New ‘Lord of the Rings’ Movies in the Works at Warners, New Line

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**Azreal13**

LordofHats wrote:
They can always make a buddy cop movie about how Legolas and Aragon met

Young Gandalf in which a promising young wizard and his best friend Radagast solve a series of mysteries at breakneck pace.

**LordofHats**

A super meta comedy series about Merry and Pippin flipping holes, struggling with bad Hobbit contractors and sharing their gaudy life tips on unrelated subjects before their shallowness inevitably explodes and tanks their ratings.

**Henry**

LordofHats wrote:
A super meta comedy series about Merry and Pippin...

Two Broke Hobbits?

**AduroT**

I dunno, I think I wanna see that Dwarf horror movie where the dig up the Balrog.

**Tsagualsa**

In a cruel twist of fate, they actually make 'Beren and Luthien', but as kid-friendly animated show where they'll drive around middle earth in a dwarven car and solve mysteries with the help of their talking hound and a hobbit named Shaggy.

**Dysartes**

Vermis wrote:
Though frankly, JK holding the reins make the Potterverse the safest bet for something of quality, because Rings of Power put forward a very strong impression that whoever holds the rights to Middle Earth these days (some game company?!? Feth, imagine some outfit like GW AoSing up Middle Earth) is all for pimping it out for the dolla dolla bills, and screw any hint of quality, fidelity, or dignity. Add to that a punch-drunk WB and a man like Zazlav who seems to 'get' meaningful entertainment about as much as Bezos does (men whose favourite book is a ledger) and, well, confidence does not abound.

The Fantastic Beasts series, at this point, would beg to differ.

**Inquisitor Gideon**

Vermis wrote:
Vulcan wrote:You mean the ones running the franchise? It's a good metaphor for them...

It reeks of desperation on the part of Warner/Discovery. Even in the article:

Warners is very much in the franchise game, here harking back to the 2000s glory days when the studio was minting money with Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.

They badly need a money-spinner and they're scrabbling for ideas, returning to a well that might have run dry over twenty years. Their current superhero films are going down in flames and it remains to be seen if James Gunn can pull something intact from the inferno. JK Rowling retains control of her IP, and both the success and furore of Hogwart's Legacy puts in it in a grey area. Though frankly, JK holding the reins make the Potterverse the safest bet for something of quality, because Rings of Power put forward a very strong impression that whoever holds the rights to Middle Earth these days (some game company?!? Feth, imagine some outfit like GW AoSing up Middle Earth) is all for pimping it out for the dolla dolla bills, and screw any hint of quality, fidelity, or dignity. Add to that a punch-drunk WB and a man like Zazlav who seems to 'get' meaningful entertainment about as much as Bezos does (men whose favourite book is a ledger) and, well, confidence does not abound.

To everyone whose initial reaction is "ooh, I want to see Angmar", "ooh, I want to see Beren and Luthien", "ooh I want to see green elves of Ossiriand gakking in the woods", be careful what you wish for.

When was Harry Potter ever something of quality?

**Tsagualsa**

Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

When was Harry Potter ever something of quality?

It's literally the third-most profitable movie franchise in the world, better than James Bond or Spiderman, and very close to Star Wars on rank 2 - the only franchise that is vastly more profitable than them is the entirety of the Marvel cinematic universe, and on a per-movie-average they're all pretty close together. Commercially, you can't really get much better than that. The whole franchise is also generally rated good to excellent by both audience and critics, and won some awards for casting, set/costume and sound design, and was nominated for many more.

**Jadenim**

I have always held the opinion that Harry Potter was a great story, but not great literature. However, that's part of it's success, because it makes it very accessible.

**Tsagualsa**

Jadenim wrote:
I have always held the opinion that Harry Potter was a great story, but not great literature. However, that's part of it's success, because it makes it very accessible.

The various book release events were so notorious that people camped out in front on bookstores on release night, stores organized overnight reading session and midnight release parties. It was not quite on the level of 'Beatlemania' as a generation-defining event, mostly because the people affected were much younger, but it was in many cases literally an experience that influenced people long after the books and movies were done. There's a reason people are flipping out over JK Rowlings utterances more than a decade after the last movie of the main storyline was first shown and 15 years after the last book was released, it was one of the, if not 'the' biggest original, new offerings in the entertainment landscape of the '00s.

**Inquisitor Gideon**

Tsagualsa wrote:
Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

When was Harry Potter ever something of quality?

It's literally the third-most profitable movie franchise in the world, better than James Bond or Spiderman, and very close to Star Wars on rank 2 - the only franchise that is vastly more profitable than them is the entirety of the Marvel cinematic universe, and on a per-movie-average they're all pretty close together. Commercially, you can't really get much better than that. The whole franchise is also generally rated good to excellent by both audience and critics, and won some awards for casting, set/costume and sound design, and was nominated for many more.

And? It's some of the most generic, tedious writing i've ever suffered through. One of only two times i've quit a series for how boring it actually was.

**Tsagualsa**

Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Tsagualsa wrote:
Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

When was Harry Potter ever something of quality?

It's literally the third-most profitable movie franchise in the world, better than James Bond or Spiderman, and very close to Star Wars on rank 2 - the only franchise that is vastly more profitable than them is the entirety of the Marvel cinematic universe, and on a per-movie-average they're all pretty close together. Commercially, you can't really get much better than that. The whole franchise is also generally rated good to excellent by both audience and critics, and won some awards for casting, set/costume and sound design, and was nominated for many more.

And? It's some of the most generic, tedious writing i've ever suffered through. One of only two times i've quit a series for how boring it actually was.

That is, of course, entirely a matter of taste, but the overall success of the books seems to imply that you're squarely in the minority there.

**Inquisitor Gideon**

Popularity does not equal quality.

**Tsagualsa**

Inquisitor Gideon wrote:
Popularity does not equal quality.

Fine by me, we can end it on that note.

**Overread**

It's not just a case of popularity nor quality.

It's also the fact that Harry Potter was a gateway book. It was something that inspired several generations of school kids (and a good few adults) to get into reading as a hobby and passtime at a time when books were squarely on a downward trend against other rising forms of entertainment.

It doesn't have to be the best of the best of the best to be popular not to be influential. You can certainly dislike it and some people have taken to disliking it purely for the opinions and political/social stances of the creator, not the work itself; but you can't deny that it didn't have a big impact on reading and on people picking up books.

Perhaps after HP they pick up Lord of the Rings or other great works; perhaps they end up studying English and find other amazing authors of great skill and prose.

**Formosa**

this will live or die based on who the scholars are that the get in to advise and who directs/produces it, Rings of power fell utterly flat on its face for the above reasons even though the actors did their best.

**LordofHats**

It's always a sad day when actors end up failing because the material they were given wasn't that great.

Even worse when people gak all over them like the plot is their fault.

**H.B.M.C.**

It can't be any worse than Rings of Fanfiction, so, sure, why not?

AegisGrimm wrote:
The war against Angmar and the Witch-King would be awesome, but only if it was done in the PJ style, NOT the Amazon series.

Don't you want to watch a #GirlBoss who is instantly better at everything than everyone solo the Witch King and his armies?

Olthannon wrote:
I don't really want another slew of Peter Jackson directed lord of the rings movies.

He reluctantly directed the Hobbit films, and did so with basically no prep time compared to the original trilogy.

I doubt he'd be interesting in doing more.

**Mr Morden**

Harry Potter - never got the hype - especialyl since there were similar series- (the Worst Witch etc) that did the same but it is very popular despite idiots on Twitter.

Lord of the Rings - well its still better than utter gak what we got for recent Star Wars films....but the Rings of Power was not just badly written but somehow seemed cheap despite its huge budget - which I don't understand. Where exactly did all the money go? However I watched the whole season which is more than I did with the Witcher.

**Tsagualsa**

Mr Morden wrote:
Where exactly did all the money go?

You'll never know with hollywood accounting.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

We need a gollum movie, following him from the first murder as he degenerates from the protohobbit into the creepy monster we know and love

**Voss**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
We need a gollum movie, following him from the first murder as he degenerates from the protohobbit into the creepy monster we know and love

Pretty sure that's the videogame.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1265780/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_Gollum/

Well, ok, no. The game is post Bilbo, so you don't see the initial degeneration. But it is set during the period where he canonically eats human babies.

**Ghaz**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
We need a gollum movie, following him from the first murder as he degenerates from the protohobbit into the creepy monster we know and love

I'd like to see Balin's attempt to reclaim Moria. It could be done as a good slow burn horror movie as the dwarves find themselves trapped between the Orcs and Durin's Bane.

**gorgon**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
We need a gollum movie, following him from the first murder as he degenerates from the protohobbit into the creepy monster we know and love

So the five-word summary for that one would be "Breaking Bad with big feet"?

Seriously though, who's going to watch a Gollum prequel? It'd just be the die-hards who inevitably will gak all over it no matter what they make.

**H.B.M.C.**

And would we need one? Gollum's story is told at the start of Return of the King.

**LordofHats**

H.B.M.C. wrote:
And would we need one? Gollum's story is told at the start of Return of the King.

Yeah but not the part where he returned home invisible and had a jolly good time!

**Overread**

Yeah we know the general outline but there's parts they left out from the original story. They could also dive into developing some of their own storylines as he battles with the Ring in the early days before retreating to show how he finds and then hides in the mountains and preys on orcs and other critters for food.

The risk would be that in creating such a long story they'd have to create new characters of their own and in doing so there's a risk of relationships and interactions beyond the general sketch of his story.

Eg Gollum and his love/romance - Mrs Gollum, the woman who stole the ring from him that one time; Gurk the orc who became his nemesis; etc....

**Leopold Helveine**

Removed.

**gorgon**

The Silmarillion makes LotR and Dune look like they were written for TV. I can't imagine a worse business endeavor than trying to adapt that terrible piece of prose for general audiences into what would have to be a big-budget affair, especially with a fan base with toxic elements ready to gak all over any deviation from the source material.

**Tsagualsa**

gorgon wrote:
The Silmarillion makes LotR and Dune look like they were written for TV. I can't imagine a worse business endeavor than trying to adapt that terrible piece of prose for general audiences into what would have to be a big-budget affair, especially with a fan base with toxic elements ready to gak all over any deviation from the source material.

The only way you could maybe do these stories right is a series of ridiculously over-lengthy 'monumental movies' in the style of Ben Hur or The ten commandments, and the cost and economic risk of such an endeavour would basically mean you'd have to be insane to try.