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Amazon spending $465M on season 1 of The Lord of the Rings series

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Re: Amazon spending $465M on season 1 of The Lord of the Rings series

#301

Post by darrelld »

causi wrote: post #133
bmj wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Christopher Tolkein was hopelessly grumpy (or protective, depending on your perspective) about anyone doing anything with his father's works. Personally, as a fan of Tolkein's works, I thought LoTR was fine . I didn't necessarily agree with all of Jackon's decisions, but, in the end, I enjoyed watching the movies (and still do). The Hobbit films are a different beast, for sure.

I didn't necessarily agree with all of Jackon's decisions, but, in the end, I enjoyed watching the movies (and still do). The Hobbit films are a different beast, for sure. Exactly my opinion as well. What worries me is that we saw what ten years of market shift did between LotR and The Hobbit. Now it's been another ten years of it. Instead of showing bad people tearing down trees to fuel industry, we're going to have…

At the end of the day stories reflect our society and LoTR is just another story.

All of the classic stories we tell kids have evolved over time and are no longer true to their original source material. We take the thing we need, ignore the things we don't need, and add what's missing from our modern eyes.

If you go back to the source material for things like Snow White, Pinocchio and trace them through the ages you'll see that they have constantly changed and adjusted.

Re: Amazon spending $465M on season 1 of The Lord of the Rings series

#303

Post by algorias »

cs702 wrote: post #134
algorias wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but given that every LOTR fan is going to want to watch this series even if it sucks Citation needed. I'm a big fan of LOTR, but I didn't even bother with the last Hobbit movie. And I expect this series to be even worse than that.

Consider that many fans watch things they routinely disparage online. For example, many Star Wars fans routinely disparage "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace," and yet it's still one of the most-watched, highest-grossing movies in the history of cinema. Also, keep in mind there are people who are really fanatical about LOTR. At the end of the spectrum, some of them enjoy this stuff so much that they regularly a…

I am one of those people (roughly speaking). Do with that as you will.

Re: Amazon spending $465M on season 1 of The Lord of the Rings series

#304

Post by bergenty »

cloutchaser wrote: post #63
prepend wrote: post #18

Obviously, I’ll wait and see once it comes out. But it seems odd to spend so much and not have a single established creator that has put out great content. And not to involve Jackson seems off because even having him in a consulting role would be a good sign. Looking at the imdb page this seems like a corporate driven project rather than a creator driven project with lots of different directors that haven’t don’t any…

LOTR, and also Peter Jackson are not compatible with modern media. LOTR is completely opposed storytelling wise to the current dogmas of postmodernism and equity, it's fundamentally a story based on old western/european/christian myths, basically what gets called white supremacy these days. I think this will turn out to be an absolute morbid tv series as it will force LOTR into the current dogmas, but this is probabl…

In my opinion you could still make a compelling LOTR without the “white supremacy” vibes because there is a clearly defined good and evil and the constituents of those groups can be diverse (as the original is). What’s impossible is to replace every protagonist with a female and expect any of the gravitas to hold up.

Re: Amazon spending $465M on season 1 of The Lord of the Rings series

#305

Post by layer8 »

djbebs wrote: post #59

So much money for something that I can already tell will flop... I really don't understand why they put people who have no connection with the IP in charge of this. It's really quite sad to see such a beloved world getting an adaptation that is destroyed by poor writing and design by committee

The IP is only used for its value as a brand.

There’s an argument to be made that such productions are prone to diminishing the value of the brand if they turn out to be subpar. On the other hand, mainstream consumers usually aren’t too demanding. So brands tend to get watered down to minimal viable mediocrity.

Re: Amazon spending $465M on season 1 of The Lord of the Rings series

#306

Post by algorias »

anoonmoose wrote: post #143
DeusExMachina wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I am interested in defending Amazon's series, which I think will be a disaster, but I don't think the comparison with the Hobbit movies holds. True, the material they have rights to is from the appendixes of The Lord of the Rings. The difference, though, is that in this case they are going to create a completely new story. So, they can fill as many episodes they want. With the Hobbit, instead, they had the s…

My opinion on this matter has less to do with stretching and more to do with creating. It feels like the further we get from what the author actually wrote- in terms of dialogue, characterization, etc.- the worse the final output is. LOTR isn't just good because hobbits, it's good because Tolkien's writing is good. The Jackson trilogy was close-ish to Tolkien's writing, the Hobbit films further, and this even more so…

Exactly this. there's nothing about an existing universe that prevents bad writing for new stories in that universe. And big studio creative talent is at a historical low right now.

Re: Amazon spending $465M on season 1 of The Lord of the Rings series

#307

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

lordnacho wrote: post #284
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never even bothered with Season 8.

A friend of friends was a massive GoT fan. Massive fan, could not wait to see more. Before the last season was done, he had a heart attack and passed away. People were saying for months after that how lucky he was.

That is sad.

My father passed the year before 9/11. I sometimes think he was lucky to have not had to deal with that (or the aftermath).

Re: Amazon spending $465M on season 1 of The Lord of the Rings series

#308

Post by Arrath »

mortenjorck wrote: post #289
bakuninsbart wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[Spoilers Below] I think you are spot on about ASOIAF, but I don't think this is the reason GoT ended badly. Books and TV Show started diverting much earlier, and the show had substantially fewer storylines, which is a good thing in this context I think. I also suspect that the ending we got is based on notes GRRM left. Daenerys turning evil is heavily foreshadowed, Bran ending up on the throne kinda makes sense, and…

[Continuing spoilers] On Twitter late last year, I saw what was probably the single best idea that would have greatly improved the last few episodes, and could probably have been accomplished with a single scene (and maybe still could for a future "definitive edition"). The idea is that at some point prior to the last two episodes, Danerys receives word that Mereen has fallen, and that the slavers have retaken it. He…

I quite like this idea.

Re: Amazon spending $465M on season 1 of The Lord of the Rings series

#309

Post by subsubzero »

prepend wrote: post #18

Obviously, I’ll wait and see once it comes out. But it seems odd to spend so much and not have a single established creator that has put out great content. And not to involve Jackson seems off because even having him in a consulting role would be a good sign. Looking at the imdb page this seems like a corporate driven project rather than a creator driven project with lots of different directors that haven’t don’t any…

Huge LOTR/Tolkien fan ever since I was a kid, loved the Ralph Bakashi animated LOTR film from the 70's(great rotoscoping and creepy mood), absolutely loved the Peter Jackson trilogy, liked the hobbit animated films Rankin and Bass(good music!, weird animation?), even found enjoyment in the newer Hobbit trilogy(3 movies for 1 small book? Smaug was great though!).

After seeing this amazon trailer though I am beyond disappointed in what they are creating and with the budget they have it is really sad. I could be mistaken but I feel like this will be looked at as a gigantic flop for amazon. The story looks like its not even based on anything Tolkien written, which is beyond me given there are so many interesting tales Tolkien wrote that have not seen the screen(Beren and Luthien, the fall of Numenor, the silmarils and Elvish wars of the 1st age).

And like the parent above mentioned it is alarming that the actors are all unheard of and there are no connections to the successful franchises that Peter Jackson created, where is this roughly half a billion going? The CGI looks lackluster so its not there.

Re: Amazon spending $465M on season 1 of The Lord of the Rings series

#310

Post by unmole »

ren_engineer wrote: post #232
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never even bothered with Season 8.

people who say only season 8 was bad are part of the problem, book readers were warning about important changes as early as season 3 and 4, GRRM left after 4 due to those changes because while not obvious at first, they would result in entire character arcs getting wrecked long term. The show started going "Hollywood" in season 5 and it was obviously declining in quality but people defended it and got what they deser…

I'm still pissed about what they did to the Dorne plot.
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