Beren & Lúthien film rights

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sauronsfinger
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Beren & Lúthien film rights

Post by sauronsfinger »

I am fed up with the freezing cold of winter and am now rereading LORD OF THE RINGS again.... this time slowly and savoring every word. Yesterday I read the chapter A KINFE IN THE DARK. In it Strider sings to the hobbits of Tinúviel and Beren and then Tolkien through Strider gives us quite a detailed description of their story. Although I had read the book at least a half dozen times before, this was the first time I have read it in total post the PJ films. I was struck and just how detailed it was.

Now I know several things (that may be in part wrong)

1- the rights to LOTR include all of the book including that passage and the Appendices.
2- movies - and some great ones - have been made with a whole lot less that a few pages to go by. I think of ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE which basically came from a Christmas holiday card.
3 - seeing that the first six Middle-earth films took in about 6 billion at the box office - another film might be easy to sell to the studio.
4- the most appealing part of the entire pre- hobbit and LOTR Middle-earth universe is indeed the story of Beren & Lúthien.
5- when you cobble these pages together with the description of the first age in Appendix A I (i) The Númenórean Kings - I believe you could actually get a full movie out of it if you just filled in the blanks and avoided quoting and actual dialogue which appears in the SILMARILLION.

Could this be done legally without any further permissions from the Tolkien Estate if one was determined to ride through some choppy waters and let the Estate scream about it?
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.... John Rogers
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Voronwë the Faithful
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Re: Beren & Lúthien film rights

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

That's a difficult question to answer, sf, but my best guess is that the answer is no. The material contained in LOTR on the Beren and Lúthien tale is very sketchy, and there is no question that it is a story that is primarily told in works for which they do not own the rights. I think it is extremely likely that the Estate would contest such an attempt, and I think they would probably win. Even if not, I think it is extremely likely that the studio would judge that it was not worth the battle, particularly when they could proceed with some thing else that they more clearly do have the rights to, such as the war in the North, or some kind of bridge film, probably focusing on Legolas and Aragorn. That's what I expect to happen, maybe with Tauriel involved as well.
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Elentári
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Re: Beren & Lúthien film rights

Post by Elentári »

I reckon they could weave Tauriel in quite nicely if they go for something along the lines of "The Hunt for Gollum" since my pet head canon is that she was killed during Gollum's escape from Mirkwood... =:) Otherwise I'd like to see the early life and journeys of Aragorn, up to his betrothal with Arwen, rather like we did in our screenplay for the abandoned bridge film idea (only probably without the DG/TH tie-in that we incorporated.)
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Re: Beren & Lúthien film rights

Post by Jude »

If they based a movie on the Aragorn's brief summary, they'd have to leave out all the great lines of dialogue. And that would be unsatisfactory to most of us.
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Re: Beren & Lúthien film rights

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

Elentári wrote:I reckon they could weave Tauriel in quite nicely if they go for something along the lines of "The Hunt for Gollum" since my pet head canon is that she was killed during Gollum's escape from Mirkwood... =:) Otherwise I'd like to see the early life and journeys of Aragorn, up to his betrothal with Arwen, rather like we did in our screenplay for the abandoned bridge film idea (only probably without the DG/TH tie-in that we incorporated.)
I think you could tie in the story of Beren and Lúthien to a film that primarily focused on Aragorn and Arwen's tale and it would pass muster.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
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Elentári
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Re: Beren & Lúthien film rights

Post by Elentári »

Nice idea, V... there are certainly lots of parallels drawn in the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen - Elrond giving Aragorn the Ring of Barahir, for example, and how about having young Aragorn reprise the tune that Viggo composed for the Lay in FotR, when he stumbles across Arwen at Rivendell!
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Re: Beren & Lúthien film rights

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

I think, in the right hands, that could be really good.

Elen, are you available to write the screenplay?
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Elentári
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Re: Beren & Lúthien film rights

Post by Elentári »

I might be persuaded as part of a team effort... :)

Mind you, been there, done that already in our "Bridge" film script, but if anyone wants to use that as a starting point and rework the relevant parts, that's fine by me.
There is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound.
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