Lord of the Rings Update

[Liquidator Queeg]

Hey folks,

Here is a link to check out the chat log from the One Ring website chat last Saturday with Steve Long:

http://www.theonering.net/events/logs/171101.html

In addition, here's some news that will interest Canadian Lord of the Rings fans:

Starting on Monday December 13, @discovery.ca, the news program on the Canadian Discovery Channel, will feature a 5-part special on the "science" behind J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. The shows will feature an analysis of the real-world science behind the languages and geography of Middle-earth; the evolution of elves, trolls and other races; and discuss some of the special effects in the Lord of the Rings films. Should be interesting stuff!

Steve
Lord of the Rings news hound.

Decipher LotR news updates can be found at:
http://www.oil.ca/~goforit/lotr_news.html

[Calcoran]

Only found the boards back a few hours ago, so just finished reading the chat log. Looks good, for sure ... but I can't help wondering about the part saying that no license would be given for Silmarillion or other work from Tolkien apart from LotR and The Hobbit. Ever.
<I>Why in hell</I> do they do that?
Well, I guess we'll never see a 1st Age supplement then. Thanks god there's (or rather will be) a LotrRPG.net and us prolific fans .
Man, this is just so frustrating! And imagine how it must have felt for Steve or other writers to know all this material from the Silmarillion was at hand, but couldn't even be mentioned!

[ghosty]

I read a couple of articles covering the licencing of Tolkien's material.

You have to remember that only LOTR and the Hobbit were published during JRR's lifetime. All the other books were edited by his son Christopher and published after his death.

As I understand it, JRR licensed LOTR and the Hobbit before his death and the licenses have bounced around the movie industry resulting in the animated version in the 1970s and ultimately the upcoming trilogy.

Since JRR's death control of all Middle Earth material other than LOTR and the Hobbit reverted to his estate and JRR's kids. JRR's kids have to-date refused to have anything to do with the LOTR movies, they refused to assist Peter Jackson in reviewing his script and have all refused to attend any premieres. As I understand it, Christopher Tolkien who is the current "keeper" of the Tolkien legacy refuses to consider any further licensing agreements over Middle Earth material so we're stuck with whatever JRR licensed as his kids are obviously not going to agree to any more.

[Phantom]

Jeez! I wonder why they feel like that. I know that if a member of my immediate family had written a book (or series) on the same plane as Tolkien I would be proud to see on the big screen. Although I would make a pain of myself making sure that it was done right.

Ohhh well, if the movies are as good as people say then what more do we need?

[ghosty]

IMHO I think it boils down to the oldest explanation...money...JRR licensing deal was not the best in the world I'm not clear on all the details but the estate is not getting a piece of the revenue pie that the Peter Jackson trilogy is expected to generate and the fact is if you're not getting the money from LOTR and the Hobbit the other books don't really mean too much.

Personally I don't see what the big deal is. The Hobbit and LOTR are enough for me. I didn't like the other books as they are merely compilations of JRR's notes and other material they may be his work but the books aren't his like LOTR is.

[Calcoran]

You're probably right, Ghosty, the other books are certainly not as good as LotR, but they're a goldmine for any background enthusiast. For any RPG writer too. Or rather, they <I>would</I> be. They <I>could</I> be. Besides, if it is possible to make a bad movie from a good book, there's nothing to say that one can't do a good movie with a not so good book!

For all we know, LotR will work fantastically, prompting someone out there to make a serie (LotR: The Serie), then another one (LotR: The Next Generation), and again (LotR: Minas Tirith), and again (lotR: Ranger), but the last one will not be that good, so the creators of the series will want to go back in time and do a Silmarillon! And of course none of this will happen because of a stupid licensing question! Dang!

[Calcoran]

Or would that be "LotR: Strider" ?

[calguard66]

Originally posted by Calcoran

Man, this is just so frustrating! And imagine how it must have felt for Steve or other writers to know all this material from the Silmarillion was at hand, but couldn't even be mentioned!

Well... if you look at the ICE MERP supplements you can see that they mention A LOT of history form the 1st and 2nd Ages. So it must be ok to mention it in some way.

[Calcoran]

As far as I understood, Steve said that MERP got a special deal at the time, and that the Tolkien Estate (or something) clearly stated that such liberties would <I>NOT</I> be granted again.

[ghosty]

Ian McKellen (Gandalf) gave an interview and he said that he's seen the preview (probably for the cast and crew) of Fellowship of the Ring and he says it lasted 3 hours. Wow...3 hours of LOTR...just this year.

Then again it could just be a first cut and some scenes will be dropped to save time to bring it down to 2 1/2 hours...we'll probably get the extended 3 hour version next June on DVD. For me...I'd like to see the 3 hour version on the big screen. I mean my TV's great but somehow it won't be the same.

[Joe Dizzy]

The final cut is 2h58m long, so don't worry.
One could hope for a 4 hour cut on DVD though.