Amazon’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ series will cost at least $465M for first season

Post by scsilver » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 4:10 PM UTC

ksec wrote: post #64

gwern wrote: post #33

It's staggering to think that this TV show might cost well over $2 billion. We are approaching numbers typically used only of events like the Manhattan Project or Apollo. Considering that movies and shows still get made about those and the apparently exponential growth of budgets, it seems likely that at some point, there will have been more money spent cumulatively on shows about the MP or Apollo than on the actual…

Exactly this. More companies are spending more money and making more shows than ever. So much could be done, so many more innovation to be made. And here we are. Apple and Amazon. Sigh. One of the very good thing about these media is that they consume "the" fundamental unit we cant earn; Time . Which means we can only watch as much as we have time for. Edit: I mean if we could spend $2B making this, surely it isn't t…

Post by olivierestsage » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 4:11 PM UTC

threatofrain wrote: post #68

olivierestsage wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that LotR is not a straightforward allegory, but I'm also going off more than the author's religious identity. In Tolkien's words: "The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work, unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out, practically all references to anything like "religion", to cults or practices, in the Imagin…

I’m not sure even the author is authoritative over their own work. Ray Bradbury once famously ditched a guest lecture because his audience disagreed on the framing of his book. JK Rowling is thought to go back and retrospectively reframe her book, a framing which she has trouble gathering consensus for despite being the author.

Post by crtasm » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 4:18 PM UTC

SilasX wrote: post #23

olivierestsage wrote: post #12

Although I suspect this will not be a popular comment, I hope the Amazon series will remain faithful to the Catholic/Christian sense that Tolkien deliberately infused into these novels. Peter Jackson did a notably good job with that, all things considered. To be clear, I don't think that you should have to be a Christian to like Lord of the Rings -- quite the contrary. But given the lack of compelling Christian art i…

Well, I have some bad news. It’s looking like they’re going to ape Game of Thrones, nudity and all. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/lor...

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 4:32 PM UTC

olivierestsage wrote: post #73

threatofrain wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure even the author is authoritative over their own work. Ray Bradbury once famously ditched a guest lecture because his audience disagreed on the framing of his book. JK Rowling is thought to go back and retrospectively reframe her book, a framing which she has trouble gathering consensus for despite being the author.

It's definitely an interesting question -- the "death of the author." Personally, as a reader, I draw the line at disagreeing with explicitly stated intentions of authors if I find those intentions are well-evidenced in their texts. In the case of LotR, I would be inclined to say that they are -- but an element of subjective judgment will always trouble these discussions.

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 4:55 PM UTC

cannabis_sam wrote: post #72

olivierestsage wrote: post #12

Although I suspect this will not be a popular comment, I hope the Amazon series will remain faithful to the Catholic/Christian sense that Tolkien deliberately infused into these novels. Peter Jackson did a notably good job with that, all things considered. To be clear, I don't think that you should have to be a Christian to like Lord of the Rings -- quite the contrary. But given the lack of compelling Christian art i…

Who’s the pope figure in the middle-earth context?