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LoTR Fan Film — The Hunt For Gollum
stevedcc writes "This weekend sees the release of The Hunt for Gollum, a Lord of the Rings fan-film. It'll be available on the web for free. The BBC are running an article about the making of the film, with a budget of £3,000 (spent mostly on costumes and make-up). There were 160 contributors involved, many over the internet." I hope it lives up to the trailer (linked from the BBC story); the finished film is approximately 40 minutes.
memoryhole supplies links to YouTube for both the full trailer and a second trailer. Reader jowifi adds a link to NPR's story on the film, writing, "NPR discussed the legality of this type of creation with EFF lawyer Fred Von Lohman, who said it's not clear if such a production violates the copyright for Tolkien's work."
I'm a bit skeptical of the movie. I guess the reason I loved the movie series was the basis on the books (given it wasn't 100% accurately followed). With no great input from J.R.R., it will be interesting to see what direction this goes in.
Indeed. When Tolkein set about writing LotR his specific aim was to write an english folklore of our very own, since what we had was very disjointed compared to the strength of norse and roman myths. I think he would find the idea of one company 'owning' his work to be totally against the central idea behind his work. Myths are there to be told and retold.
Unfortunately, we can't ask him as he has been dead 36 years now. The idea that anyone might own the sole rights to something written by a man long dead is definitely a strange one to get your head around.
"If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever." - George Orwell, 1984
OTOH Tolkien was very protective of his copyrights during his own lifetime; he once complained that he couldn't copyright the name "Shadowfax", to keep it from being used as the name of a hydrofoil! (For anyone who has the published volume of his letters, the relevant one is #258.) And of course, there was his outrage at the Ace pirate edition ("Dealings one might expect of Saruman in his decay rather than from the defenders of the West".) But as you say, it's anyone's guess what he'd think about violation of his copyrights today, now that even "courtesy (at least) to living authors" is no longer at issue.
Wasn't a lot of Tolkein's work very similar to those Norse legends you mentioned ?
[citation not available, this is Slashdot, heresay will suffice]
Then again, its position as a major part of our cultural heritage is in quite some part because pirate publishers in the US printed it without Tolkien's permission, following a tradition of American respect for copyrights going back at least to Dickens; the first paperback edition was entirely unauthorised. And cheap.
As a result it became hugely popular over there in the 1960s - the reason for a generation of hippie children called things like Pippin Galadriel Moonchild, and graffiti all over the place saying FRODO LIVES. Without that it would likely be a much more obscure work to this day.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
And if "Dude, Where's My Car?" is any indication, Hollywood is screwed.
That is actually why Hollywood is screwed. Their idea of how to make films to fill in all the gaps involve the like of "Dude, Where's My Car." The thing is - a reasonably talented YouTube hack could probably do something just as good - even better. For less. And get the full rewards. With no Studio cut.
As a Cornishman, I can definitely say you're wrong there! :)
At least geographically and culturally, large bits of Middle Earth appear to spring directly from Britain. The Shire, for example, well, it IS the Westcountry.
cmd-q.co.uk - some sort of stupid fucking internet bullshit
I live in Birmingham(UK) and since tolkien was a local lad it seems that several local places gave the inspirations Eg i think that Moseley marsh inspired fangorn and there are a couple of large chimneys from the industrial revolution around there that were supposedly the origin of the Two Towers. Places were near where he lived for a time.
Not quite the same, but I am sort of glad we arent over run by Orkses, Urok-Hai and Nazgul here in the sunny (at least for the last 15 minutes) Midlands.