And in the category of Things We Really Don’t Need To See comes this news of Amazon’s plan for a new streaming series based on Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings trilogy. According to Charles Pulliam-Moore of geeky website i09Gizmodo, Amazon Studios and Warner Brothers announced in a press release this week that they have negotiated the rights for and are working on the new series with the Tolkien estate, HarperCollins and New Line Cinema (which produced the Peter Jackson films).
Those of you who follow this blog know I am
a huge LOTR fan. I have been reading the trilogy every year or two since the
age of 16, and I thought the Peter Jackson films could not have translated
Tolkien’s fantastic world and characters to the screen any better. The casting alone
was superb. Just think about that for a moment. Not one actor was miscast or
less than perfect in the role. From Ian McKellan as Gandalf to Andy Serkis as
Gollum, from Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, to Elijah Wood as Frodo.
 |
| Someone else cast as Aragorn? Um, no. |
I can’t imagine that incredible feat being
improved upon, much less finding the settings to match the magnificent New
Zealand scenery Jackson used to stand for Middle-Earth. And to reproduce those cinematic
production values? How much money and time are we talking about here?
Not enough, I suspect, to bring a series up
to the standard Jackson set not so very long ago. But apparently Amazon is not
fazed. In the streaming world, the stars have aligned in such a way as to make
this reboot almost inevitable. Tolkien’s 91-year-old son Christopher recently
resigned from his position as director of the author’s estate, loosening his
tight hold on adaptations of his father’s works. At the same time, Game of Thrones has ended its long reign
over television’s fantasy audience. This leaves a power vacuum Amazon Studios
just can’t resist.
But why not fill that empty space with
something completely new? There are any number of unexplored SF/fantasy worlds
out there for the taking—McCaffrey’s Dragonriders
of Pern, perhaps, or Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga or C.L. Wilson’s Tairen Soul series, or I could go on
pretty much endlessly. Save yourself some money, Amazon, and give your viewers
something they haven’t experienced before. And, while you’re at it, give some
deserving authors access.
For all the millions of words of analysis
about how the upheaval of the publishing world has meant so much opportunity
for so many more authors, the truth is still that only a tiny thimbleful of the
vast output of those authors ever reaches a substantial audience. Especially
for a “niche” subgenre like science fiction romance, readership is numbered in
the thousands, if we’re lucky, not in the millions that would view something on
television. We could use a bigger platform. So, Amazon, why not seek out new
stories among the many that exist, rather than fighting to be the next one to
recycle Tolkien’s time-honored, but well-worn tale.
Cheers, Donna
Information for this post taken from “J.R.R.
Tolkien’s Son Resigns as Director of Tolkien Estate, Ending Decades of Tightly
Controlled Adaptations,” by Beth Elderkin, oneringnet, November, 15, 2017.
“Amazon’s
New Lord of the Rings series Will Feature ‘Previously Unexplored Stories’,” by
Charles Pulliam-Moore, i09Gizmodo,
November 13, 2017.
*Next week I'll be enjoying Thanksgiving with my family, so there will be no post on Friday. Have a Happy Turkey Day!
Oh, no no no no NO! They should really quit with the reboots, already! There's so much fresh material out there, yet Hollywood seems afraid to try anything new so instead we get these sad attempts at retreads. I'm with you, Donna. Where's Dragonriders of Pern? Where's the Vorkosigan saga? A LotR remake? No! Never! Why mess with perfection? Nothing is going to stand up to the original trilogy in terms of quality, setting or casting. Why set themselves up for failure, once again? What's that saying about insanity? That the definition is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results? Maybe it's the definition of desperation, too.
ReplyDeleteI love the book - and the movies. I agree with you that anything else will be a pale shadow. But I know a lot of people HATED the movies (especially the way Gimli was portrayed as the fall guy) - and the movies (and we) are getting older. Maybe they're trying for a new generation? (This is me being devil's advocate). But like you, I'm sooooo sick of remakes. I would much, much rather they'd gone for the Dragonriders. There is so much more room in that series for new stories.
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