Exactly, just look at the horrible Hobbit moves. A breakthrough like LOTR takes an incredible effort, sacrifice, risk taking, and luck. We always look back at these big achievements and think they were inevitable, but that’s not true, it’s hard and rare.
The only thing Warner will achieve is spending a lot of money for somethig that nobody will talk about in 2 years, while people will still rewatch LOTR in decades.
You don’t have to watch every damn thing involving your fandom. It’s pure capitalistic greed at this point.
Let a franchise fucking die already.
Demand better movies and don’t engage with film as product. Find passionate storytellers and not greedy corporate executives looking to milk every last drop of nostalgia for profits.
I listened to a podcast (99 Percent Invisible I think) and it said a big reason why the 90s were so great for movies were the creation of cinaplexes, big movie theaters with tons of screens.
More screens meant that new or different ideas that wouldn't normally make it to the big screen (Forrest Gump, Fight Club, The Matrix etc) were given a chance, and found an audience.
Now everything is played safe. Hollywood doesn't want new franchises because they are deemed too risky, and the names we know and love are running out of ideas and passion and risk ruining the whole thing.
Interesting perspective and makes me think that's why the 18+ screen mega theatre is dying today. Not enough of those kinds of films to keep that many screens going and draw people in.
Still haven't watched rings of power, probably not now that I cancelled Prime after the ad fiasco.
Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War were fun - but very non canon.
Anyone who bought Gollum at all should take what you're saying to heart. Zero true fans of the Middle Earth world would put any money down for that game. If anyone bought it because they were a fan they deserved to lose their money, zero of the marketing material looked like it was going to be a quality product or decent addition to the story.
I desperately hope so. The amount of effort that went into the current movies cannot be matched by anybody in Hollywood except maybe Christopher Nolan.
Is it just me, or had anyone else lost all hope for good Lotr shows after Rings of Power? I saw lots of potential squandered by poor writing, and I fear more Lotr content is just going to be more content, not good stories.
Christopher Tolkien was blocking a lot of things. Even the Jackson films sneaked by and wouldn't have been made of he could have stopped it.
He's dead now, and the new heirs to the rights like money. They also have about 20 years before the copyright expires. Which isn't that long; that's about as much time between now and the Jackson films. To keep ahead of the clock, they're greenlighting a lot of garbage and risk running their franchise into the ground.
With the infinite amount of excellent content available online, there is no point on wasting your time and attention or mediocrity. It was obvious from the news before launch that it will suck, so I waited, and the reviews confirmed it, so I didn’t bother.
So I tried to find more info on it and it seems like they are not remaking the trilogy. Multiple movies set in various time periods before the Hobbit and LotR are currently written. That's not really great but it is way better than a remake IMHO.
At least they are smart enough not to try to remake a near perfect trilogy. If they try enough options with giving different directors freedom, they can hit gold with one - same way Disney did with Andor or Rogue One, even if most other new SW content sucks.
The copyright expires in 2044. The Perter Jackson series came out 2001-2003. From a studio point it is approaching the now or never time. They need to make one within the next few years to be able to make a 3rd one just before the end of copyright. From a studio buisness perspective this makes sense and is kind of a no-brainer.
Eh, somewhat disagree. I think some series have big potentials for spinoffs or side stories. The Disney Star Wars movies were terrible, agreed, but some of the shows are fantastic.
Marvel (and DC for that matter) is finicky. Comic books are, by their nature, extremely continuous, so there will always be more content to adapt. Whether or not it's good or worth adapting is dependent on both the comic series and the producers' capabilities, but that's another issue.
I mean, I'll give an example. The Last Airbender, fantastic show. It could have ended there and we'd all be satisfied. But The Legend of Korra, while not as great as TLA, was still (imo) very good. But the Last Airbender movie? Yeah, we all know it sucked hard.
I wouldn't say writers should never ever look to make spinoffs or side stories to existing content, but obviously it should be good, and it's demonstrably possible. Star Wars gave us The Clone Wars, Breaking Bad gave us Better Call Saul, and I mean on a somewhat relevant note, LotR gave us Shadow of Mordor, which I really liked. New, original content [edit: as a sequel to already existing content] can be good... but obviously, not always.
In a dream scenario where they can get the right people to do it, I would vastly prefer a TV series. Even with the extended editions, there's a ton of material in the books we didn't get to see. Things like the whole sequence with the elves early in the books being turned into "hey look there's some elves", no Tom Bombadil, the journey from Rivendel to Moria. And that's just the first book.
I think most would agree the world building is one of the best aspects of the books and there just isn't time for that in a feature film.
As some kind of "filler" in a TV series is actually the only way I can see the Tom Bombadil content working on the screen. It's just too specific to work in any other way IMO, even though I would like to see something. (Especially with Jack Black as Tom Bombadil, can you imagine him ring-a-ding dillowing xD)
Idk if you watched the last of us, but like that Bill episode, which is mostly disconnected from the greater narrative, didn't feel out of place in the series to me. That's what I'm getting at. I want to see all of it at a slower pace.
I don't think there is a version of our world where Tom Bombadil is done well onscreen. While Jack Black has the energy for him, I would see Jack Black and not Bombadil Hey-Dol-Merry-Dol-ing.
It's one of the core parts. Makes sense PJ and most commenters agree in discarding it. One can say it's the closest we get in the book to characters talking to Middle-Earth itself. (Something no sane person would discard from Narnia books, for example.)
There's a difference, metaphorically, between the ballad and the accompanying ambient harp play, and in general background music.
The former is inconvenient - like a book or a tale. It conveys a story, a position, a morale, which inevitably leads to conflict and conflict is bad for business. It also can't be generated from existing stories and positions to cover all audiences, they'll average to the same bland product. It can only be borne out of human instincts and experiences. Even totalitarian propaganda has historically used real feelings and experiences.
While the latter can be generated and pipelined.
So the modern "consumerist" recommendation for art is to never look at the root, never search for the ballad itself, only for tables and food and harps and ambient play and windows and stones and the weather. And even if you look at what's supposed to be the art at the root, it's assumed that the modern way is to only rationalize it, find technical, formal similarities and intersections with something else, like a style or a touch, but never allow it to bloom naturally. Getting at the essence of things is seen as impolite and asocial.
(Reminds me of that quote about white color and wisdom.)
The thing is that, even if these new ones are the most awful media ever produced. It doesn't change anything about the old ones. They will still stay awesome. They don't depreciate just because other media exist. Or that would have already happened with the Rings of Power.
I just wish they put this time and effort into other franchises. I want more Discworld.
It's going to be. Don't have any hopes for it, just don't. In fact, I'd argue just don't see it unless we hear that it's phenomenal for some reason after it's been released.
I think this is the answer why big movies suck and won't try anything new. Filmmaking has become outrageously expensive to make and market, and they have to return their money at the box office right now rather than a longer lifespan with video rental, so the companies cannot afford a flop and they stick to what's familiar.
I remember a time when news like this would generate an incredible amount of hype instead of just speculation on how bad it's going to be, which is exactly where my thoughts first went also. Too much PTSD from the industry now for us to get excited about anything.