I dunno, man. I’m super torn on this one. On the one hand, Stephen Colbert is a lovely human who very obviously has a deep passion and lifelong interest in these stories, and I’m genuinely happy for him that he gets to live what must be a dream come true.
On the other, Hollywood’s past treatment of Tolkien’s work, excepting the three original movies, is like watching a meth’ed out homeless guy beat your favorite uncle to death and piss on his corpse.
I’d say I’m tentatively optimistic.
excepting the three original movies
I think I’ll assume you mean the first three Peter Jackson movies, which were not the original film adaptations.
Original live action.
Thank you, internet pedant. You’ve truly saved Lemmy.
Technically speaking the Bakshi versions were, in a sense, live action since they were all rotoscoped.
“Hey, the guy playing Aragorn tripped over his own sword? Should we fix that?”
“Nah, fuck it, leave it.”
i love the bakshis
I’ve seen Colbert nerd out on it. If they insist on milking the franchise, and anyone should be thrown into a writers room, they got the right dude.
Yeah Colbert is definitely a card carrying Tolkien nerd. As am I, and although it’s never ideal for IPs to be milked in this fashion, in the case of LOTR I can’t honestly say it bothers me. Star Wars, Harry Potter, Asoiaf? Those over milked franchises can fuck all the way off.
But LOTR has such tremendous depth and cultural value that I think it’s still got milk to spare. Obviously these won’t stand up to the original trilogy, but if they’re at least decent, they can easily be justified because they will continue to maintain the cultural relevance of LOTR as a whole and hopefully renew the interest of younger fans. After all, a good chunk of zoomers and beyond have probably never seen the original films, given their prohibitive length and release dates.
The Hobbit films were pretty bad but I’m still happy they exist, and after watching the appendices it’s more understandable why they didn’t turn out so great. So if they can at least make something better and more faithful than those, I’ll be delighted. It’s also a good decision to keep the stories rooted to the original trilogy. It seems pretty hard to fuck these up too badly, as long as the writers stay humble. Just fill in the gaps that existed in the original trilogy and don’t try to do too much. It’d be cool to get some flashbacks to the scouring of the Shire.
P.S. Rings of Power is absolute trash, I noped out after the first season. So there definitely is a way to fuck it up, but I’ve already explained why there’s reason to hope for the best in this case.
after watching the appendices it’s more understandable why they didn’t turn out so great.
what’s the central idea?
Colbert is a true blue Silmarillion toting Tolkienist. I think he even did something with Iarwain Ben-adar even before the announced movie.
But LOTR is perfect.
He can redirect the hobbit if he wants.
how the fuck did they get 3 3-4 hour long movies out of a, what, 200 page book? Battle of five armies was one VERY short chapter.
If you read the book it’s actually insulting.
They completely changed the plot and character of Bilbo.
sounds like it’s more of an epilogue to LOTR.
The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past is set 14 years after the passing of Frodo. Sam, Merry and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure.
Turns into a drunk, stoned on pipeweed, just trying to get to Mordor comedy adventure film
Pineapple Express: Mordor
Colbert on Monday revealed that the film will be based on “Fogs on the Barrow-downs,” the eighth chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring, where Hobbits are trapped by a Barrow-wight in an unnatural fog. The story also includes a fan favorite character omitted from the previous films, Tom Bombadil. The movie will be derived from chapters three through eight of Tolkien’s landmark book.
Could be very interesting. Those were interesting chapters but I understand why they had to skip over them.
oh my Eru, he’s making a Tom Bombadil feature film!
The story also includes a fan favorite character omitted from the previous films, Tom Bombadil.
Not this fan. I bounced off the books so many times in my teenage years, because even though they were this great iconic series that defined a genre, suddenly there’s a comic relief bit. Every time I got there, I put the book down assuming there would just be more of it to come. It was only when I mentioned my frustration with it to someone and they told me it’s just that one scene, that I forced myself through it
Suffice to say, I won’t be rushing to see a Tom Bombadil movie…
