Ancanar Teaser Trailer Available

Still Gainfully Unemployed writes "A teaser trailer for Ancanar, an indie Tolkien inspired fantasy film, has been released. Check it out. It's not a Tolkien story, but rather inspired by his works."

Comments

Ancanar has not the bandwidth of Tolkien

[Anonymous Coward]

Give us a mirror to gaze upon, oh mighty wizzard! :)

Re:Ancanar has not the bandwidth of Tolkien

[Anonymous Coward]

How is this funny mods?

Re:Ancanar has not the bandwidth of Tolkien

[Anonymous Coward]

Darn, slashdotted so quickly. What would the mighty Tolkien say? It would not go well for you if he knew of such bandwidth lacking.

Re:Ancanar has not the bandwidth of Tolkien

[grimace123_99]

so is slashdotting now a form of a DOS attack :-)

Re:Ancanar has not the bandwidth of Tolkien

[terrab0t]

Or better yet, could all of you stop viewing the page so I can load it?

Geez, the same thing happens to me every morning on the way to work. Why doesn't everyone take the bus so I can drive downtown in my SUV?

Re:Ancanar has not the bandwidth of Tolkien

[Peterus7]

I really do wonder if they got a lot more traffic ever since that post was posted, seriously... I can just imagine, the server guy...

"Hey Jason, we're flooded!"
Why? What the hell is going on?"
"Argh! Some slashdotter junkie posted it... Our server will be clogged for days! Weeks!"

Re:Ancanar has not the bandwidth of Tolkien

[Paul Sinnett]

There's at least one copy of the trailer on Kazaa, probably more as more people share it.

Re:Ancanar has not the bandwidth of Tolkien

[Peterus7]

Hmm... Both lead characters are human... And the girl is ugly. Is it just me, or are *most* middle earth humans damned ugly?

please don't sue me

[Anonymous Coward]

I repeat, this work is only INSPIRED by tolkien.

Hmmmmmmm?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe it will be better than the Jackson Chainsaw Massacre...

"Inspired by" ... what crap

[Anonymous Coward]

"Inspired by Tolkien" my ass. Let's try "Lots of people went to see that Two Towers movie and it made a lot of money... who wrote that? Toll-keen, cool then let's say that".

Re:"Inspired by" ... what crap

[Anonymous Coward]

Whatever... Tolkien has a bazillion fans. Don't see why it's surprising at all that someone did a film like this.

Less than 10 replies....

[FS1]

And already /.ed. Oh well, if it is half as good or better than the stuff Peter Jackson is producing i might have to watch it.

Re:Less than 10 replies....

[BarrettAnderson]

no, it was TORNed like a week ago. slashdot is pretty late on this news.....

Based on the works of Tolkien

[Well...]

Do you mean based on as in the way The Two Towers is based on Tolkien, or is it more accurate than that?

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[FS1]

or less accurate, wait lets just say it is based on the same universe, not on any literal works of tolkien.

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[captainstupid]

Do you mean based on as in the way The Two Towers is based on Tolkien, or is it more accurate than that?

Well...
Considering that The Two Towers is a book written by Tolkien, I think it will be a little less accurate...

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[Well...]

You're right, I did recognize some of Tolkien in The Two Towers, but I recognized even more Peter Jackson.

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[Paolomania]

i guess that to some, anything less than scrolling the text of LOTR over the movie screen would not constitute as a "movie adaptation".

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[dinivin]

You're right, I did recognize some of Tolkien in The Two Towers, but I recognized even more Peter Jackson.

Thank God! Otherwise, the first two hours of the movie would have been even more boring.

Dinivin

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[CommieOverlord]

I think the other poster meant that "The Two Towers" was 100% percent Tolkien, 0% Peter Jackson. It was a joke refering to the book not the movie.

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[Well...]

I suppose, but my complaint was more about the choices they made - action-dude Legolas snowboarding on his shield, for instance. It wasn't what was taken out, it's what was added.

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[Anonymous Coward]

Tolkien didn't detail the fight scenes. He practically wrote "a fight ensued". So sliding, or glding, around seems somewhat appropriate.

If middle earth it were reality, there would have been much more detail than what was written. I think there's no choice but to extrapolate, or to keep the scenes unsatisfying.

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[NaturePhotog]

It wasn't what was taken out, it's what was added.

I didn't mind surfer-dude Legolas, but the "Mr. Frodo, we shouldn't even be here!" line from Sam when they're taken to Osgiliath makes my wife and I chuckle each of the times we've seen Two Towers. And we missed the huorns taking out the orcs at Helm's Deep. The extra footage on the DVD for Fellowship says a lot of the changes they made there were to 'keep the ring moving towards Mordor', and I could apprecitate them. But in Two Towers, the side trip to Osgiliath / making Farimir into a Boromir clone in terms of ring-lust, and Aragorn's tumble over the cliff just made no sense to us.

But back on topic, I'm happy to see more fantasy films inspired by Tolkien's work. I just hope (as an earlier poster said) that it's not like Red Sonja or some of the other action-fantasy movies of the 70's and 80's.

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[russellh]

Do you mean based on as in the way The Two Towers is based on Tolkien, or is it more accurate than that?

Woah. I thought the movie was based on the book.

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[macshit]

i guess that to some, anything less than scrolling the text of LOTR over the movie screen would not constitute as a "movie adaptation".

Ha ha ha! You think that would suffice?

If they did that, there'd be violent protests that the text was not the right version...

`` Clearly, there should an extra comma on page 453, line 10, after the word "Alpo." I can't believe that awful hack Peter Jackson left it out! bastard. Bastard! YARRRRG!!!!''

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[Anonymous Coward]

My memory is a bit hazy, but the only forces I recall at Helm's Deep were Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Theoden's forces. Joined later by Erkenbrand and more Rohirrim, brought by Gandalf.

Someone tell me where the huorns/ents/pink flamingos/green leprechauns/red balloons that everyone keeps saying 'should have been at Helm's Deep!' are in the book?

Anyhoo, I minded Legolas. No, not Legolas - Orlando Bloom. I can't stand him. I was watching the SpecED Fellowship the other day with the commentary on. Bloom keeps whining about how he was trying to make Legolas 'realistic' and attemping to come up with 'cool things to do'.

My friends, the Eldar may be capable of many things, but they are *not* Neo. I'll blame Jackson for listening to Bloom's ideas, though. Other than the Matrixesque Elf Action, Bloom played a pretty decent Legolas.

As for Faramir being worse than Boromir (clone? Nah. Boromir actually had a redeeming quality!)..

After Bilbo freaking on Gandalf, Bilbo freaking on Frodo, the Council of Elrond, Galadriel and her 'Eeeevil! You've seen the eye!' bit, Boromir freaking on Frodo, Frodo being weird with Aragorn, Frodo freaking on Sam.. et cetera..

I think we get the fscking point. The ring is bad. Right, right.

There was no reason for the destruction of Faramir's character. Given his importance in Return of the King, I'm left shuddering at thoughts of what butchery Jackson might visit upon us next December.

Red Sonja was pretty bad. But frankly, Conan the Barbarian was a better piece of work than Jackson's The Two Towers.

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[Anonymous Coward]

Clearly if you picked up the book and looked for yourself, you'd see how the battle of Helm's Deep concludes (but since you're seem to be incurably lazy, try the end chapter 7, book 3). Yes, Dorothy, there are huorns present.

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[Flambergius]

I'm not really a PJ apologist but I do play one on Slashdot.

I too was quite taken aback by Faramir's apparent boneheadedness. Later I did some reading, both Tolkien and forums, and found quite satisfactory explanation for the "changes".

To many people, including myself, Faramir was defined by single event and a quality shown in that event. He lets the ring go, thus he is wise, especially compared to Boromir. But that's not the whole story, he is also captain of Gondor and a shrewd interrogator. Further, his relationship with his father is strained. Read the book, those things are in there, At points, early in his interrogation of Frodo, Faramir is actually quite un-symphatetic.

Faramir of the movie is actually closer to Faramir of the book than Faramir in my memory was. I think this is true for many people. Faramir is the good guy, and his darker side, or character development, is forgotten. In the movie Faramir is left half-done, his story and development has just begun (see ROTK for the end :-)) and so-far the darker side is more prominent.

It isn't so much changing Faramir's character than it is changing the details of the plot. In the movie Faramir doesn't try to take the ring for himself, he tries to please his father, but in the end he sees that ringbearer must be allowed to go to Mordor. That's not out-of-character for Faramir described in the book. Side-trip to Osgiliath is a detail of the plot and it remains to be seen how that change is spinned in ROTK. What is the importance of Nazgul seeing Frodo (the Ring?) in Osgiliath? It's not in the book but might be used to justify something in ROTK, like the whole Sauron's ill-judged (too hasty) offense on Gondor.

Aragorn goes of the cliff because

1) somebody has to and
2) he is about to get a second flash-back.

It's a pretty good fight with the worg-riders, but it would be (mostly) pointless unless it has impact to the story/movie in the whole. If nobody important gets hurt then the fight is meaningless (ok, there are other ways to have meaningful fights but that's not the point). Aragorn has already had a flash-back. Hearing little voices in your head are you, schizo? Ok, it wouldn't actually be that bad, but being knocked-out is always a good excuse for a flash-back.Also, Aragorn going MIA and then coming back, lets Eowyn do those wonderful looks. You know, all that heavy breathing is now expression and not just asthma.

--Flam

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[LtOcelot]

If nobody important gets hurt then the fight is meaningless

Got the nail on the head, there! The worg-rider fight is meaningless. Having a character falling off a cliff and surviving is so ridiculously cliched that even the filmmakers didn't take it seriously -- compare the treatment of that scene to Gandalf's. (Using the same device twice was a serious mistake, especially when the execution was less cliched the first time.) The fact that "being knocked out is always a good excuse for a flashback" is exactly why a good author won't use it casually... but then, no one's claimed that the scriptwriters for the movie were good authors.

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[Daytona955i]

Tolkien provided a vast ammount of information for the directors to choose from. They don't have to include it all, I'll be the first to admit that Tom Bombadil really didn't do much for the story as a whole. Why do you need to change something in the story? Great works are great works for a reason. People like Peter Jackson get caught up and want to make the movie their movie, not Tolkien's book made into a movie.

An "movie adaptation" would be rewriting the book into a movie form. NOT basterdizing the story by moving things, adding and deleting things. By dumbing down stories and adding things such as comic relief every minute or so you make dumb movies. (dumb in the sense that the film is dumb and watching the movie seems to make you dumber)

That said I did see

• The Two Towers

opening day and I have read Tolkien's books. I own the

• Fellowship of the Ring

on DVD and I will most likely get the other two when they come out. They are great as eye candy movies, they look neat. Certain elements of the book really come alive and as a companion to the book, but if I never read the book, I'd think it was a funny love story, something it's not.
-Chris

Re:Based on the works of Tolkien

[WNight]

I don't think Faramir expressed great ring lust this time. The scene with him and the sword seemed more like intimidation, trying to make Frodo talk. It replaces long dialog between Frodo and Faramir, where the details come out slowly.

Faramir never, even after seeing it, makes a personal grab for the ring, as he would if overcome by it. I think they just felt that with the screen time given, for him to see it (something they have shown repeatedly is very seductive) and then turn it down, is unreasonable. Even in the book this action is taken only after a fair bit of time. His decision was to take the hobbits, leaving them with the object - a very smart move if he even guessed at it's seductive power, and take them home where a better decision could be made. It's not until he realizes the urgency of the situation, and how ultimately important the ring is to the dark lord, via the (overdone) nazgul scene, that he decides he needs to make an immediate decision.

And really, to say that Faramir was immune to the call of the ring in the book is a little misguided. He never handled it, or had it offered to him. He was smart enough to know to stay away from it, but that doesn't imply he could have turned it down. He also had the benefit of knowing Boromir was dead, and that he had to be more careful now.

The battle scenes were my peeve with the movie. Particularly Aragorn going over the edge. Also, the split-second timing saving Aragorn (and Helm's Deep) from the hordes of Orcs by Gandalf. But, I realize that this last bit is in the book and it's pretty much standard, nobody believes you can have tension without everything coming down to the last second.

Stupid slashdot story

[Anonymous Coward]

This story is just plain stupid! A trailer for a film is released. Is this really news for nerds? I don't think so.

Re:Stupid slashdot story

[Anonymous Coward]

If its a fantasy or interesting scifi flic then yes. I'm downloading the trailer as I write this message.

Tolkei n inspired ?

[EpsCylonB]

It's not a Tolkien story, but rather inspired by his works.

Doesn't that describe the vast majority of fantasy novels ?

Re:Tolkei n inspired ?

[FS1]

Doesn't that describe the vast majority of fantasy novels ?

Only good ones.

Re:Tolkei n inspired ?

[flogger]

Heh, True. I was gonna say the same thing.
The Dogma movie was probably, somehow, inspired by the bible. Yet I know plenty of church-going people that just don;t like it.
I wonder how many Tolkien lovers are gonna hate it becuse it ain't Tolkien.

Re:Tolkei n inspired ?

[Anonymous Coward]

I already hate it with a passion and I havent even seen the trailer ;D

Re:Tolkei n inspired ?

[algernon7]

No, I read one once without a dwarf in it.

I know nothing of Anacar...

[stefanlasiewski]

The LotR series is so popular, I'm sure we will see many LotR-inspired films in the next few years.

Hopefully this round will be better then "Conan" & "Heavy Metal" clones like "Beastmaster", "Red Sonja", etc. from the 70's and 80's

This looks like a lower budget movie, which should be entertaining.

Re:I know nothing of Anacar...

[jpt.d]

Hey mac, Red Sonja was a good movie! The beastmaster - never saw any movie, but the series is mostly good.

Re:I know nothing of Anacar...

[Old Wolf]

Is this just a general fantasy movie, or does it use Tolkien characters or races? I guess they would have to be careful to not step on copyrights etc. owned by the Tolkien estate, who are notorious for shutting down productions that they don't like.

Re:I know nothing of Anacar...

[Anonymous Hack]

Dude, "Beastmaster" and the like were fucking cool! SWORDS! BREASTS! MONSTERS! HOOTERS! I'm telling you man, that shit was better than the tentacle-reaming anime the kids are watching these days.

Re:I know nothing of Anacar...

[BadlandZ]

Hopefully this round will be better then "Conan" & "Heavy Metal" clones like "Beastmaster", "Red Sonja", etc. from the 70's and 80's

My God, I HOPE your right! If LofR is the FIRST of a series of trend movies, and will follow the 80's trend movies, we know better are in the works!

Say what you will, but I happened to enjoy some of those films. I thought "Rock and Rule" was way cooler than Heavy Metal (and Rock and Rule had Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, how can that be WORSE than Heavy Metal).

Conan inspired The Beastmaster? Well, honestly, I thought they both sort of sucked. But, Conan the Barbarian was out in 1982, and Conan the Destroyer was out in 1984. The Beastmaster was released in 1982. How can you believe that they put out Conan the Barbarian, and immediately went "good idea" and put out "The Beastmaster" the same year, with better production, a deeper story, better polished, as a "copy cat" THAT CAME OUT A COUPLE MONTHS LATER? Sad 80's referances there...

Sad part is, LotR isn't the trend setter. Harry Potter is the "Conan" of the 2000's. And LotR's is the "BeastMaster" of the 2000's. I'm sorry, I want to hope for better too, but I just don't think it will happen.

Re:I know nothing of Anacar...

[JabberWokky]

Guys - c'mon! Basic facts here...

Conan was published before Lord of the Rings!!! Sheesh - this is like the third time I've had to jump into a Slashdot discussion because people don't know their golden age SF. Phoenix on the Sword, the first Conan story was written by Robert Howard in Wierd Tales in 1932. In the next several years, he wrote seventeen more. The Hobbit didn't appear in print until 1937, and the Lord of the Rings didn't appear until 1954, over twenty years after Conan first appeared in Hyboria.

Note that this reply occurs here due to the following stuff, not directly as a response to this thread, but more as a response to the whole "Lord of the Rings inspired every other fantasy work" theme that pervades replies to this article.

Rock and Rule was great. Debbie Harry, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop set to nifty Bakshiish over the top animation. Fire and Ice had Frazetta doing the character design, which was even better, and was authentic Bakshi. And of course Wizards, a Bakshi classic.

--
Evan

Re:I know nothing of Anacar...

[stefanlasiewski]

How can you believe that they put out Conan the Barbarian, and immediately went "good idea" and put out "The Beastmaster" the same year, with better production, a deeper story, better polished, as a "copy cat" THAT CAME OUT A COUPLE MONTHS LATER?

Well, this "copy cat" thing happens frequently. "A Bugs Life" and "Ants" came out at the same time, "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon"... and we're their two "Volcano appears in the middle of a metropolian area" movies at the same time (I never saw either).

A rumor leaks that "Studio A" is going to release a movie about $SUBJECT, so "Studio B" quickly produces a similar script also about $SUBJECT.

Re:Soviet Russia

[elphkotm]

Yes, yes, I know, I have failed :(

Download it...

[Theom]

Here. I hate to look at movies within a web browser, is there actually a QuickTime plug-in for Mozilla?

Re:Download it...

[FS1]

you know i would love to see a log of all traffic on a site that has been slashdotted. I think it would be cool to see. When your computer comes back on. Could you send me a copy. Cause your server has been /.ed, have a nice day. :)

Re:Download it...

[Doom Ihl' Varia]

Code Weaver's CrossOver Plugin. Definately worth the cash. There is a free demo you can try out.

Re:Download it...

[galaga79]

I know Quicktime 6 includes a plugin for Mozilla, but then you didn't say which operating system you are using.

Re:Download it...

[Theom]

GNU/Linux. I installed Quicktime via the Crossover plugin, too bad my machine isn't powerfull enough for a smooth playback.

Re:Download it...

[Vaughn Anderson]

The regular old Quicktime plugin meant for Netscape works fine for Mozilla... though it does crash more often than it should... -v

Movie

[ShoeHead]

For those of you who want to try and still get the movie, or just want to throw the URL onto DAP and retrieve it later, the file's at

http://www.joannewarfieldfineart.com/ancanar/qt/ an canar_trailer_large.mov

Just thought I'd give you all a heads up (since I just grabbed it).

Here comes the rescue

[Anonymous Coward]

Still Gainfully Unemployed could get a job, "Will push bits for food".

Isn't everything...

[Anonymous Coward]

...inspired by his works? D&D, all the Elf, wizard blabla stuff out there.

Re:Isn't everything...

[BarrettAnderson]

first of all, no. All the stuff you mentioned goes back a couple thousand years. The main thing inspired by tolkein is the setting - middle earth. It will probably not contradict tolkein (in many ways), but it will not be from the professor himself. So it's in middle earth - so it's inspired by tolkein.

Yeah... quite a bit has been inspired by Tolken...

[autopr0n]

And the vast majority of it sucks.

What that audio plugin

[rmsousa]

And why won't it play in my MPlayer rc1?

Requested audio codec family [faad] (afm=faad) not available (enable it at compilation!)

Wtf is that faad?

Re:What that audio plugin

[Anonymous Coward]

Whatever it is, I'm sure it's just a passing faad.

Fantasy and Fantasier

[DarthWiggle]

Since I can't see the trailer, I have to make it up.

In this one, Dorfo and Samdumb go frolicking west across Amerrycah in their K-Y delivery van, lubing their way from adventure to adventure in their quest to destroy the Wrinngius Unus which was stolen from the Great Lord Mauron after a battle in which Mauron was defeated by a band of singing barbers. The movie climaxes when, at a Mauron's resort in Misted Mountains of Kallorahdoe, Samdumb gets his tongue stuck to a conveniently-placed ski-lift, and in order to unstick him, Dorfo engages in rough butt love to heat him up.

The passionate Nhobbit Love opens up a HUGE CRACK in the earth, into which an alert but orgasmic Dorfo tosses the Wringius Unus, thereby destroying it and Mauron... ... thereby leaving the world unprotected from the resurrected band of singing barbers.

Celine Dion writes the title song, My Hardon Will Go On.

Re:Fantasy and Fantasier

[DarthWiggle]

Flamebait? Jeez, that'll teach me never to make fun of fantasy again.

Two Towers

[Radio Shack Robot]

I never got around to seeing the Two Towers, but I did see FOTR on DVD. Does anyone remember the LOTR cartoon? I think I'm permanently scarred for life after seeing it. :)

Re:Two Towers

[Anonymous Coward]

I have it on dvd. It's more faithful to overall the book than TTT :/

*A spoiler to spoil another*

They ruined faramir and brought the ring within an arms reach of a flying nazgul, not to mention transforming merry or pippin to strategic masterminds to lead ignorant ents. Oh, and Theoden is a vegetable and wormtongue more informed than his master.

Re:Two Towers

[MrResistor]

Does anyone remember the LOTR cartoon?

I've been trying to forget it for years, only to be reminded of it every time an LotR story shows up on slashdot.

Thanks a lot!!!

Re:Two Towers

[H.M. Murdock]

Where there's a whip...
There's a way...

You know, I think I learned that song from that cartoon even before I was old enough to know what LOTR was...

Re:Two Towers

[cthulhubob]

no, no - that was "The Hobbit" cartoon version... the FotR cartoon was made by different people, and didn't have random pointless singing by orcs.

It still sucked, but was nowhere NEAR as bad as The Disneyfied Hobbit movie. It actually had some redeeming qualities, like the flashback to Smeagol strangling his brother Deagol and taking the Ring - I keep waiting for that flashback to show up in the Peter Jackson films. If it doesn't happen in Return of the King that would suck - I was totally expecting it in The Two Towers after he called himself a murderer, but they left the obvious hook unexplained instead.

"Give us that ring, Deagol my love."
"Why, Smeagol?"
"Because it's my birthday, my love... and I wants it!"

Re:Two Towers

[Sabalon]

While stuff like Boromir as a viking and Aragorn as a native american indian scout could scar you for life, in a lot of ways it was a lot more faithful to the books than the PJ works.

Funny thing is, you mention this on a tolkien newsgroup and they go nuts. They will go on about how it left out the old forest and Tom Bombadil - hey...so did PJ.

So they go on with the next best thing they can find, which is usually a dig about the animation styles. Or they will bitch about the Nazgul crying/screaming after they missed Frodo in Bree (oh wait..the PJ movie did the same thing.)

I still like it - though it is kinda hard to watch sometimes. Not as bad as the Return of the King movie.

Two Towers now showing at Slashdot...

[SkoZombie]

Starring:

• Cowboy Neal, as Gandalf as Not-so-gray
• ./ readers, as the orcish hordes
• micheal, as Saruman (He is directing the orchish hordes, remember?)
• http://www.ancanar.com/, as the wall of helm's deep
• Apache Server, as aragon and gimli (trying to hold back the orcish hordes)
• Slashdot Effect, as the pyro effects that destroy the walls of helms deep.

Re:Two Towers now showing at Slashdot...

[Jace of Fuse!]

./ readers, as the orcish hordes

Didn't you mean ./ readers, as the Trolls?

Re:Two Towers now showing at Slashdot...

[zapfie]

It's hard to be a troll when you read a story and don't comment on it. Maybe it should feature the ./ trolls, as the Trolls.

Re:Two Towers now showing at Slashdot...

[SkoZombie]

Well like any good horde, there were quite a few trolls ;) As always, they are the ones that stand out as extra stupid, extra ugly and that stench ... phew! Even fantasy reflects life at times.

Re:Two Towers now showing at Slashdot...

[Anonymous Coward]

You dyslexic idiots! It's "/."

Re:Two Towers now showing at Slashdot...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not nice to make fun of lysdexia.

Re:Two Towers now showing at Slashdot...

[Jace of Fuse!]

That's what I get for using cut and paste. :(

Re:Two Towers now showing at Slashdot...

[zapfie]

Well, at least you have an excuse. I, unfortunately, typed it in.

Re:This early post for Stef!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes.

HTH!

;)

Umm....

[LordYUK]

The search begins?? for what, better actors and a plot? Sheesh, this is one of these storys that got rejected from Xena isnt it? seriously, it looks horrible, but it has elves and swords, so what the hell, I'll go see it...

Some A LOT more than others.

[fireboy1919]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345 314255/103-9283348-9273448?vi=glance

Sword of Shannara.

It's about a humble farmer dude who is told to leave his home by a great and powerful old wizard so that he can fulfill his destiny of destroying an evil phantom-like wizard, something which can only be done with the help of a magical artifact (this case it's a sword, not a ring).

Other intersting points in the story:
the king of one group of people is having his judgement clouded by a wicked chancellor who is actually working for the evil one. This is undone by the heroes, and the king helps defend against the onslaught of the army of evil orcs.

That army of orcs almost breaks through the inner part of the castle by going through the only available opening: the sewers. They know about this because the chancellor escaped and told them.

The epic battle to seize the castle encompasses four waves - three inner battlements are conquered, and a fourth when the orcs are defeated by a reenforcement force .

Sound familiar? 'Cause I had to keep checking the title to make sure I wasn't reading Two Towers.

Re:Some A LOT more than others.

[Twirlip of the Mists]

the king of one group of people is having his judgement clouded by a wicked chancellor who is actually working for the evil one.

Yeah, not like that particular story element goes back to the Bible or Homer or anything.

Re:Some A LOT more than others.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, real insightful. He took one sentence out of several and tried to ridicule the poster. Take a look at everything he said about the story:

It's about a humble farmer dude who is told to leave his home by a great and powerful old wizard so that he can fulfill his destiny of destroying an evil phantom-like wizard, something which can only be done with the help of a magical artifact (this case it's a sword, not a ring).

and

the king of one group of people is having his judgement clouded by a wicked chancellor who is actually working for the evil one. This is undone by the heroes, and the king helps defend against the onslaught of the army of evil orcs.

That army of orcs almost breaks through the inner part of the castle by going through the only available opening: the sewers. They know about this because the chancellor escaped and told them.

The epic battle to seize the castle encompasses four waves - three inner battlements are conquered, and a fourth when the orcs are defeated by a reenforcement force

Hey! Now that you don't take that one sentence out of context, it doesn't seem too much like the story element in the Bible or Homer! OH DEAR!

Based on your technique, I can criticize your post as such:

Yeah, like that story "the homer goes back to the bible".

Why not? Those were part of your post? According to you, I can take what I please and say what I like.

Terribly insightful, right?

Please, feel free to mod me up.

Re:Some A LOT more than others.

[Anonymous Coward]

Jealous, huh? Don't worry. Someday you'll say something insightful, too. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But some day.

Re:Some A LOT more than others.

[Shrubbman]

*nod* Sword is definitely a mediocre knock-off of LOTR, no denying it, but Terry Brook's later works quickly shift from mediocre xerox to interesting, well developed fantasy. I would strongly suggest to anyone interested in reading Brooks' Shannara series that you only bother skiming through Sword to get to the other two books in the first trilogy (Sword, Elfstones, and Wishsong) or skip the first trilogy and go straight into the 4 part Heritage of Shannara series (Scions, Druid, Elf Queen, and Talismans). Just remember, skipping books in a long running series is generally a bad thing to do if there's a certain chronology at work: you can skip the original trilogy entirely and not be too out of place but if you ever go back to read those first books certain things which are stated openly in later books are big nasty spoilers for those earlier books. The most recent Shannara series (The Voyage of the Jeryl Shannara) is hands down my favorite fantasy to have come out over the past few years, and I anxiously await the next series. Brooks' non-Shanarra series are also good for a read: Magical Kingdom of Landover is good for a laugh early on and gets more serious towards books 4 and 5 after the cheep gags are mostly over and done with while this interesting setting has been developed somewhat, while his Word and Void trilogy is just captivating. Basically what I'm saying is, don't ignore the guy just because his first book, from some 25 years ago, was a bad Tolkien knock-off. He's consistently gotten more skilled in his craft with each book he's released, and with a quarter century of steady improvement he's simply at the top of his game and while still no Tolkien, he's simply one of the best fantasy authors writing today.

Re:Some A LOT more than others.

[Anonymous Coward]

Or Chrono Trigger!

Re:Some A LOT more than others.

[Godwin O'Hitler]

I admire your stamina. Brooks lost me as a reader after less than 200 pages of Sword of Shannara, not because the plot reminded me of anything I'd previously read but simply because his writing style was so pathetically weak and I couldn't see anything developing in the plot to make up for it. If he has become more skilled with his craft, he should consider himself lucky to have been given that chance.
Having said that, most fantasy books these days are weak. Most are also too long. Lord of the Rings is as long as any story needs to be.

Re:Some A LOT more than others.

[Sabalon]

You forgot about the mystic Allanon, who comes and goes with the party. But these, while obviously inspired by, stand alone well enough on their own - and after the first book are even more on their own.

Try

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/045145810 9/ qid=1042486751/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/104-3437608-64655 32

The Iron Tower: The Dark Tide/Shadows of Doom/the Darkest Day
by Dennis L. McKiernan

These books so closely parallel LotR it's not even funny - even having short people as part of the main story, a watcher in the water right before they go into some forgotten underworld, etc...

In his defense, he does say in the preface how he loves LotR and wrote these because he couldn't find any other epic fantasy like it. While they are decent books, he could have not copied it so closely.

/.'d

[Echnin]

Oh, come on; "indie film" and "teaser trailer" are not two terms that should appear together on the Slashdot mainpage. Can anyone say "slashdotted"? Early fantasy books (ie inspired by Tolkien) actually labeled themselves as "Tolkienesque" works.

First Post!

[Anonymous Coward]

First Post.

yeah

[Anonymous Coward]

here's a gift for your movie release, a slashdotting of your server!

may you make more movies so we can slashdot you again!

"After the King"

[devphil]

is a collection of short stories, all inspired by Tolkien and written to honor him. Some major fantasy/SF authors participated. One of the stories even has Bilbo make an uncredited cameo. I highly recommend it.

Snowboarding

[MenTaLguY]

Actually, I discovered recently that the "snowboarding" thing isn't necessarily as "anachronistic" as we might have thought.

As a friend pointed out, Petrarch wrote about germanic tribes surfing/sledding on their shields (naked!) down snowy embankments into battle -- that was 2000 years ago. So shield-surfing is a pretty old idea.

Don't forget Katz!

[Anonymous Coward]

• Jon Katz, as the squealing piggy who enjoys being sodomized over and over again by every Hobbit in the Shire! (Well done Jon!)
  

Legal Issues?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not an expert, but I vaguely remember reading that when Tolkien sold the film rights to LotR, he specifically prohibited any 'based on'-type works (thus thankfully preventing a Middle-Earth sitcom). Even if this is not the case, aren't there legal issues involved in using, at the very least, Tolkien's geography? It was always my understanding that one needed some sort of contractual right in order to do, say, a Dune prequel or Star Wars novel.

Irrespective of the legal issues, I don't think that a film like this does Tolkien much service or is particularly respectful of his wishes. Unlike, say, the Star Wars universe, Middle-Earth was very much the product of one man, and it was for him a very personal way of expressing some of his most deeply-felt beliefs. Considering that the vast majority of the Tolkien canon remains yet unfilmed (I would kill for a Beren and Luthien movie), the only real reason I can fathom for making a movie like this is to exploit the depth of Tolkien's universe without having to include its messages.

That being said, I may see this movie, and, if it is true to Tolkien's beliefs and tone, I may see it fit to like it. That, however, is unlikely; while I liked Jackson's FotR quite alot, I felt his TTT was unfaithful not only to the plot of Tolkien's work (which I can forgive), but to the messages as well. I don't want to sound like a snobby purist when I say that; it's just that all the talking (particularly by Faramir, Gandalf, and Treebeard) was the interesting part of TTT for me, not the fighting. I understand that many may feel differently.

Rob

Re:Legal Issues?

[PaddyM]

Whatever, those are retarded laws that stifle free speech and creativity.

And speaking of stifling free speech, there's a whole bunch of Final Fantasy Fan Fiction that I keep submitting for a story, but it keeps being rejected. :P

Re:Legal Issues?

[Anonymous Coward]

Tolkien is dead.

Re:Legal Issues?

[entrippy]

Hey, if you don't want to sound like a snobby purist, you might want to try avoiding phrases like

"That being said, I may see this movie, and, if it is true to Tolkien's beliefs and tone, I may see it fit to like it."

Which make you sound like a ... well, the phrase I was going to use was much less polite than snobby purist, lets say.

I just love how many people are willing to condemn the works of others sight unseen. I was hoping at least one comment here would have come from someone who'd watched the trailer and given it some thought. Apparently not. Guess I'll have to go see before I pass judgement.

Re:Legal Issues?

[Tetsujin28]

I'm not an expert, but I vaguely remember reading that when Tolkien sold the film rights to LotR, he specifically prohibited any 'based on'-type works (thus thankfully preventing a Middle-Earth sitcom).

Damn. There goes my idea for a Justice Friends-type show about Gimli and Legolas settling down into an apartment in Bree...

Mirror of trailer

[doubleadesign]

I put it up on my .mac site Enjoy. I'm not so sure it's going to be a hit or a cult classic but, maybe worth an hour and a half or so. I've wasted plenty of my time watching other trash.

Re:Mirror of trailer

[zephc]

bad idea, prepare to have your account suspended =]

Faithful doesn't sell tickets

[yerricde]

Disney's Pinocchio 2.0 (2002) starring Roberto Benigni is much more faithful to the novel than Disney's Pinocchio 1.0 (1940) was, but it got bad reviews and AFAIK didn't do that well at the box office. Fidelity to a classic literary work doesn't guarantee ticket sales; the movie must be adapted to the cultures that exist 95 years later. It's possible to pull this off, but it's also possible to screw it up to hell as in The Time Machine (2002).

Re:Faithful doesn't sell tickets

[Anonymous Coward]

[I'm the 'coward' that wrote the remark you replied to]

I agree. LOTR, given its size and nature is especially hard to adapt to the movie-medium, and all in all Jackson has done well, but I do think that TFOTR was much more successfully executed than TTT.

Granted, TTT as part of the original work is difficult as the interlude between beginning and finale - but even so, it has many interesting things to offer (side note, many prefer 'The empire strikes back' dark nature).

When I groan about changes, I dont nitpick about every little thing. Arwens role in Jacksons LOTR makes sense to me (we need women in there and glofindel isn't that deep in the book).

The extra added battle in TTT with the warg riders was beatifully executed (though some complain about the cheap hollywood plot device of freigning the protagonists death).

What gets me are unneccesary changes that ruin beautiful details that could have been kept in there without lengthening the movie or making it harder to understand for the non-tolkienzealot.

In short, Faramirs portrail pisses me off and the ring wraiths are abused by letting them that close to the ring without Aragon around.

Gimli as a constant comic-relief and the actionscenes also got to me, but not as much as the (and I qoute somebody's comment) bastardization of Faramir.

That being said - Gollum was excellent and there were plenty of shining stuff

(It just pales, when you feel that your love for the book is trampled on.. but thats just me and a few Tolkienfans. A big part of the audience will have read half or never touched the book and thus enjoy that which they see (In a way, I envy them).

Re:I liked Red Sonja

[Anonymous Coward]

But I wasn't terribly discriminating as a child...

teaser?

[Anonymous Coward]

heh, screw this teaser shit. either you have a fucking trailer or you dont.

No One Cares

[Anonymous Coward]

No one cares, no one cares. No one cares no ones cares no one cares; no one cares, no one cares.

It seems to depend.

[Anonymous Coward]

For example, the Tolkien Estate doesn't go around suing the living crap out of people exploring Quenya and Sindarin, while writing it with the Tengwar and Cirth. I haven't noticed them going rabidly anal about people writing stories set in Middle Earth - at least nowhere near as much as some other authors/authors' families.

However, I'd imagine that if you made a movie about the Great Hobbit Orgy at Gondor, you'd be bitchslapped back to the First Age. Rightfully so, I might say.

You'd kill for a Beren and Luthien movie? And legions of readers would kill any director who dared cast Luthien Tinuviel, the most beautiful woman ever(tm).

Re:It seems to depend.

[bsartist]

I'd imagine that if you made a movie about the Great Hobbit Orgy at Gondor, you'd be bitchslapped back to the First Age.

They might try, but parody is completely legal. Or haven't you heard of Bored of the Rings? The first paragraph pretty well sums up the tone of the whole book:

When Mr. Dildo Bugger of Bug End grudgingly announced his intention of throwing a free feed for the boggies in his part of the Sty, the reaction in Boggietown was immediate - all through the messy little slum could be heard squeals of "Swell!" and "Hot puppies, grub!" Slavering with anticipation, several recipients of the invitations devoured their little engraved scrolls, temporarily deranged by transports of gluttony. After the initial hysteria, however, the boggies returned to their daily routines, and is their wont, lapsed back into a coma.

Who can forget the song of Tim Benzedrine?

Toke-a-lid! Smoke-a-lid! Pop the mescalino!
Stash the hash! Gonna crash! Make mine methedrino!
Hop a hill! Pop a pill! For Old Tim Benzedrino!

Hilarious stuff - unless, of course, you think of Tolkien as God, and regard any mocking of his work as sacrilege.

Re:It seems to depend.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi, I'm the anonymous coward who posted the parent. I'll register one of these days.

For example, the Tolkien Estate doesn't go around suing the living crap out of people exploring Quenya and Sindarin, while writing it with the Tengwar and Cirth. I haven't noticed them going rabidly anal about people writing stories set in Middle Earth - at least nowhere near as much as some other authors/authors' families.

However, I'd imagine that if you made a movie about the Great Hobbit Orgy at Gondor, you'd be bitchslapped back to the First Age. Rightfully so, I might say.

Okay. I didn't think it was strictly legal, but I agree that the Estate's lawyers aren't likely to do much about it. It still does bother me on the issue of intellectual property, though. *is ripped to threads by slashdot*

You'd kill for a Beren and Luthien movie? And legions of readers would kill any director who dared cast Luthien Tinuviel, the most beautiful woman ever(tm).

Agreed. LotR message boards are about the only place you'll find Liv Tyler criticized for not being pretty enough.

Thanks,
Rob

Re:It seems to depend.

[Anonymous Coward]

True. I think the point of the poster was that a story contrary to the tone and message of Tolkien, and clearly exploitative of him, would be shot down.

Rob

Re:It seems to depend.

[bsartist]

I think the point of the poster was that a story contrary to the tone and message of Tolkien, and clearly exploitative of him, would be shot down.

And my point was that Bored of the Rings is clearly quite contrary to Tolkien's message, and clearly exploitative - and yet, Tolkien's lawyers don't stand a snowball's chance in hell of shooting it down, because parody is completely legal.

Re:Yeah... quite a bit has been inspired by Tolken

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, but thats just Stirlings law:

"90% of everything is crap"

Re:Theft

[Anonymous Coward]

flamebait? *sigh* this is one of the funniest comments I have ever read on this site. so pathetic, that it almost makes me want to register an account in the hopes that one day I too will have points to distribute PROPERLY.

"Indie" films...

[goldspider]

I know "Indie" is a realy nice and trendy term, but is it really that hard to spell out the entire word "independent"?

Oh wait, this is Slashdot, nevermind. That's like asking the editors to check for dupes! :)

kazaa

[Anonymous Coward]

i should have it up on kazaa in about an hour or so :) myabe by then the servers will be ok anyways...

Peter Jackson inspired not Tolkien

[gad_zuki!]

Looks a lot more like they were taken with the movie adaptation of LOTR than the source material itself. A lot of things are "Tolkien inspired," but I think its more fair to call this LOTR movie inspired. The bits of CGI, the trailer, etc all scream, "We really liked Fellowship, lets make our own" instead of ,"Lets make a good Tolkien flick."

Afterall, if it didn't try to emulate the "look and feel" of LOTR it would just be another fantasy movie and probably never be posted on slashdot.

Re:Peter Jackson inspired not Tolkien

[Curugon]

Hey there, this is Curugon from Ancanar.com. I just wanted to point out the Ancanar was in production since early 1999, and was shot at the end of 2000 (a year before FOTR came out). So it would've been hard to be inspired by something we hadn't seen yet! I'd be happy to answer questions 1-on-1, my AIM is Curugon if you wish to drop me a line. Cheers, Curugon

so.

[Anonymous Coward]

does this mean that the MPAA boycott is on hold again, just like when the lord of the rings came out? oh, and star wars. oh, and when the new matrix arrives?

quite the revolution.

Re:so.

[riaa]

arrr! there be a way to boycott and still watch the films me boyo ;)

Re:Tolkein inspired ?

[caino59]

As a Christian (don't really like binding myself to a specific religion) and a Sporadic church goer (at least once a month more than just C&E)
Church isnt really a bad thing, but it is wherever any gather in his name..sorry, off on a tagent...back to the topic, dogma.

I think it's a great satire piece on religion (especially Catholicism)and is something funny. As far as Catholicism goes, I think the movie really shows the fallacies of not only that religion, but pretty much organized religion in general. Now, I'm not saying organized religion is a bad thing, as it does bring people together for a common good (for the most part) but it is subject to being something percieved by humans from a literary work that was written from a human standpoint. As anything else, it's open to interpretation, and yes, a lot of things in the bible can be bent in many many ways - My favorite being that God gave man all plants bearing seed (save the apple), for which they could use.

Ok, I'm way off topic now....

so go ahead and laugh..it's ok, honest! im sure God isn't going to smite you due to your finding humor in something just because it's a spoof on something sacred.

PS: I'm not trolling I swear...I guess the combination of my tendancy

Re:Yeah... quite a bit has been inspired by Tolken

[Wylfing]

And the vast majority of it sucks.

It's really unfortunate that an indie movie with such nice-looking production has such a crap-ass story. Apparently a guy is pissed off that the elves are immortal and he wants to go find them and burn their city down. Epic emotion that.

Re:Yeah... quite a bit has been inspired by Tolken

[hype7]

And the vast majority of it sucks.

case in point - that ancanar movie linked above. looks like a high school production.

what sucks about that is, when it fails, studios etc think it failed because it's fantasy, not because *it sucked*. ::sigh::

-- james

Dialog inspired by Yoda?

[SlashdotLemming]

"Why must mortal man be forbidden such?"
"...whilst you are granted life eternal!!"

And why do independent films always have ugly actors with weenie voices>

Conan O'Brien

[Anonymous Coward]

Where's his nerd impression when you need it?

nyes, inspired by tolkien! get it straight!

Or even better, a link that works

[spoco2]

Try this one instead.