Lord of the Rings series!?

For discussion of Amazon's new television show "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power"
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Jude
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by Jude »

Not exactly - there was a moment, after Frodo asked him "Would you destroy it?" and held it out to him, where he felt the pull. In filmverse, that was what persuaded him that letting Frodo leave the Fellowship was the only option.
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by Alatar »

I know, but he's presented in the Movies as the only character who resisted the ring successfully. Not saying I agree with that interpretation, but I think its much more likely than a Tom Bombadil TV Series! :)
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by Dave_LF »

Almost anything would be. :D
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by yovargas »

Except the in-depth series about the Ghân-buri-Ghân.
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by Inanna »

yovargas wrote:Except the in-depth series about the Ghân-buri-Ghân.
Oh. I would like that. I really would; I found them fascinating.
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by yovargas »

So you're the one.


:P
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by sauronsfinger »

Primula Baggins wrote:I'm apprehensive about Old Tom—how will they possibly present him as he is in the book without it appearing ridiculous? The hopping about, the rhymes. . . .

However, my reaction to the thought of seeing Aragorn's back story is much more positive. I will hope for something great. There are some tragic and powerful events in the Appendices that I've always been sorry were passed over with a few words. Even those hints, once I discovered them, made Aragorn a deeper character for me, especially at his first appearance in LotR. He's not whining at the hobbits because they don't trust him; he's telling them they don't know who and what he is—and they're not ready to know.
In complete agreement. Bombadil was not included in the films for several reasons and it was a very wise decision. The backstory of Aragorn would make a great series but I hope they do not restrict it to that.

My first choice would be to have an alternating story involving Balin and company resettling Moria. You could work that at the same time as the Aragorn story and it achieves the normal desire to show two different stories in two very different locations.

But I am very excited by the prospect of this multi-year series.

I wonder what this does to the hope for a WAR IN THE NORTH film from Jackson depicting the other events in the War of the Ring that we did not see in the trilogy?
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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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by Frelga »

Was War in the North anything official? I don't recall hearing about it.
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by sauronsfinger »

Regarding casting: if they go with the young Aragorn idea - an actor I would suggest is Taylor Kitsch. He was excellent on the TV series of FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS a few years ago and has passed out of favor after the JOHN CARTER debacle. But he certainly has the look and can do physical acting and emotional has good range.
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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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by sauronsfinger »

Frelga wrote:Was War in the North anything official? I don't recall hearing about it.
No - it was all speculation.
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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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by Jude »

Why not have Tom Bombadil, but without the songs and the rhymes? How many purists would object to having him included but speaking like a normal person, as opposed to leaving him out?

Personally, I'd be willing to put up with Bombadil if that were the cost of including the barrow-wight. Even Gandalf said that that was the most dangerous moment of all, and people who know the story only through the movies don't know about it at all.

"Here! I am waiting for you!" - probably the scariest line in the whole book. For me, anyway.
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

I would love to see Bombadil, songs and rhymes and all!
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by Inanna »

yovargas wrote:So you're the one.
My name is Neo.
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by Frelga »

Voronwë the Faithful wrote:I would love to see Bombadil, songs and rhymes and all!
Me too. I am tired of "gritty" fantasy.
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

From TheHutt at TORN:
The German IGN site has made an inquiry at Amazon about the new Middle-Earth series. In their reply, Amazon surprisingly communicated a first relevant date for the series:

"We are now in the process of planning, as the shooting take place in 2019".

Meaning that the series' start will likely be in 2020. And first information on casting and storyline probably in 2018.
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kzer_za
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by kzer_za »

Makes me nervous. Unless it's late 2019, this sounds like a rushed pre-production.
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by Gilgaearel »

Primula Baggins wrote:I'm a just leave this here.

How Would You Cast the Lord of the Rings for Television?

(There are some excellent ideas in there, including the overarching one of thinking outside the gender and color boxes.)
Ha ha ha.. OK here is a casting out of the box.
Someone to cast Ben Shapiro as an Elf. He'll need just a pair of light grey contacts and a long dark hair wig. ( and to speak slower I guess but this is a whole different story).

Casting photo.. As Celebrimbor perhaps?

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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by Gilgaearel »

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Before and After casting photos.
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by Anduril »

Primula Baggins wrote:I'm a just leave this here.

How Would You Cast the Lord of the Rings for Television?

(There are some excellent ideas in there, including the overarching one of thinking outside the gender and color boxes.)
If representation of female and non-white people was a concern for a reboot, better to (subtly) increase the roles of existing ones and add new complementary ones than just change the sex and ethnicity of established characters. The latter is the easy way out. The story is too steeped in northern European mythic past and early medieval history for such changes not to seem gratuitous, just for PCness (which understandably is a more sensitive issue today than 15 years ago). Added challenge: don't simply give the women swords. It takes away from Éowyn and that's another easy route. And European theme aside, the Dúnedain are simply in the wrong geographical region to have dark skin. The Harad lands are in the southern hemisphere. You'd be making the journey a lot longer, where Eagles would certainly have to be used.

Did Nurse Ioreth even have a non-speaking role in Jackson's? The Blue Wizards most likely freed many Southrons and Easterlings from Sauron's corruption over time, we just never saw them. Flesh out Sam/Rosie more. I should get back on that idle reboot thoughts thread...
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Re: Lord of the Rings series!?

Post by kzer_za »

There actually are a few plausible ways to fit darker-skinned characters (though probably not subsaharan Africans) into LotR as a legitimate reading of the material.
  • Harfoot hobbits, most obviously. Tolkien even describes them as the most historically representative branch. The Shire is majority-Fallohide (?), but there is still a Harfoot presence, and I think there are more in Bree.
  • In particular, Sam has Harfoot ancestry and could be played as mixed-race. (His hands are even described as brown, though this could also mean brown hair or dirty gardener's hands). Also I am less sure about this one, but is Rosie's ancestry ever definitively described?
  • As someone who is in some sense representative of all of Arda, could Tom Bombadil be depicted as a racial minority? Although this may carry too much risk of coming across as an offensive stereotype.
  • Some regions of Gondor have swarthy-skinned people.
  • In particular, I think Beregond's home region is vague, so he and Bergil could plausibly be nonwhite.
  • If Dol Amroth were to appear, as a port town near the border it would probably be pretty cosmopolitan. Imrahil needs to be European I think, but maybe some of his lieutenants or advisors could be minorities?
  • Also, it is implied that there have been on-and-off peaceful relations with the Haradhrim (they have traded in the past and Aragorn has travelled there, presumably peacefully), so there could possibly be a minority living in Gondor and even intermarrying.
Peter Jackson actually missed some chances to reasonably diversify his films, Laketown aside (which I thought fit with its Italian city-state vibe).

EDIT: Just checked...Ioreth is from Lossarnach, one of the more diverse regions of Gondor. So there's another one.
Last edited by kzer_za on Tue Dec 05, 2017 5:19 pm, edited 9 times in total.
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