Lord of the Rings Theatrical Trailer

BadmanX writes: "The brand new Lord of the Rings trailer that ran on several shows tonight (including the season premier of Angel) is available for download from Apple's Quicktime site." Hmmm. Mirrors definitely needed.

Comments

Hopefully it's not all straight from the script

[bonoboy]

I'm not entirely sure if this is still the case, but my buddy working on the FX for this was saying that alot of the stuff in the previous trailers was made specially for them. So the spoilage would be kept to a minimum and guys like me who saw the Phantom Menace trailer and wish we hadn't seen the movie won't be disappointed.

Re:Hopefully it's not all straight from the script

[Curien]

They're cutting all the events in the Old Forest. As far as I know, they're going to jump straight from Crickhollow to Bree.

I don't know if they'll even explain how Merry and Pippin get their Numenorean blades... but my guess is that they will be gifts from Elrond.

Re:Hopefully it's not all straight from the script

[Van Halen]

That's an excellent point, but consider this: the "strange, elaborate stuff surrounding the main story" just doesn't translate to the medium of film very well. It's not so much that these films are being made for the masses as opposed to the die-hard fans (though that is certainly a factor), but that film tells the story in one fluid, complete package. With a book, you can go back and re-read certain passages and get more out of it, but a film is designed to be viewed straight through.

In that context, I think it makes more sense to cut out things like Bombadil, and perhaps (hopefully?) this is what Peter Jackson and his crew were thinking as well. Hopefully it wasn't just to "dumb it down" for the masses.

Re:What's the deal with LOTR?

[lythari]

Surely, the obvious solution would have been to assign a company of elven cavalry with magic swords, supported by Ents, and accompanied by guides familiar with the terrain. It's clear from the book that the elves could raise a huge military force when they had to -- why not use it for this mission?

Because any such attempt would have been smashed to pulp by Sauron's own army. Also, the nature of the ring is such that those who possess it for any length of time, however short are unable to destroy it. Sauron, in his lust for the ring was unable to imagine that anyone would want to destroy it. Thus the decision was to try and sneak the ring into Mordor. That means low key, powerful elves with magic swords aren't exactly low key.

Also there was an element of fate in it. Elrond said as much in the council. I'd give you a quote now but my copy of LOTR is an 8 hour flight away and I can't recall it off the top of my head.

That's my (in my opinion) pathetic attempt to answer your question. Hope it helped.

Re:Star Wars for adults

[TZA14a]

With regard to the screenplay, we already know that they've decided to take a bit of license with the story line, and increase Arwen's role (she's a lead character's love interest). They decided to do so because she really doesn't have much of a role in the story -- with the possible exception of Galadrial, no female character does.

No? I believe that Eowyn is a pretty substantial character. After all, she kills the Nazgul king and stuff. She also has a love story to offer, though hers is not as teenage-stupid-girl-goes-wooh as the Arwen-and-Aragorn thing is going to be.
I'm also looking forward to the movies, but focussing a bit more on Eowyn instead of putting in a cheesy happy ending with the Elven girl would have been better IMO.

morpheus / kazaa / p2p

[trueimage]

you people want this to spread? then share this file on morpheus or kazaa? you talk about p2p and not restricting free sharing, but the file isnt on there, except for 2 people.. out of 65k+ people?

share the original file, then it will spread quickly!

fellowshipoftherings_fs.mov

Something has to give

[Sloppy]

You can't cut Bombadil.

Then what do you cut?

Art is about constraints. Moviemakers have different contraints than book writers. Peter Jackson gets to use CGI, but Tolkein didn't. Tolkein got to use hundreds of pages for whatever he wanted, but Jackson has time limits carved in stone. Something has to give, and whoever is doing it, has hard choices to make. I guess Jackson's choices were different than yours. Probably after I see the movie, I'll decide his choices were different than mine too. But it's really a no-win situation; no matter what he cuts, it's going to make someone unhappy.

Maybe it is theoretically possible to make a 30 hour LOTR movie that has everything from Tolkein's story and is all things to all fans. But that wouldn't fit the patterns and traditions (as arbitrary as they may be) for theatrical movies, which means that even then it won't be all things to all people: it won't serve the people who are funding it.

Umm... don't we know the plot already?

[L-Train8]

I know there are some minor changes (Sorry Tom Bombadil), but I believe the movie follows the book's plot pretty closely.

Phantom Menace was a different deal. The trailer showed the fabulous visuals, but didn't clue you in to the fact that the plot sucked and the dialog was lame. With FOTR, we know the story is great. The trailer sure shows that the visuals are great, too.

Re:Star Wars for adults

[Veritan Drelor]

Admittedly, I don't have a degree in classical literature, but you're well of the mark in comparing Homer and Virgil to Tolkein. The Iliad is a semi-historical account of the fall of Troy. The actions of the various gods and goddesses, what we consider mythology, were intimately related to the religion of the day. The Iliad did not "create" a universe as such; it simply represents the pinnacle of it's own literary tradition. The Odyssey can be treated in much the same way.

Now, when it comes to the Aeneid, Virgil was merely attempting to link the founding of Rome to the fall of Troy. This pseudo-historical was little more than Virgil endeavouring to glorify Rome from from its very beginning. In effect, it is a work of propaganda.

Tolkein, on the other hand, "created" a world from scratch, or at least from a couple of languages he developed (Sindarin & Quenya). While the basic laws of physics and biology appear to be the same, with a bit of magic thrown in, Middle Earth is an entirely fictional creation. That is where the originality, the brilliance, of Tolekein's work's lie.

Re:Spoilage?

[Tetsujin28]

Honestly, I am so disappointed that the story is altered. I don't want to go see what some hollywood producer wants to say -- I want to see what the author has to say.

You can -- by reading the originals. Tolkein didn't make movies, he wrote books, and thus there is no way that a movie could possibly be "what the author had to say." The movie is a different work of art, created by different people.