Oh, and I forgot - Gollum is John Kerry.
No, Hillary Clinton.
How about...
Posted on 07/20/2004 12:26:58 PM PDT by quidnunc
More Lord of the Rings movies — oh, yesss, preciousss, we wantsss them.
And within the next twenty or thirty years, we'll get them. Children who watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy will take their own children to a complete remake of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It's inevitable.
Most great movies will never be remade. We will never see remakes of The Godfather, or Gone with the Wind, or even Star Wars. But Lord of the Rings is different.
Why? Consider these five reasons.
• The pre-existing fame of the LOTR novels prevents the actors in the LOTR trilogy from dominating the roles they played.
No sane actor would dare to recreate the role of Vito Corleone; the role is bound up too tightly with the performance of Marlon Brando. Similarly, what actress can hope to compete with Vivian Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara? But in the current LOTR trilogy, no actor consumes his role so completely. The finest performance in LOTR (Gollum notwithstanding) may have come from Ian McKellan as Gandalf. Yet, much as I enjoyed his performance, I can think of several actors who could have done as good a job portraying Gandalf: Sean Connery, Brian Blessed, Derek Jacobi, Anthony Hopkins, Michael Caine, Patrick Stewart — the list goes on. The major characters in LOTR are so densely textured in the books — and yet so indelibly etched into the minds of Tolkien's fans, after decades of reading and re-reading the novels — that the performances of the leads in the current trilogy seem like interpretations of the characters, rather than definitions. Moreover, Peter Jackson's direction emphasized plot, rather than characterization, thus allowing room for future actors to place their own imprints on the characters in a way that would be impossible in other remakes.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at techcentralstation.com ...
I disagree strongly about Star Wars, especially the new, First Trilogy films. They never will be remade, of course, because Lucas would never allow it- BUT they certainly could be told better, imagined better.
After reading SW fanfiction for more than 20 years I have seen amazing imaginings of that universe. Much more creative and satisfying than what Lucas has done with his own universe. Nuance and depth galore!There is a vast amount of depth, and unlimited potential for thematic exploration in the SW films. Lucas chooses to paint a huge canvas thinly because of his own taste and aversion to depth. No director could explore past what Lucas, and his minute control, will allow- Tolkien isn't alive to be the final say of his Universe, after all- but don't say the possibility for creative expansion does not exist because Lucas won't allow it to be filmed.
Believe me, there are many great fan writers who have- and continue- to explore the SW galaxy in ways Lucas- and especially the 'pro writers' - never have, or will.
They have expanded the SW galaxy in ways you wouldn't believe. It's not only possible- it's wonderful.
Gondor is Israel, Minas Tirith is Jerusalem, and Ariel Sharon is Denethor.
I don't care what they say, I don't believe these are true stories.
They accidentally captioned it with Star Trek stuff . . . it repeats itself about half way through.
My two favorites are "He is toast" and "Get out of my office!"
Tom Bombadil was a bedtime story character that Tolkien had made up long before for his boys. He seems out of sync with the rest of Middle Earth because . . . he is. His origins were different.
That was the implication of his point 3.
But eventually it'll be possible to scan the text into a computer, and have it produce the completed film.
And that'll be the point we can have one single definitive LOTR, Sherlock Holmes, King Arthur. (And noöne will care)
It would be neat if they could take each book and make it a series of 6 movies.
i'm ROTFLOL at your captions!
Wizards is out on DVD. I haven't seen it anywhere but there's always Amazon.
Agree with you, Thoro.
The MORE control Lucas got over SW, the worse it got. The OT( Original Trilogy) is superb. His 'fixing' it was a crime when he went past things like the view outside the windows on Cloud City. All the other STUPID stuff HE wanted in, but had been prevented by technology and available $$ from doing, proves how much the talents of people who worked on the OT made a difference.
Prequel Trilogy is 100% Lucas. No time constraints( he had 20 years), no money constraints and no technological constraints. It should have been a thousand percent BETTER than the OT. Instead it's shallow, banal and formulaic.
When he made the OT he wanted to tell a story that was bigger than him. Now he wants to expand a franchise and merchandising-not story-is what matters.
Sad and so unnecessary.
I am still a SW fan, but I don't consider these new films part of MY SW. They are commercials- and badly written ones at that.
And I'd love to see some Silmarillion-based movies...Earandil and Elwing for story purposes, and the Akallabeth for special effects.
-Foxfire4, trailing off in geeky bliss
No, Hillary Clinton.
Which leaves me wondering about Goldberry. My favorite theory for a while was that they were Aule and Yavanna on vacation (stolen from a web page which backed it up pretty impressively), but upon consideration I canNOT picture Aule singing Bombadil-style.
Oh, and I forgot - Gollum is John Kerry.
No, Hillary Clinton.
How about...
I would too but only if the King were revealed to be the Queen he really was......... I think Mel Brooks could pull that one off.
How about "Lord of the Rings and Other Alternative Demon Slayings..."
Or...."Lord of the Rings, The Secret of Aragorn....."
Lets try "Lord of the Rings, Aragorn does the Elven Kingdom..."
I got a million of 'em
Somebody, please freepmail me where I can get those bootlegs. The stills are so hilarious, the actual movie must be even better.
Seriesly though, a remake of LOTR doesn't stand a chance of being made unless a director can convince a movie studio that he can out-Jackson Jackson. It wasn't the special effects or grand locations that made the movie, but the heart that went in to it by everyone from Jackson on down. Some people spent seven years of their lives to do the story as "right" as their talents would allow.
Jackson and the other writers had immense respect and knowledge of the books, even if they took considerable liberties sometimes. The actors put up with a lot of hard work and hardship. Everyone knew that their work would be unmercifully judged by legions of Tolkien readers who have very precise, and almost sacred, views of how things should be done.
Any other director and studio that wants to play "you bet your job, and the studio" on bettering the current LOTR had better have all their orcs in a row before starting.
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