The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series

Well here we go:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2316587

Key paragraphs:

Amazon today announced it has acquired the global television rights to The Lord of the Rings, based on the celebrated fantasy novels by J.R.R. Tolkien, with a multi-season commitment. The upcoming Amazon Prime Original will be produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins and New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment....

Set in Middle Earth, the television adaptation will explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. The deal includes a potential additional spin-off series.

I nominate dmac as director.

I hope it's an expanded adaptation of The Hobbit. Feel like there was a lot of underexplored threads in Jackson's sadly abbreviated version.

Raggett so help me

I care for your employment prospects.

Anyway:

Amazon should make a sexy murder-mystery series about the elves and call it RIVENDELL

— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) November 13, 2017

Will they finally find neeson a role is what I want to know

it's all sean bean this time, sorry

Liam Neeson as Bombadil, you know it.

Be great if this was all a scam and a cover to be nothing but Tom Bombadil. Seven seasons of it.

Neeson would make a pretty solid Theoden, maybe.

"What did we actually get the rights TO?!"

"...a couple of poems?"

Goldberry taken by orcs

Neeson now too old for aragorn or boromir it surely too young yet for theoden

A neeson wizard now what would that look like I wonder

bombadil will at last get his futterwacken

By christ I try not to fp posters I like but

Neeson is i think the right age for Theoden, he's a solid 10 years older than Bernard Hill was when he filmed his role. though Neeson doesn't look it. i think if you beard him up he'd look the part.

Literally over the hill

And at least twice as big as an underhill

either way this time around my request is they should lean a bit more on the spectral and ghostly and terrifying side of the Nazgul and less the screaming power metal side.

And galadriel not to be a Halloween witch pls

"new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring" is incredibly fucking vague.

Oh I think it lets you know exactly what we are in for.

Especially considering how they......"improved"....the hobbit

and featuring James Corden as Radagast the Brown

i've actually never read any of the posthumous ephemera other than The Silmarillion (which rules so hard)...

Pretty sure this will have more boobs in than PJ's version.

I want to see the Snoke = Bombadil chronicles imo

https://km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html

LotR isn't nearly horny enough source material for prestige tv, they'll have to work on that a bit

it is perhaps the least horny literature

they paid $250m for this o_O

If New Line Cinema's involved, does that mean that this is an extension of the Jackson movies?

it is perhaps the least horny literature

Don't worry, the fans have filled the gaps.

If New Line Cinema's involved, does that mean that this is an extension of the Jackson movies?

The exact nature of what's happening remains kinda maddeningly unclear. The two key factors:

1) As noted, to what extent is this an extension of the Jackson movie interpretations, with associated backstory (not always Tolkien's).

2) What is the estate's involvement, and what rights in question have been sold to what texts?

The fact that Saul Zaentz's Tolkien Enterprises setup isn't mentioned at all is telling, but I'm not sure of the exact implications.

Boromir often had the horn iirc

this is a very silly idea. the answer to making an LOTR series is certainly not to make it more "adult" in language or sexual content. If they want to make it more like GOT, why not zoom back 1000 years and focus on the wars between the men and Nazgul, focusing on the rise of the Witch King and the Fall of Arnor or something. That could be cool.

What isn't cool: hobbit sex.

they haven't specifically said they're making it more adult tbf

and I'm not sure the Tolkien estate would sign off on something like that

S3, EP2:

Sam has an honest talk with Gollum. Eowyn has a realization about Aragorn. Theoden makes a fateful decision. Merry and Pippin travel south with a new friend.

"The One With the Mathoms"

What isn't cool: hobbit sex.

You say that, but did you know that hobbit women all have thick hair on the top of their breasts? Changes everything.

they haven't specifically said they're making it more adult tbf

― Number None, Monday, November 13, 2017 5:18 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and I'm not sure the Tolkien estate would sign off on something like that

― Number None, Monday, November 13, 2017 5:23 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There was a report a few weeks back that they were going to take a darker, more thrones-like take on the subject matter, but it seems like they are going to go in a different direction.

The goofy happy clown direction.

the elves are immortal so they've all gotten tired of fucking already. they're over it

https://78.media.tumblr.com/2d0ef4d6fd1d28753baa0883b61bb800/tumblr_inline_ngfx0xABE61szmjhd.gif

"When there's a whip there's a way."

"But you're not an orc."

"Context my dear Bilbo."

LotR isn't nearly horny enough source material for prestige tv, they'll have to work on that a bit

― ciderpress, Monday, November 13, 2017 1:55 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it is perhaps the least horny literature

― harbinger of failure (Jon not Jon), Monday, November 13, 2017 1:58 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Don't worry, the fans have filled the gaps.

― Simon H., Monday, November 13, 2017 2:40 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The exact nature of what's happening remains kinda maddeningly unclear. The two key factors:

1) As noted, to what extent is this an extension of the Jackson movie interpretations, with associated backstory (not always Tolkien's).

2) What is the estate's involvement, and what rights in question have been sold to what texts?

― Ned Raggett, Monday, November 13, 2017 2:43 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Found it:

Amazon today announced it has acquired the global television rights to all The Lord of the Rings fan fiction based on the celebrated fantasy novels by J.R.R. Tolkien, with a multi-season commitment. The upcoming Amazon Prime Original will be produced by Amazon Studios in cooperation with the Tolkien Estate and Trust, HarperCollins, FantasyFuckz.biz, and New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment....
Set in Middle Earth, the television adaptation will explore new, sizzling-hot elf-sex storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. The deal includes potential additional spin-off series.

The Lays of Beleriand indeed!

Beren & Luthien & Carol & Bob

they paid $250m for this o_O
― Number None, Monday, November 13, 2017 8:58 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"Legend of the Seeker" would have gone for a song.

BATTLEFIELD HAM dekalogy or gtfo

I am on for Tom bombadil dom de lillo but why do I have to watch so much power ring factory shit first?

No lore reason, no reason at all, Tom doesn't work that way. "He is," as Goldberry puts it. By setting up *this* Tom as somehow weirdly exiled from 'the Withywindle' aka the Old Forest area, which is fantastically dumb on many levels, on top of the separate Old Man tree, it's just...a mess, a slumgullion. Utterly pointless.

His cutting from the PJ films was utterly necessary.

googled tom bombadil rory kinnear and this came up as first hit (from reddit):
"this is a huge relief for those of us who read the rumor that they were going to write bombadil as a defeated morgoth, serving time in middle earth as penance ...”

make bombadil morgoth u cowards, they are the same,, morgoth's bright yellow boots, respect the lore

rory kinnear can act (unlike almost anyone else apparently)* so his scenes do actually have some watchable texture to them

(i will also accept prince durin and disa can act, even if the dwarven section was just now making a total meal of devising airshafts for khazad-dum (still baffled by "no sire! that's a foundation stone!" no it's not, it's unmined rock, firstly mountains don'rt have "foundation stones", secondly it's high up inside and close to the air outside, which is not where you would place foundation stones (i am still not a miner but… ))

it really feels like someone sketched out what has to happen in each episode to move the plot forward, and then it was passed to a team to create dramatic tension as to why those actions carry risk or weight and slap some lore on top of them. Which means we get hilarious "no, that's a foundation stone!" moments, or "the guy who our amnesiac wizard finds is Tom"

was it the four-hour anti-picard podcast science-lady who was talking about kneejerk injection of dumb moment-to-moment conflict to bump plots along ep-by-ep, at cost to character and coherence? i feel that it probably was

my w1fe has now forbidden the watching of the rings of power in her presence. i dare not trifle with her.

She is correct to make this rule

everyone shd watch it all the time, im watching it right now

"yester-eve" klaxon

fucking yester-eve!

That's how you know it's important you see

I absolute cannot get over how they've made jolly ol' Tom a Mr. Miyagi for wizards.

not really feeling Galadriel as a left-ten...sorry, a "lieutenant"

dialogue straight out of a forgotten 1930s british mediocrity about the great war

time to fuck sauron adar

― mark s, Friday, 14 October 2022 17:31 (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

who is more annoying?
🔲 mimpy gandalf pre-powers
🔲 the bombadil of the east

...this is a hard call.

newly released photos from the set, the Stranger with his harfoot pals. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e9/ee/33/e9ee331a4404b13372c54c2f50feeb1e.jpg

if only

they shd use some of those coins to buy things to put them in

wait

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/4/4d/Nick_Cotton_2009.png/

this is not getting better

i: celebrimbor's expression when he cut off his own thumb was very funny, also i enjoyed him kicking off the ep (s2e7) by saying "nine rings! for mortal men!" while peering at the rings on their little stands
ii: “last ballad of damrod” feat.jens kidman of meshuggah 👍🏽 (opening line: “in humid mold, troll sits alone” 👍🏽 👍🏽)

It's impressive how they can make an episode with a huge battle so absolutely awful.

acoup blog is v readable on technical aspects of medieval battle (as part of why this series doesn't work at the level of the reality of the world-building) (and he uses the words pedantry and nitpicking in his self-description so don't say you weren't warned)

https://acoup.blog/2022/12/16/collections-why-rings-of-powers-middle-earth-feels-flat/

Roffle. But yes, another mess of an episode. You can tell the thought process was "Put Jackson's Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith sequences into a blender, hope we get our version of "Blackwater" or "The Watchers On The Wall." (They do not get that.)

Grand Elf

Thank fuck that's over

QUITE.

I can't really stand this guy's schtick but he's pretty good on the battle - maybe turn the sound off and read the subtitles?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kquNKboBtJw

(I'm sure there's better dissections, though, if anyone has them)

It was, indeed, very dumb.

To my mind the great tell at this point is that the Hollywood Reporter reported a story today saying "Oh yeah, official renewal for season 3 is coming soon!" Which, Amazon would have said something LONG out of the gate here if things were going as they wanted.

https://imgur.com/FsEyM4w

https://i.imgur.com/FsEyM4w.png

there's an episode of jacob brunowski's THE ASCENT OF MAN that i remember from seeing as a kid in the early 70s (judging by wikipedia it's e4, "the hidden structure — fire, metals and alchemy", which sadly isn't on youtube i don't think), which was very striking simply because all the bright bright smelting and metal work filmed in otherwise dark spaces. i forget brunowski's actual argument (tho i could look it up, i have the book in a box somewhere) but a version of this series which had made something of the look and the evolution of smithing, a show where you actally learnt something about these early arts and sciences, would of course hane been like a trillion times better than this confused slop: offset the fantasy lore (mithril! blarog!) against the reality principle of metalworking (what actually takes a place when a jeweller makes a ring?)

put some fkn smudge on and forge-heat into celebrimbor's silly face!

(early on in the jackson LotR -- when i worked correcting the spelling on crafts magazine -- smeone gifted me a book called something like "the craft of jackson's lord of the rings": it was kind of a gag gift, like lol you dork, but it featured genuinely interesting interviews with the ceramists and metal- and woodworkers who made the actual objects handled and work and stood in front of by the actors, with real decisions and choices about materials and styles and useability vs decoration in hobbiton vs rivendell vs edoras vs minas tirith etc. the one ring had to be ring-made many times in many different sizes for different scenes!

i mean if yr gnna fetishise jackson fetishise his technique too! this practice is the objective correlative of tolk's attention to languages! etc

anyway foolish ask years too late etc

That actually does sound fascinating! I wonder if many things were made different sizes - if something physical has to interact or be interacted with by Frodo and by Aragorn, then it can't be the same thing (okay, okay, or movie magic)

this show really is one of those "hearing, but not listening, looking, but not seeing" situations. it really has copied the aesthetic of the Jackson LOTR pretty well, but it misses so hard on every aspect of the connective tissue or the intangibles. and it shows the importance of casting, just the necessity of having performers who can bring true gravitas and strength to roles which might be ridiculous in the hands of others. you get this level of acting which is very, very '90s basic cable, charisma with the weight of whatever bad wigs are being worn. beyond basically finding Galadriel to be a decent enough performance, there's not much to hold on to. i hate the harfoots and the dwarves completely, the elves suck, the world of men deserves to fall, blah blah. the amazon interview with the future "showrunners" should have ended when JJ Abrams was being used as a job reference.

Not to take away from the badness of this show but I remembered some griping about the use of the word "yestereve" on this thread. I'm (re)reading Unfinished Tales atm and Tolkien uses that word in it, so you can blame that one on him

im calling it: no one has ever used the word "yester-eve" outside poorly written fiction

― mark s, Friday, 7 October 2022 19:45 (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

what if unfinished is just another word for poorly written 😃

Oh dear

are we talking about the war of the rohirrim anime anywhere?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCUg6Td5fgQ

here's my trailer liveblog:

ugh, more lotr.
oooh, anime?
oh, ugly anime.
elephant thing like what presidetn ornaldo bloomps took down hardcore!!
pfft, rebellious ginger warrior chick trope.
again with the ring?! quit with the ring already!

so to sum up, 💩 💤

In imax? It struggles to look good on a phone.

i didn't even twig it was in imax, that's so silly. "pls plonk down $10 extra to see the cartoon details bigger"

We'd sorta mentioned the anime on a general LOTR thread. It has nothing to do with the series and is in line -- as they're more than happy to remind you -- with the Jackson movies instead.

Yay, hooray, I'm so thrilled. (I am not thrilled, about any of it.)

https://gizmodo.com/lord-of-the-rings-rings-of-power-season-3-sauron-war-elves-2000563559

my guy freakin loved this series

fixed a lot of the problems the movies had, he says

the characters have so much more depth, he says

so it sounds like u all r wrong. sorry everybody!

Why I didn't realize Jeff Bezos was your guy.

jeff who, i just found these episodes lying here

Help:

“Tears,” Weyman joked. “I’m excited for this plethora of possible pitfalls, errors and failings that young Gandalf can learn from. Literally anything could happen because the only way we’re going to see a wise being later on is if he does some pretty horrendous accidental things and puts his foot in the wrong places and has to pick it up and learn again. So I’m hoping for lots of that kind of action just so that we can see him develop and learn how he gets to be the wizard that we all love.”

Vickers continued: “I’m incredibly lucky that Sauron in this time period is very specific to what he does. We get to go through so many exciting beats that I think fans will be really excited to see. I mean, he has made nearly all the rings now, but there’s one more that he (needs) to finish the collection, which he’s determined and has had in his mind for centuries. So, I’m super excited to see him go on the journey and hopefully take over Middle-earth…I’m sure everything will be great for everyone else.”

stoked 4 the badness

We get to go through so many exciting beats that I think fans will be really excited to see.

https://media.tenor.com/2bFG2tD8PYAAAAAC/lord-of-the-rings-rings-of-power.gif