More Lord of the Rings - related movies on the way.

Lord of the Rings. This was the favorite book of the Hippies in the sixties, maybe Hollywood guys hope to give them one last cheer before they die.
 
I remember Peter Jackson saying he wanted to make a film based on the book The Silmarillion. This would already make sense.
 
Lord of the Rings. This was the favorite book of the Hippies in the sixties, maybe Hollywood guys hope to give them one last cheer before they die.

Hippies? What are you talking about? I knew some Hippies and Lord of the Rings was read by some non-Hippies.
 
Lord of the Rings. This was the favorite book of the Hippies in the sixties, maybe Hollywood guys hope to give them one last cheer before they die.

Hippies? What are you talking about? I knew some Hippies and Lord of the Rings was read by some non-Hippies.
The Hobbit—Why would a fantasy novel, written by British author J.R.R. Tolkien and first published in 1937, hit home with so many young people three decades later? The Hobbit wasn’t even aimed at adult readers initially but its tale of characters with names like Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf, a dragon named Smaug and a place called Middle Earth was surreal enough that it fascinated the hippie set. Like many other books that this generation enjoyed, there is a quest for something greater here, and a vividly imagined alternate world, a story that one could easily get lost in. And for an encore, Tolkien came up with the three-volume The Lord of the Rings, which, of course, has not only sold hundreds of millions of copies but, due to the film adaptations, is more ubiquitous and beloved than ever.
 
Lord of the Rings. This was the favorite book of the Hippies in the sixties, maybe Hollywood guys hope to give them one last cheer before they die.

Hippies? What are you talking about? I knew some Hippies and Lord of the Rings was read by some non-Hippies.
Yes, normal people loved Hobbit/LotR, but hippies seemed to glom onto it. Maybe due to misinterpreting the constant smoking of pipeweed?
 
Lord of the Rings. This was the favorite book of the Hippies in the sixties, maybe Hollywood guys hope to give them one last cheer before they die.

Hippies? What are you talking about? I knew some Hippies and Lord of the Rings was read by some non-Hippies.
Yes, normal people loved Hobbit/LotR, but hippies seemed to glom onto it. Maybe due to misinterpreting the constant smoking of pipeweed?

Hippies were as ultra-orthodox as any religious group. "We're non-conformists." No you're not. My Hippie friend had the regulation length hair, the regulation clothes, spoke perfect Hippie-speak, engaged in mandatory dope smoking, was living with his 'old lady' and so on.
 
Sad news. These sorts of news stories always bring to mind the final season of Game of Thrones and what an unmitigated dumpster fire it was compared to the rest of the series.

Maybe I'm wrong though and they'll create a product here that will somehow magically transcend the original material rather than just be another transparent grab for cash that merely trades on the name of a famous author.
 
Sad news.
I remember when the original LotR movies were announced: the fans went nuts. When ST:TNG was announced: the fans went nuts. When The Force Awakens was announced: the fans went nuts. There was hope in the air. But now, after more than a decade of the worst trash imaginable being made of beloved franchises, where those making the films/shows actively despise the existing fanbase... announcments like this only bring cringe, a sense of dread, despair. It is perhaps a muffled, deadened form of the despair we felt a few years ago; we're becoming numb to the idea that beauty is being turned to ugliness.
 
Sad news.
I remember when the original LotR movies were announced: the fans went nuts. When ST:TNG was announced: the fans went nuts. When The Force Awakens was announced: the fans went nuts. There was hope in the air. But now, after more than a decade of the worst trash imaginable being made of beloved franchises, where those making the films/shows actively despise the existing fanbase... announcments like this only bring cringe, a sense of dread, despair. It is perhaps a muffled, deadened form of the despair we felt a few years ago; we're becoming numb to the idea that beauty is being turned to ugliness.
Nicely put.

Cory Doctrow recently coined the term: "Enshittification" which covers the phenomenon pretty well. He was referring to the process that leads to online platforms consistently getting worse over time as they first lure in users and then exploit them. But the term has now been expanded to and applied to many other aspects of consumer culture.

An interesting read, a lot of it will probably be familiar to you given your dramas dealing with publishing houses.
 
Keeping old franchises alive or re-making classic Film or TV shows rarely goes well.
Even where the people making them love the originals and understand them it is pretty hard to reproduce the newness and alchemy of the originals.
As an old f**t I now steer clear of remakes but there are some exceptions. The new imaginings of the Addams family still raise a smile now and again. Star Trek TOS fan films on Youtube sometimes capture the spirit of the original.
The BBC Dr Who franchise or the James Bond films seem to survive by changing the lead character and stories to suit new generations. So each Doctor or Bond actor have come to have their fans.
 
My mum and dad were hippies and Lord of the Rings fans, to the extent they considered naming me Aragorn or Frodo. Ended up Paul after Paul McCartney.
I was living in a hippie commune during the summer of 1972 and the books they read were Stranger in a Strange Land, The Third Eye and Kama Sutra
 
Keeping old franchises alive or re-making classic Film or TV shows rarely goes well.
Even where the people making them love the originals and understand them it is pretty hard to reproduce the newness and alchemy of the originals.
As an old f**t I now steer clear of remakes but there are some exceptions. The new imaginings of the Addams family still raise a smile now and again. Star Trek TOS fan films on Youtube sometimes capture the spirit of the original.
The BBC Dr Who franchise or the James Bond films seem to survive by changing the lead character and stories to suit new generations. So each Doctor or Bond actor have come to have their fans.

The Hollywood formula is this: "OK, everybody! Give me a list of movies and TV shows that made the most money. [After the list is handed in.] Make more of them !!!

Quality doesn't matter, just costs. Hollywood will revive things as long as they can turn a profit. Once any property drops below a certain dollar amount: "It's dead Jim." The end.

Right now, in the U.S., a few old TV shows either have been or are about to be revived. Why? "Sir, our market research shows that these TV programs still have large followings, OR, our executive producer wants to get this remade because he likes it and he will foot the bill."
 
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That would take some doing. In the meantime, there is an expression for those who knowingly, willingly watch stuff they hate.
 
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That would take some doing. In the meantime, there is an expression for those who knowingly, willingly watch stuff they hate.
Like watching the news? "Oh, great googaly moogaly, what man-made horrors beyond my conception have they sprung on us today?"

I avoid watching the news for that reason. The formula: Death, killing, death, killing, and now, sports and weather.
 
I read fiction, watch drama and comedy for entertainment. I read, watch, listen to the news or history to be informed. Sometimes news and fiction both inform and entertain. If they do neither, I avoid them if I can.

One time, I watched a whole episode of The Batchelor because a relative visited us and we wanted to know what she was talking about. I hated it, I will not watch it again.
 
The faint possibility exists for the hope of a smidgen of cautious optimism: Peter Jackson *might* be involved, and *maybe* Warner Brothers will learn the lesson of "The Hobbit" and actually give Jackson the time needed to do proper pre-production. Maybe. Possibly. With luck.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4CB-8lMY9Y
 
I have no intent to prove you wrong here. I regret every second of watching The Batchelor.
 
I remember Peter Jackson saying he wanted to make a film based on the book The Silmarillion. This would already make sense.

Tolkien estate won’t give him the rights. This is why the Jackson films couldn’t mention anything specific to the Similarillion but not mentioned in LOTR or the Hobbit.
 
Kermit the Frog. Why can't they produce more interesting, intellectually engaging... uh... never mind.
 
It would be nice to see other epic fantasy/sf books or series adapted. The Book of the New Sun and Helliconia, for example.
 
I always thought Amazon would do an animated “each book chapter an episode” multi-season series of LotRs. Get at least six seasons. Animated because no actor limitations as in one example Aragorn and many of the men with Numenorean lineage were like 6’6” + tall. Plus I always pictured dwarves as short bodybuilder types.

Anyway my two cents.
 

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