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Peter Jackson Not Pleased EA Experience
The New York Times reports in an article about the King Kong movie based game that director Peter Jackson wasn't entirely happy with his EA dealings. From the article: "Mr. Jackson, said close associates, chafed at his dealings with the industry heavyweight, Electronic Arts, during the making of the Lord of the Rings games. 'Electronic Arts was not interested in input from the filmmaker,' but later marketed the games as if he were closely involved, said Ken Kamins, Mr. Jackson's manager."
It's a good article, but come on, enough with the obligatory EA bashing.
Jackson doesn't get that badge...but he DOES get the badge for that particular vision of LOTR. It was HIS images and look and feel EA was using. If they didn't want his input, they should have brought in their own art directors and designers. It's not something he could have just taken his name off of when the entire thing looks like his movies.
Something to think about perhaps?
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
But where does Jackson get the "Only Official way to interpet LOTR" badge?
If they were making games based directly on the books, then yeah, there'd be no reason to get Peter Jackson involved unless they wanted to. But they made games based on his movies.
As for "he could have easily sent lawyers" -- he just as easily chose to pick his battles and vote with his wallet instead (by choosing another company the next time). Seriously, do *you* sue every business that does something you don't like? Or do you just file a complaint and take your business elsewhere?
So 10 minutes of some stupid video game excerpt was more important than explaining how Isildur died.
Stuff like that was what worried me years ago when I first heard about the LOTR movies.
Not that they would do this, but that they' WOULDN'T. LOTR, as it's set in the books, isn't very theatrical. There's a lot of walking. A lot of discussion and revisiting of old topics, lots historical background, lots of closure to plot lines lines that didn't actually play a part in the trilogy, some of which don't make complete sense unless you also read the Silmarillion or the Hobbit. There were lots of bits of minor excitement leading to entire chapters - and Tolkein seems to have liked long chapters - of talking and singing and carrying on (The Tom Bombadil stretch is a good example), which could be skipped without damaging the major plot thread.
That works in books. It works very well in books, in fact. Just not in movies. With a movie, you have that invisible clock ticking - the LOTR movies were pushing the limits of how long I wanted to sit in a cramped, poorly cleaned theater chair pondering what caused the strange discoloration on the back of the seat in front of me.
A lot of the backstory had to get dropped. Look at Serenity: One of it's main weaknesses is that it's an ending, not a beginning. People who didn't watch Firefly tend to be lost. LOTR had to be a beginning. It was pulling the series off the shelves of nerds and putting it in front of the entire world.
Movies also have to end on a BIG finish. I liked the Scouring of the Shire, it was an important part of the books, but it wasn't that exciting compared to the apocalyptic battle that just finished. I've seen movies that end like that, and I find myself wondering more when it'll be done so I can go pee than what's actually happening.
He sure did "chop the LOTR."
All the way from an unfilmable series of good books to a series of great films.
The pieces of the book that were chopped were sometimes good (Glorfindel), sometimes bad (Bombadil) but in the end not central to the story. I'd have loved the Scouring of the Shire as well, but that's the way it is.
It wasn't the absolutely perfect film trilogy it could have been, but it was pretty damn close. Using the books as screenplays would have turned out a horrible, unwatchable but incredibly accurate series of about six films. And the handful of fans that watched the final film would have wondered why the cinemas were so empty.
This may be one of those times when you have to just accept that a director like Jackson knows what he's doing better than some random guy somewhere on the Internet.
EA manager: We are making a fighting game.
EA marketing: Let's use Peter Jackson's name and the LOTR name.
EA dev: We have this D quality fighting game for 2 years, we just need to slap on a label.
EA marketing: Mr Jackson please sign here for $$$ and direct credit to the game.
Peter Jackson: Great. Now I think the environment should....
EA manager: STFU. Let's put this game on the shelf asap.