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Peter Jackson on how Tolkien stopped a Beatles LOTR film (2021)

bbc.com

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Re: Peter Jackson on how Tolkien stopped a Beatles LOTR film (2021)

#71

Post by smogcutter »

karaterobot wrote: post #38
ants_everywhere wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, the Peter Jackson LOTR seems to owe a great deal to the 1973 Ralph Bakshi animated version. Some shots are nearly identical. And 1973 < 2000.

Well, I disagree with you about the non-camp quality of the 1978 Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings , but even if that were true, are you saying that changes the track record of SF and fantasy movies in that period?

The Bakshi movie definitely isn’t camp. It plays itself way too straight (so to speak). If it reads as corny today it’s because it’s such pure, guileless 70s kitsch.

Also, I realized rewatching it recently for the first time in forever that the Lemmiwinks episode of South Park is an homage to the Bakshi movie!

Re: Peter Jackson on how Tolkien stopped a Beatles LOTR film (2021)

#72

Post by ryandrake »

metadat wrote: post #69
shagie wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please recall how "nerd" material was treated before the 2000s And I present The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins. https://youtu.be/BC35cQKHwzg?si=KWIbiEpEVb36tqh1

It's willy wonka meets LOTR. Thanks, I hate it.

They released an entire album[1]. It’s everything you could imagine. You’re welcome.

1: https://www.amazon.com/Spaced-Out-Leonard-William-Shatner/dp...

Re: Peter Jackson on how Tolkien stopped a Beatles LOTR film (2021)

#73

Post by stevekemp »

karaterobot wrote: post #9

> "Ultimately, they couldn't get the rights from Tolkien, because he didn't like the idea of a pop group doing his story. So it got nixed by him. They tried to do it. There's no doubt about it. I'm a Beatles fan. Tolkien was right to be skeptical, it would have been terrible. No doubt in my mind: campy, perfunctory, self-mocking. Please recall how "nerd" material was treated before the 2000s, if you'd like some prece…

From "The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien" we see what he agreed with his publishers:

"Stanley & I have agreed on our policy : Art or Cash. Either very profitable terms indeed; or absolute author's veto on objectionable features or alterations."

It might have been interesting to see how Tolkien might have vetoed things, or demanded changes. We see from his letters how strongly he viewed many things.

We also see at least one critique of a film-proposal - though off-hand I cannot remember who's film-script it was..

Re: Peter Jackson on how Tolkien stopped a Beatles LOTR film (2021)

#74

Post by barrysteve »

drob wrote: post #37
rcstank wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's his own creation. He had every right to stop it. I don't see how this is wrong at all.

He owns the IP, but we all lose out from this system. Art has asymmetric upside – bad art doesn't really harm anyone (usually just gets forgotten) but good art enriches millions of people's lives. It might have been amazing. It might have been bad-but-interesting. We'll never know!

[dead]

Re: Peter Jackson on how Tolkien stopped a Beatles LOTR film (2021)

#75

Post by LAC-Tech »

As a fan of the books first, I even find it hard to enjoy Peter Jacksons movies. The dialogue is dumbed down, and it's all very cheesey and hollywood. Probably would've enjoyed it a lot more if I'd never read Tolkien.

Also being a New Zealander it was very jarring that this fantasy world I had grown up with turned out to be... where I live. I get people dig the scenery, but I kept thinking "did we pull over there once to use the toilets?" or "is that where they shot that ad for Toyotas?"

Re: Peter Jackson on how Tolkien stopped a Beatles LOTR film (2021)

#76

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

ryandrake wrote: post #72
metadat wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's willy wonka meets LOTR. Thanks, I hate it.

They released an entire album[1]. It’s everything you could imagine. You’re welcome. 1: https://www.amazon.com/Spaced-Out-Leonard-William-Shatner/dp...

Why?

Re: Peter Jackson on how Tolkien stopped a Beatles LOTR film (2021)

#77

Post by adrianN »

salad-tycoon wrote: post #68
aspenmayer wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Gollum that's funny for five seconds and then just incredibly irritating. This is the canonical Gollum of the original text. Only half-kidding. Now that I think about it, the Beatles probably could have made all those songs and rhymes from the source material really sing. Only a matter of time before someone uses voice cloning and video generation AI models to make this, and when they do, I’ll probably watch it, or…

If I’ve learned anything from here it’s that “AI” getting to this point is hardly a given within any relevant time frame. Of course, luckily we are surrounded by experts who I am sure will gladly point out why I’m wrong. It is a fun kool aid to drink though. Super AI enabling us to do things like “computer compose the best symphony for me that has ever been made in the style of the Beatles and successfully trade on t…

An AI composing a beautiful symphony is a lot more likely than an AI being unusually successful at the stock market. For the latter it would need to outcompete other stock market AIs.

Re: Peter Jackson on how Tolkien stopped a Beatles LOTR film (2021)

#78

Post by tjmc »

TillE wrote: post #57
karaterobot wrote: post #9

> "Ultimately, they couldn't get the rights from Tolkien, because he didn't like the idea of a pop group doing his story. So it got nixed by him. They tried to do it. There's no doubt about it. I'm a Beatles fan. Tolkien was right to be skeptical, it would have been terrible. No doubt in my mind: campy, perfunctory, self-mocking. Please recall how "nerd" material was treated before the 2000s, if you'd like some prece…

It's so easy to imagine Lennon doing a Gollum that's funny for five seconds and then just incredibly irritating.

Yoko would have made a great Wormtongue though

Re: Peter Jackson on how Tolkien stopped a Beatles LOTR film (2021)

#79

Post by strken »

karaterobot wrote: post #70
jasonfarnon wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No doubt in my mind: campy, perfunctory, self-mocking. Please recall how "nerd" material was treated before the 2000s, I don't remember comic books being "nerd" material before the 2000s (like say computers or computer programming). They were "children's" material, and for whatever reason the market moved toward older teens and adults. The main comics weren't written/illustrated to be "campy, perfunctory, self-mockin…

> I don't remember comic books being "nerd" material before the 2000s (like say computers or computer programming) I'm not sure how comic books got into this. But comics were definitely for nerds: basically, socially-inept people who did things like reading instead of going out to parties. Computers were not central to the definition of nerd.

Comics had quite a lot of breadth to them even before the 2000s. Consider Footrot Flats, which no self-respecting city nerd from America would have known of, but which two generations of Australian and New Zealander farmers grew up reading.

Re: Peter Jackson on how Tolkien stopped a Beatles LOTR film (2021)

#80

Post by tetris11 »

arnavpraneet wrote: post #26
tetris11 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yesterday painted them as literal Gods, instead of just decent musicians at the right place at the right time. To this day I go out of my way to ward people away from that terrible film.

Did we watch the same movie? It was more about their cultural impact than painting them as gods

Imagine you have a friend who plays a nice song for you, and is dumfounded -nay- awestruck to the point of murder - that you aren't moved to tears by the performance because he believes the song was written by the angels themselves.

That movie overglorified the Beatles beyond credibility, and it was genuinely painful to watch.

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