Lord of the Rings series!?

[Inanna]

He's the biggest name signed. His was at the least "one of the lead roles". As for who he is, he was Eustace in Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
/

Still no Clue. Obviously, not my stomping grounds.

[Frelga]

He's the biggest name signed. His was at the least "one of the lead roles". As for who he is, he was Eustace in Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
/

Still no Clue. Obviously, not my stomping grounds.

Same. And not to be shallow... Ah heck, I'm shallow, and he's not my type, so shrug.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

/shrug

Neither was Stuart Townsend.

Townsend had just had the lead role in a major (albeit awful) film that I was interested in (The Queen of the Damned) so to me he was quite a bit better known.

But in any event, as you said earlier, that worked out okay in the end!

[Alatar]

https://www.unilad.co.uk/film-and-tv/lo ... e=facebook




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[Voronwë the Faithful]

Well now.

Lord of the Rings’ Series Taps Morfydd Clark as Young Galadriel (EXCLUSIVE)

She certainly has the cheekbones to look like Galadriel as we saw her in the films. Whether she can act, I can't say.

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[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is very interesting indeed.

Althoun at TORN made the following post (which I'm going to quote in entirety rather than just summarize all the same information that he already wrote:

Composer Brian Ralston releases demo sessions from his concept music for the Amazon LOTR series

Ralston's orchestral pieces, unfortunately, weren't selected by Amazon but his pitch gives us an insight into the kinds of musical numbers that were considered:



The titles of these tracks are really quite interesting (a lot of thought has clearly gone into them by someone who knows the lore fairly well, including obscure stuff in lesser known volumes).

One of the melodies is named "Firiel's Song" and a woman sings over the track in Tolkien's original Quenya lyrics.

I don't know how much the applicant composers were told about the plot of the series and rights situation (if anything).

But Firiel is a Númenórean woman described only in Tolkien's The Lost Road (1937, namely its Númenórean chapters), the only prose account Tolkien ever penned set in late Númenor just before its Downfall, when Sauron ruled the kingdom through Ar-Pharazôn.

Firiel was of the household of Elendil, and had been raised by the latter after her father's death. She was renowned for her sweet-singing voice. In the text, she sings a tragic elegy for Númenor: a song about the Valar and Eru Ilúvatar, which disturbs Elendil's son as such hymns are banned under the Melkor-worshippers:



Quote

A voice from a high window came falling down like silver into the pool of twilight where they walked. Elendil knew the voice: it was the voice of Firiel, a maiden of his household, daughter of Orontor. His heart sank, for Firiel was dwelling in his house because Orontor had departed.

Men said he was on a long voyage. Others said that he had fled the displeasure of the king. Elendil knew that he was on a mission from which he might never return, or return too late." And he loved Orontor, and Firiel was fair...

Now her voice sang an even-song in the Eressean tongue, but made by men, long ago. The nightingale ceased. Elendil stood still to listen; and the words came to him, far off and strange, as some melody in archaic speech sung sadly in a forgotten twilight in the beginning of man's journey in the world...

'She should not sing that song out of a window,' said Herendil [Isildur], breaking the silence. 'They sing it otherwise now. Melkor cometh back, they say, and the king shall give us the Sun forever.'


An English translation from Quenya of Firiel's Song by Tolkien:

https://folk.uib.no/hnohf/firiel.htm

Since the composer was able to use the entirety of the Quenya text of the song from The Lost Road, I wonder if this means Amazon had the rights to that Second Age material (given that, if it had been selected, this would have been official music for the series)?

The Lost Road would be particularly useful in fleshing out a narrative set in the late Second Age.

By itself, though, the song in the text is presented as an ancient elegy that Firiel sings - indeed its described as archaic and in the old Elvish high tongue (i.e. "an even-song in the Eressean tongue, but made by men, long ago") - so its original provenance would be deep back in Númenor's history, as per the legendarium.

Another track (the fourth) is called: "The Last Alliance", which I think rather speaks for itself.

I'll also repeat what I wrote there:

Well, that's an eye-opener an no mistake!

I see three possibilities here.

1. Ralston was just winging it, with no real direction from the production, and producing what he thought would be good, based on his own (apparently extensive) knowledge of Tolkien's work. I don't know enough about how this process works to know how likely this might be.

2. Even if he following direction from the production, the deep connection to Tolkien's work, including fairly obscure parts of the Second Age writings, is not representative of what the series actually will cover. I find that very unlikely.

3. This shows that the show is going to go much deeper into the lore than I at least previously thought possible. I am trying not to get my hopes up that this is the case.

Until I actually listened to the pieces I tended to be skeptical of your and Crishala's copyright concerns, but it sure does sound extremely derivative of Shore's work. I like what I heard of it. but I can certainly see them wanting to go in a different direction. I just hope that the direction that they go is as good as this.

[yovargas]

The melody of that first one sounds like somebody wanted to use the Fellowship theme but was legally required to change it just enough to avoid copyright infringement claims.

No thanks, mister.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yeah, if you listen through it, there is a lot that is tremendously derivative of Shore's work. The only way that would work would be if he specifically authorized it.

What is more significant to me is the fact that they appear (assuming that Ralston was following direction from the production) to be using some pretty obscure aspects of Tolkien's writings on the Second Age. That is pretty exciting to me, if it is really true.

[Alatar]

I personally love the fact that its deliberately composed to evoke Howard Shores score, but composed earlier in time. I'm disappointed this won't be used. And yes, V, it is encouraging!

[yovargas]

I don't hate the idea of trying to evoke some of Shore's themes and style, though I would strongly prefer original music, but in practice this is comes off more like "off-brand knock off" to me. I'd find it super distracting in any new story that wanted me to take it seriously.

[Dave_LF]

While I now know that I will not be the composer on the show, and I debated myself over the last few months about whether I make the music I wrote for them public, I ultimately decided that I was proud enough and honored to have worked with the amazing AFM Local 47 musicians in Los Angeles on this demo, I felt it should be out there in the world and not lost to the world.

That's all this is.

[kzer_za]

Yes, it's not actually in the show. But the fact that one of the tracks is titled with the ultra-deep cut "Firiel's Theme" might mean something for how Amazon is approaching the lore both legally and creatively. Or it might just be Ralston digging deep on his own, depending on how the process works.

[yovargas]

I don't have any idea how this stuff works but is it possible that the "let's evoke Shore" wasn't purely his idea, and that the people behind the show suggested it?

[Frelga]

To my unskilled ear, most of the fantasy music since LOTR seems to invoke Shore.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yes, it's not actually in the show. But the fact that one of the tracks is titled with the ultra-deep cut "Firiel's Theme" might mean something for how Amazon is approaching the lore both legally and creatively. Or it might just be Ralston digging deep on his own, depending on how the process works.

Even more significant that the use of the title "Firiel's Theme" is the use of Tolkien's actual Quenya lyrics.

[kzer_za]

Will Poulter's replacement. New Elrond? Maybe.



https://deadline.com/2020/01/robert-ara ... 202823073/

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Thanks, k_z.

It will be interesting to see who this character really is.

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[Voronwë the Faithful]

Amazon has finally made some official cast announcements, except that they still refuse to say who the actors are actually portraying. The names of the actors are all meaningless to me. I like to know whether the names of the characters they are playing are likewise meaningless to me, or whether they are characters that I am familiar with.

https://deadline.com/2020/01/lord-of-th ... 202830413/

[Alatar]

Its certainly a more diverse cast than PJ's which makes it feel a little more, I dunno, modern? Not to start the whole "Was Tolkien a racist" debate again (spoiler, he wasn't) but this feels like pandering. Its just looks like a cast I'd see in Shannara, rather than Silmarillion.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I mostly agree, with the caveat that just isn't really possible to judge without knowing who these individuals are playing. I think it is likely going to be mostly made up characters (in the sense of characters not created by Tolkien; obviously they are all "made up characters" in the sense that is a fictional story).