one of the biggest flops from the 80's. Even crap old shows go remade now rather than think of something new.
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and yeah they don't have any writers or stuff like that who were competent on the staff so they can't come up with new concepts.
TV and movies long ago gave up trying to come up with new concepts. There are plans in the works to remake Tango and Cash FFS, one of the biggest flops from the 80's. Even crap old shows go remade now rather than think of something new.
CNN has an article saying Sony is bouncing around the idea of a Princess Bride reboot. We need to start sending some of these studio executives on an all expenses paid retreat to the Pit of Despair.
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It'll be a story about a proud otherly-abled lesbian transhobbit what don't need no man smashing the Patriarchy and Capitalism.
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Probably.
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Oh no (Score:2)
Pretty location for a bunch of pointless characters arguing social drama endlessly and occasionally walking.
Action scenes (Score:5, Insightful)
Can we please, please have action scenes that don't totally jump the shark? In the LOTR trilogy, the action was realistic enough to be plausible. Yes, elves have abilities beyond that of a human, and that was done in a reasonable way in the original trilogy. There was a subtlety to it and the action was grounded and believable and wasn't based on a series of 100 random things unfolding perfectly in a totally ridiculous way.
But The Hobbit movies.... a couple action scenes just totally overdid it and pretty much ruined those movies for me. The dwarves going down the river, and Gandalf and the dwarves in the Troll Cave - those action scenes were totally unbelievable. A long, long series of contrived events like a Rube Goldberg machine all set up to happen flawlessly one step after another. The river scene was exactly like something out of a video game - enemies along the entire course of the river, perfectly spaced out and ready to vanquished by the player, for mile after mile of river. When they got through the enemies I was ready for a "Level Complete!" message to pop up showing how many enemies were fragged.
The cave scene, and the various contraptions of bridges and walkways falling and swinging just right to get everyone through - I bet they had to respawn back at the last save point of that level a dozen times before they completed it flawlessly like we saw in the movie!
What makes the LOTR books so good is the details and world building. The appreciation for a good meal or a good song, nice crispy bacon and mushrooms and good pipeweed. It's the subtitles and the little things going on in parallel to the epicness of the world ending and kings failing and kings coming into their place and the rawness of good versus evil. You can't just throw out the little things in favor of nothing but epic events.
Anyway, I hope the writers "get it" and don't do another Hobbit-like trilogy.
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I'm embarrassed to even watch them.
I saw them once and that was enough.
I own the extended versions of the LoTR and can watch them again and again.
Jackson should have got someone else to do those films.
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It's subtleties like this that make it worth reading comments on slashdot.
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Legolas surfing down the trunk of an Oiliphant? LOTR wasn't that realistic.
I think where it really fell down was that the battles were heavily sanitized, I guess to get the PG rating, so they didn't feel believable or like the characters were in any real danger. I suppose it's hard to generate real suspense when you already know the plot, but now Game of Thrones has given viewers new expectations.
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Legolas surfing down the trunk of an Oiliphant? LOTR wasn't that realistic.
I think where it really fell down was that the battles were heavily sanitized, I guess to get the PG rating, so they didn't feel believable or like the characters were in any real danger. I suppose it's hard to generate real suspense when you already know the plot, but now Game of Thrones has given viewers new expectations.
Yeah, the green ghosts in RoTK was kind of ridiculous. With the description in the book they should have looked more like the White Walker wrights from GoT but partly obscured by shadow or mist. That would have been kind of scary. But they really came across more as cartoonish. And I preferred the book version of the battle anyway where they didn't (and possibly even couldn't) fight, they just scared off the Corsairs and the freed slaves then rode up with Aragorn to save the day. Having them pop out an
Re:Action scenes (Score:4, Informative)
With the description in the book they should have looked more like the White Walker wrights from GoT but partly obscured by shadow or mist.
The best parts of the trilogy are the ones where Jackson's interference is kept at a minimum, like in the first movie. Jackson was able to create great visuals when he followed the book closely - for example, the battle with the Balrog in Fellowship, the Argonath, or the lighting of the war beacons of Gondor were all very well done and very impressive. However, whenever he deviates from the script, he becomes cringy and uninspired. For example, the "toss a dwarf" gag is awfully jarring and breaks the illusion. Jackson's interpretation of Denethor is even worse: the book Denethor is a great leader of men, who inspires his followers (and that makes Pippin's decision to declare fealty to Gondor believable). Denethor fall is, (in the Greek tragedy tradition), caused by his own pride and hubris, and his end on the pyre is fitting and brings catharsis.
By contrast, Jackson's Denethor is a petty thug (the scene where he eats while receiving reports, with the extended lip smacking and juices dripping down his mouth is beyond cringy). His motivations are incredible, his behavior grating and his end doesn't bring any catharsis - only a wince.This is all unnecessary and the fault lies exclusively with Jackson's pedestrian style. There are many other examples, but I can't think of a single instance where Jackson changed things for the better.
Unfortunately, Jackson appears to have misunderstood the reasons for the success of LOTR; somehow he thought he's good at writing scenarios. Had he put his efforts into following "The Hobbit" book as closely as he could, he might have ended up with a (single) good movie. Instead he had to rewrite it, and, because of his complete lack of writing talent, "The Hobbit" trilogy ended up being a complete pile of crap.
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For example, the "toss a dwarf" gag is awfully jarring and breaks the illusion.
In the books, Gimli came across as worthy of respect, both as a warrior and as a person.
In the movies, he was relegated to a comic relief.
Yes, dwarves are short and thick, short and thick is funny, ha ha.
Speaking of which, one of my favourite quotes:
"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens," said Gimli.
"Maybe," said Elrond, “but let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall."
"Y
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Seconded.
Hopefully they learned something from the mistakes of the Hobbit trilogy which was just cartoonish, whereas LotR was instant classic.
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The real question is.. (Score:2)
Will they fuck it up? Man in high castle started out promising but could not sustain. Electric Dreams was nothing remotely even Philip K Dick inspired. It seemed like amazon desperately wanted a Black Mirror show.
Netflix isnt faring much better. They bat maybe 40-50% here. Even the decent ones are blatant ripoffs of other movies like Bird Box. I just watch a season of a supposedly sci-fi show that used the Actress that played Starbuck in the reboot of Battlestar Galactica. If it wasnt for her being in it I
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Man in high castle started out promising but could not sustain.
Have you read that?
Not much in that story to "sustain" much.
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I have actually. Which is why I was surprised they tried to stretch it into a multi season series. The did cover the whole alternate reality thing. And the scene where he was sitting in a park and had a glimpse of our US in the 60s was similar to the book. Ive actually read just about everything I could d/l that he's written, and read it on my kindle e-reader while I do my cardio. If you think this one is not much, you'd really be shocked if you read 'we can remember it for you wholesale' which is what the
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I agree about them trying to make it a multiple season series.
One season would have been enough. The brevity would have made it more enjoyable. They turned it into a soap opera...
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I have actually. Which is why I was surprised they tried to stretch it into a multi season series. The did cover the whole alternate reality thing. And the scene where he was sitting in a park and had a glimpse of our US in the 60s was similar to the book.
That was a really good scene and he acted it out incredibly well. He goes back to his house and not only is son still alive, he's dating/married to a white American girl and they're anti-nuke activists. But yeah, I couldn't really stay with the show because it was getting so drawn out and I had no idea where they were going with it.
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"Actress that played Starbuck in the reboot of Battlestar Galactica"
That was a truly awful show. I lasted one episode. It was more like whiny Millennials in Space.
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Done to death... (Score:3)
Please, God, Don't let them GoT it (Score:3, Insightful)
Tolkien's Works have a nobility and rightness to them. Please don't water them down to just boobs and blood.
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If by "nobility and rightness" you mean "hate and racism", sure.
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Well this will be a snoozefest... (Score:2)
... if the movies were any indication: See here. [youtube.com]
Chain (Score:2)
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GoT was inspired by LoTR (book). And the new LoTR series will be inspired by GoT (due to its success).
That's like how "Coupling" was inspired by Friends (to be Friends with a British slant) and then they tried bringing Coupling to America and it was a disaster.
A clone of a clone is unlikely to be very good.
So...how long? (Score:2)
3 seasons to get to Rivendell.
4 more seasons to get to Lorien.
2 rushed seasons to get to Rohan.
4 more rushed seasons to get to Gondor.
Then production is shut down before they ever have to show us Mordor...
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Three seasons to get to Rivendell
Seven for Lorien,
Nine for to get to Rohan,
One rushed season to get to Gondor
In the Land of Mordor which we never see.
One executive shuts the whole thing down
Second Age Only (Score:2)
They are going to do the history before LoTR, but not going back all the way, which is what they should do, IMHO:
Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey, who is supervising the show’s development, told German fansite Deutsche Tolkien that the estate has refused to allow the series to be set during any period other than the Second Age of Middle-earth. This means Amazon’s adaptation will not cross over at all with events from the Third Age, which were dramatised in Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning trilogy in which the hobbit Frodo Baggins journeys to destroy the One Ring. /info/ng-interactive/2017/mar/30/sign-up-for-the-bookmarks-email
Spanning 3,441 years, the Second Age begins after the banishment of the dark lord Morgoth and ends with the first demise of Sauron, Morgoth’s servant and the primary villain in The Lord of the Rings, at the hands of an alliance of elves and men.
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Amazon Prime Video Has Vastly Improved (Score:2)
Cutting down on my candy consumption (Score:1)