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Elainiwen
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Post Amazon and WB will create LoTR TV series
on: November 15, 2017 07:02
Thought to be somewhat related to the recent changes in the Tolkien Estate, a new TV series looks quite certain in this point.
ElwingAndEarendil
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on: November 16, 2017 09:22
I don't see how they can stick to lore with the time period they seem to have chosen. (Post-Hobbit, Pre-LotR). The only big things happen during those 60(?) years is the attempted retaking of Moria, and Aragorn's travels as Thorongil. Presumably the Dunedain were doing stuff in the area that was Arnor, with the sons of Elrond. But as we see in LotR, shot notice didn't see more than 30 rangers together, so the companies weren't too large.

Personally I'd much rather have seen them do a remaking of The Lord of the Rings as a TV show that focused on more fully and correctly portraying the novels. We could get the Barrow Downs, the Old Forest, Tom Bombadil, the Trollshaws, Glorfindel, all the way through to the Grey Company and a human-only Helm's Deep battle. We could've seen Prince Imrahil, Dol Amroth, Erkenbrand, the Glittering Caves... so much more Middle Earth that we know actually existed in Tolkien's mind than what we've seen so far.

The problem with the years they've chosen is aside from Elladan and Elrohir, very few elves were active until the War of the Ring proper. Once the War began, the Battle Under the Trees happened in Mirkwood, and the Battle for Dol Guldor, and the battles in Lothlorien. But directors are going to want to put in elves, almost certainly.

The stepping down of Christopher Tolkien also bodes for this. Ill or for good, who knows, it just signals the end of an era.
"The Deeds that we shall do shall be the matter of song..." - Haunting the Realm of Vaire as the Corrupted Major - Find me as Silmarilz1701 everywhere else
Hanasian
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on: November 18, 2017 07:36
The rights to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, including the appendices, were sold back in 1969 t United Artists, and later they sold them to Saul Zaentz, whose 'Middle Earth Enterprises' has been selling use rights since the late 1970's

So the news items of a TV series negotiated by Middle Earth Enterprises, and the 93 year old Christopher Tolkien stepping down as director of the Tolkien Estate have little to do with each other other than the amount of $$ the Tolkien Estate negotiated with Middle Earth Enterprises, Amazon, Warner Brother, and New Line under the original contract.

The books edited by Christopher Tolkien starting with the Silmarillion are not on the table for this TV series, and it is clear what his thoughts are on movie/tv rights to his material.

That said,the appendices do have a lot of Middle Earth historical summaries outlined in them, which lends itself to a multi episode TV format. I'll wager that Appendix B will be developed though, which is the Aragorn & Arwen tale.
Eighth King of Arthedain - It was in battle that I come into this Kingship, and it will be in Battle when I leave it. There is no peace for the Realm of Arnor. Read the last stand of Arthedain in the Darkest of Days.
Lord_Sauron
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on: November 29, 2017 08:47
If they are setting the TV series between the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings then really I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to create their own story with their own characters. Just like many games about Lord of the Rings.

I agree with ElwingAndEarendil I too would have liked seeing the Lord of the Rings book being turned into a TV series.



[Edited on 12/04/2017 by Lord_Sauron]
Hanasian
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on: February 09, 2018 09:43
So hoping for the best, and expecting the worst from this venture.
If anything it may wash away the PJ filth.
Eighth King of Arthedain - It was in battle that I come into this Kingship, and it will be in Battle when I leave it. There is no peace for the Realm of Arnor. Read the last stand of Arthedain in the Darkest of Days.
tarcolan
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on: June 10, 2018 12:36
It looks like PJ might be involved in this five part series;
Latest on the Amazon Middle Earth series
Gandolorin
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on: June 10, 2018 05:04
Ehwot?!? Arveleg in his incarnation in the other JRRT site we both frequent posted a link claiming exactly the opposite, i.e. that PJ was precisely NOT going to be involved in the Amazon TV venture – now I am thoroughly confused …
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Hanasian
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on: June 10, 2018 12:47
Both are correct.

It was recently announced that Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series would be focusing on Aragorn, news that was understandably well-received by Tolkien fans. Up until now, it was largely thought that Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, would be without a doubt returning to Middle Earth in some capacity. However, it has been confirmed by Jackson himself that he will not be working on the project, saying that he is “not involved at all in the Lord of the Rings series.” He later clarified that he is still helping with “putting the creative team together,” but that he “would not want to be the one responsible for the entire TV series.”
Eighth King of Arthedain - It was in battle that I come into this Kingship, and it will be in Battle when I leave it. There is no peace for the Realm of Arnor. Read the last stand of Arthedain in the Darkest of Days.
Gandolorin
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on: June 11, 2018 01:37
Arveleg said: {Peter Jackson} ... “would not want to be the one responsible for the entire TV series.”

But some part, maybe? Your hope for an entirely PJ-free TV series might be in jeopardy with this ambiguous statement, Arveleg.
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Hanasian
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on: June 11, 2018 12:26
It will be what it will be.

[Edited on 06/12/2018 by Arveleg]
Eighth King of Arthedain - It was in battle that I come into this Kingship, and it will be in Battle when I leave it. There is no peace for the Realm of Arnor. Read the last stand of Arthedain in the Darkest of Days.
Gandolorin
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on: June 11, 2018 10:04
Almost Doris Day's signature tune "Que Será, Será" which she first sang in 1956, just after LoTR had finally been completely published.
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tarcolan
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on: June 11, 2018 10:59
You're a veritable cornucopia of arcane knowledge, Gando.
Gandolorin
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on: June 12, 2018 01:49
Having lived in the US from 1966 to 1975, the Doris Day TV show was something I experienced “live” on US TV. Arveleg, being about a year or so younger than I am, might have also had such a “live” experience. On the TV sets of "my" time in NY, channel 2 was CBS, channel 4 was NBC, channel 5 was WNEW (a local NY channel), channel 7 was ABC, channel 9 was WOR (also a local NY channel, the one which telecasted the National (Baseball) League NY Mets games), channel 11 was WPIX (also a local NY channel, the one which telecasted the American (Baseball) League NY Yankees games), and channel 13 was PBS (Public Broadcasting System), the very odd ball out in the US TV market, vaguely resembling the BBC and its successors in Germany (and all of western Europe?).

Arcane is quite right, on the other hand. Since maybe the turn of the century (anyone babbling about “millennium” is someone I automatically dump in the pathetic arrogance cesspit basket) my interest in music, films and TV produced beyond that arbitrary western calendar boundary has plummeted down to, say, the solid iron core of our planet. Not worth my time. I’m also almost sure that I’ve been missing some interesting stuff since then. But the useless haystacks have expanded so exponentially that a search for the useful needles has become somewhat tiring. It’s now over thirty years ago (pre German reunification) that the first private, commercial-financed channels went on air, with the then hope of our recently deceased then chancellor Helmut Kohl that they would provide a counterweight to what he considered a leftist slant in the up to then entirely public-financed TV (which was a load of Baloney Slices anyway with the anything-but-leftist Bavarian channel (Bayerisher Rundfunk)). Fox News (aka “Goebbels Channel”) never happened here, despite the efforts of some “suits” (aka people who have zilch knowledge of journalism) to the contrary.

P.S. On the wood-pulp based (aka paper) side of "information", there has been a rag corresponding to the lowest depths of British journalism (or the "yellow press" of the US): "Bild". Up to about 1980, they called themselves "Bild Zeitung" (picture newspaper), until someone went all the way to, I vaguely remember, our German Supreme Court and forced them to drop the term “Zeitung”, as they were able to prove that (way) below 50% of what appeared in “Bild” had any resemblance to what can even reasonably considered “truth”. Now what does that remind me of …

[Edited on 06/12/2018 by Gandolorin]
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tarcolan
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on: September 16, 2018 05:19
Latest news is that JD Payne and Patrick McKay are tipped to be writers and/or showrunners for the new series. They are involved in the next Star Trek film.
Gandolorin
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on: September 16, 2018 05:26
Ah ... whatever. Names do not ring any bells, in the slightest. Not surprising.
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tarcolan
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on: April 30, 2019 07:53
The new map put out by Amazon on twitter has Númenor on it, which suggests some Second Age action. No Gandalf or Aragorn and no Hobbits of course. Any ideas what they might be up to?
Lord_Sauron
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on: May 01, 2019 12:22
With the map showing Numenor the first thing I thought was how far can Amazon go with using Numenor, could they actually tell the story of The Downfall of Numenor since it was in the Silmarillion though I doubt it unless they brought the rights to tell it.
Mind you there is a lot of other tales they could tell such as Lord Elrond establishing Rivendell, King Gil-Galad establishing Lindon as well as Lord Celeborn and Lady Galadriel coming to Lothlórien.
However Amazon could start off with the story of Annatar becoming friends with Lord Celebrimbor and forging the Rings of Power. Perhaps we could also see the Nine men that eventually become the Nazgul. Also the foundations of the Kingdoms of Arnor, Gondor and the construction of Orthanc.
Then there is also Moria, the finding of Mithril and of course the awakening of Durin’s bane and the feud between the Elves and Dwarves.
Hanasian
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on: August 09, 2019 12:00
2nd Age of Middle Earth confirmed for the Amazon series. This actually makes me a bit more hopeful.

[Edited on 08/10/2019 by Arveleg]
Eighth King of Arthedain - It was in battle that I come into this Kingship, and it will be in Battle when I leave it. There is no peace for the Realm of Arnor. Read the last stand of Arthedain in the Darkest of Days.
tarcolan
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on: August 10, 2019 02:32
Check out the News on our home page for links to a Tom Shippey interview and a trailer for the series.
tarcolan
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on: August 13, 2019 05:30
J.A. Bayona is directing the first two episodes. He directed the Jurassic World movie. Brian Cogman is on board as well.

Maybe I'm slow but by keeping the LOTR title I'm guessing we might see Sauron and the Noldor making the rings.
starofdunedain
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on: August 13, 2019 07:45
It'll be interesting to see where they go with this. Doing the Second Age will give them quite a bit of freedom to write what they want since there isn't a detailed book like LotR or The Hobbit to tell them exactly what's happening with who and when/how.
Lord_Sauron
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on: August 13, 2019 09:40
I know that this is a long shot and is very unlikely to happen. However wouldn’t be great to have Hugo Weaving making a cameo appearance as an old King Elros or even as both Elros and Elrond.
Gandolorin
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on: August 13, 2019 11:25
Elrond and Elros were twins, weren’t they? At least in some traditions of HoMe (early on there was only Elrond, if I remember correctly …). But the 442 years that Elros reigned as first king of Númenor were a definitely boring period (no battles of any sort!!!). A cameo in a flashback, perhaps.

To keep viewers interested (and more importantly, keep them from getting confused, which is what the Sil seems to do to an awful lot of people), they would need to concentrate on a given period for several episodes at least. It also keeps down the number of actors they would need. With Dwarves, with the heavy prosthetics, it would be much easier for people to do multiple roles – but then, that sends the prosthetics budget through the roof!

And putting (undue?) emphasis on that part of the title of the series which may be its point, Lord of the Rings, I’d guess we can expect the period starting with about 1500 SA, when the Elves under Celebrimbor begin the forging of the Rings of Power (the Nine, the Seven and especially the Three – the latter completed around 1590 SA). But if battles are wanted (and look at the excess of battles in PJ’s Hobbit!) we would be probably talking about the (short) run-up to the beginning of the war of Sauron with the Elves in 1693 SA.

But then again, all that does not take place in Númenor … meh! We shall simply have to wait and see.
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tarcolan
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on: August 25, 2019 06:56
Might there be Entwives?
Lord_Sauron
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on: September 05, 2019 09:48
It seems that actor Will Poulter (from The Maze Runner series) has been cast as a lead role in the upcoming LoTR TV series
Gandolorin
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on: September 05, 2019 10:50
Yikes, what a pup!
Though by some of JRRT's writings about the aging of the Númenóreans of the royal line (those 400-year-olds) he could play an 80-year-old.
But still, barring the use of heavy prosthetics, are Amazon gearing this to the teenie market? *shudder*
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Hanasian
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on: January 12, 2020 05:04
I'm afraid I have already given up on this being anything more than a PJ fanfic spinoff. When I saw the actor cast as 'young Galadriel' looking like a 'young Cate Blanchett' it tells me they are using the Peter Jackson movies as inspiration, not J.R.R. Tolkien's work. No originality... sad.

On a good note, I've had discussions with a few young people on another nicely-upgraded and properly-working Tolkien site who vcame to know Middle Earth via the books, having not seen the accursed PJ Fanfics!
Eighth King of Arthedain - It was in battle that I come into this Kingship, and it will be in Battle when I leave it. There is no peace for the Realm of Arnor. Read the last stand of Arthedain in the Darkest of Days.
tarcolan
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on: September 05, 2020 03:26
This chat today by the OneRing gang may be of interest -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dssLi0d5WpQ
Hanasian
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on: October 09, 2022 08:09
Hanasian said:I'm afraid I have already given up on this being anything more than a PJ fanfic spinoff. When I saw the actor cast as 'young Galadriel' looking like a 'young Cate Blanchett' it tells me they are using the Peter Jackson movies as inspiration, not J.R.R. Tolkien's work. No originality... sad.

On a good note, I've had discussions with a few young people on another nicely-upgraded and properly-working Tolkien site who came to know Middle Earth via the books, having not seen the accursed PJ Fanfics!

Two and a half years on and I can say that I have adjusted my thinking on Rings of Power. It was never going to be anything more than an elaborate fanfic, and they admit as much in the opening credits by stating 'Based on the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien' which it truly is. With the constraints of use of material they have the rights to, and the specific allowances approved by the Tolkien Estate, I believe they have done a respectable job of it. I'll post my thoughts on the series in the appropriate thread.
Eighth King of Arthedain - It was in battle that I come into this Kingship, and it will be in Battle when I leave it. There is no peace for the Realm of Arnor. Read the last stand of Arthedain in the Darkest of Days.
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