Amazon, Warner Bros in Talks for LOTR Series Adaptation: Variety

I think I'll need to get supery-dupery
to enjoy this show lol, kinda like how I am now (damn this cider I made is strong rofl)

Do you add anything to make your cider, or just let it sit out a bit?

This guy's whole thesis is that Amazon is working with the Silmarillion, which is wrong. There's some similarities between the appendices and the Sil, but still. He makes some other good points, though unfocused. He says it's trying to be like Game of Thrones, but then also says it will be mired in identity politics, which is a contradiction.

{{ I'd say his point was that its trying to be Game of Thrones in terms of being more 'realistic' and gritty, nudity, swearing and gory violence, that sort of thing. But that it will also add in todays obsession with race and identity and everyone being represented no matter how inappropriate to the settings, characters or narrative that might be. And those two things together will kill it stone dead as being any sor tof Tolkien adaptation.
As for him thinking they have the rights to the Sil, well he does say he hasnt been following the production closely till now, and I can easily see how someone would assume it was based on the Sil as the idea you can extrapoliate something like 5 series of story out of the bullet points in the Tale of Years and a few scattered paragraphs and have full stories, dialogue, characters and story arcs seems even more stupid and unlikely. Which it is. Its going to be mainly made up nonense - and the thought of the idiot who wrote the absolutely stinking Star Trek Beyond being able to do it is even more ridiculous. He has for me already proved he cannot take someones elses work, characters, setting and story telling and translate them successfully, or even competently.}}

The showrunners are an odd choice, but that may be another conscious imitation of Game of Thrones: Benioff had some good writing credits but no production credit, and Weiss wasn't known for anything.

https://youtu.be/bBrUj-9SbMc

Yay!  More kiddies!!

Whats with all the kids?

Tried to edit last post, but this new Forumshire set-up on my phone won't let me.

{{ The Second Age: Of the Rugrats}}

It could be worse, they could have been Maori or Amazon Rainforest tribe.

https://www.theonering.net/torwp/2021/07/20/110907-spy-report-incredible-details-from-amazons-lord-of-the-rings-characters-sexless-nudity-halflings/

Looking at your post, Chris, I’m almost optimistic. The older works of Tolkien were more Grimms Fairytales than Magic Far Away Tree, so I expect a darker story overall. And the mention of the corruption of Elves into Orcs sends a chill down my spine. But it was there in Tolkien.

{{ Black hobbits is an interesting interpretation of Harfoots being 'browner' than the other two strands of hobbits. Plus I take everything from OneRing.net with a ginormous pinch of salt they arse lick something awful for news.
Reading between some lines with more sensible crabbit Forumshire eyes I see  'diversity' where its not needed or sensible and as to Tolkien experts being on set, 'for a time' five minutes is a time, besides they described Boyens as a Tolkien expert on the PJ films and she most certainly was not. Nudity is sparse and not sexualised, but still present, because of course it is could barely turn a page of Tolkiens writings without nudity   And concentration camp style visuals? Are we trying to make social points Amazon? - just tell the fucking story as is!!! And short haired elves, because yeah why not make arbitary choices, not like any elves are famous for their long hair 'cough' Galadriel. As for the Tolkien Estate being happy, now Christopher is gone seems to me money makes them happy now- as demonstrated by Amazon having the merch rights, I can only dread what that will lead to.
I'd love to be proved wrong on this one, but my crabbit senses are tingling.}}

I think it’s a good strategy to lower my fairly low expectations, Petty. Maybe it will be bad but not so bad that I can’t get through an episode or two? Good thinking. And people say that crabbit helps nought. By Tom Bombadil’s yella boots! Who the fook are ‘they’!

Gotta admit that while the news that the Tolkien Estate being happy made me perk up, Petty makes a very sharp point about how different things are with Christopher out of the picture.  This is looking like a wait and see type of affair, with more ways it can go wrong than right.  The pilot episode will settle it pretty quick.

But I wonder - we just learned that Tom Budge was playing Celebrimbor, but after the first filming he's out, saying that the studio wanted to go a different direction with his character. That's a pretty major shake-up: I'd call Celebrimbor the #2 character in the Second Age, so that means a major re-envisioning of the whole story. Tolkien doesn't give us a whole lot to go on, so I can see how the writing would be a struggle. I'd call it a good thing that they were ruthless enough to throw out one of their leading stars this far into production.

Maybe Budge was frightened of Petty and negotiated an exit?

{{ They only need fear the crabbit if they make something crabbit inducing- they have been warned!   It's in their own hands.
My biggest fear is that their own agendas, political and social will dominate the screen and destroy the very fabric of Tolkiens work, just as such writing has Doctor Who, Star Wars and many other once great franchises and they will forget the very core tenant any adaptation of Tolkien must adhere to - that freedom must reside in the mind of the viewer, not by the imposition of the writers. }}

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Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{ They only need fear the crabbit if they make something crabbit inducing- they have been warned!   It's in their own hands.
My biggest fear is that their own agendas, political and social will dominate the screen and destroy the very fabric of Tolkiens work, just as such writing has Doctor Who, Star Wars and many other once great franchises and they will forget the very core tenant any adaptation of Tolkien must adhere to - that freedom must reside in the mind of the viewer, not by the imposition of the writers. }}

And if it’s allegorical, I’ll cuss.

I have sudden terrible thoughts of naked elves being oppressed by patriarchal monsters and little black hobbits that, contrary to the intent of the ideologues, come to be thought of as pygmies not hobbits!


“I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.”

You can be sure there is going to be some of that stuff.

Sir Lenny Henry portrays one such early halfling [Harfoot]

Holy crow, they actually did it. The mad lads. Black hobbits. lol

Most hobbits are Harfoots, and so the idea that the most English place in all of Middle-earth is going to resemble a sub-Saharan African town in its population and that Tolkien meant such a thing to be is so stupid that I think I need to take a walk.

Oh and what about this, most hobbit leaders are Fallohides, who are "fair-haired and fair-skinned", so if we go with this new conceptualization, then the Shire is going to start resembling South Africa under Apartheid. What an awesome tribute to Tolkien's birthplace! Wow, very happy with this. 

A lot of fuss over a single cast-member? Perhaps, but I'm not the one fucking around here.