Amazon Is Making a 'Lord of the Rings' Prequel Series (techcrunch.com)

Amazon is making a Lord of the Rings prequel TV series for its Amazon Instant streaming service. The show, which already carries a multi-season commitment, will "explore new storylines preceding J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring." TechCrunch reports: It's possible the new series will mine the ponderous but rich Silmarillion for material, as fan fiction writers and lore aficionados have done for decades. The exploits of the Elf-Lords of old would make for a stirring epic, while many would thrill at the possibility of seeing Moria at the height of its grandeur. So much depends on the quality of the adaptation, though. Amazon has been pretty good about its Originals, but this will be an undertaking far beyond the scope of anything its studios and partners have yet attempted. Amazon is partnering with New Line Cinema, which of course was the film company behind the much-loved trilogy that began in 2001, and the Tolkien Estate, as well as HarperCollins for some reason. The deal also "includes a potential additional spin-off series," presumably if it's popular enough.

Comments

Silmarillion?

[93 Escort Wagon]

Personally, I loved reading it - but I'm not sure there's a huge television market of people wanting to watch stories where everyone eventually gets killed by the bad guys.

In comparison to The Silmarillion, the Game of Thrones is a feel-good epic.

Re:Silmarillion?

[taustin]

Personally, I'd rather see "Gollum: The Early Years." When he's hiding in the case, with no light. Hopefully, while he's going through a mute phase.

Because the black filler between the commercials sounds more interesting than this.

too many streaming platforms

[Joe_Dragon]

There are just to many too many streaming platforms out there. Much less a lot of HBO like ones that have shows on them I don't want to have to buy / deal with 4-5 different stores / ui's / apps / offline rules.

HBO
amazon prime
youtube red
CBS All Access
netflix
etc

Re:too many streaming platforms

[taustin]

And when that happens (and it will), I'll still have seen nothing.

Because I won't be bothering.

Re:Peter Jackson

[xevioso]

I'm sure Perter Jackson's ears perked up at this announcement. He loves to put a lot of bloat into his movies, which translates well to TV. A lot of the stuff in NZ is probably still intact and would make for great sets I'm sure. The problem is that if they were to work with him he would probably demand a lot of benefits for NZ; the Hobbit movies were *expensive* but they made a ton, so...

Guilermo Del Toro was supposed to do the Hobbit before PJ took over, so they might be able to get him involved...

Re:Just more Piling On

[mfh]

Hobbit was a tale of small town heroes adventuring away, whereas LotR was an epic tale of the plight of humanity against malicious and demonic adversaries. Huge scale difference.

With this prequel, they could potentially create something on par with LotR in terms of scale. However, few of the original LotR actors would be involved in the prequel... so the success or failure is going to depend upon the direction, the story and the casting. The LotR franchise (including The Hobbit) are on thin ice though. If there is a whiff of any garbage getting into this new series, it will lose its audience faster than Sauron losing everything with the loss of his ring finger.

One does not simply

[cyber-vandal]

Never mind...

Re:No one cares.

[meglon]

Don't knock it, Bored of the Rings was hilarious... although it was a better read in the late 70's than it would be now; it really didn't age well.

Isnt it...

[meglon]

And i always thought the name of the prequel to the Lord of the Rings was: The Hobbit.

Re:Peter Jackson

[wisnoskij]

After the travesty of the Hobbit. I would not wish for this.

Re:Just more Piling On

[MightyMartian]

If they're actually going to the Silmarillion, then that could be something. It would be quite something to see Tuor's journey to Nevrast and meeting with Ulmo, Lord of the Waters, or Ungoliant's poisoning of the Two Trees, and Nírnaeth Arnoediad, the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, would make any other filmed fantasy battle look like a game of Stratego in comparison. Go to the Second Age, a full recounting of the Fall of Numenor would make for an extraordinary sequence.

But probably it will just be about young Thorin traipsing about Middle Earth, or Bullroarer's licentious joinings with busty Hobbit lasses.

Re:Peter Jackson

[MitchDev]

Bloat... LotR turned three dense books into three movies.

The Hobbit turned one smallish book into three over-drawn-out slogs....

Re:Peter Jackson

[MBGMorden]

Stretching it too thin. The Hobbit would have been OK as two movies, and could probably have been done in one There wasn't enough source material for three.

Also, for a lot of people whose primary exposure to LOTR was through the original movies, the Hobbit changed certain aesthetics. IE, the dwarves had a markedly different style in The Hobbit. The goblins also were very, very different, and they used a good deal more CGI in The Hobbit versus LOTR.

Plus - and this is somewhat the "fault" of the source material - The Hobbit just came off as more childish. That makes sense - The Hobbit book came first and was intended for a younger audience. Tolkein wrote The LOTR afterwards and just decided to continue on with that story but with a more mature theme intended for a slightly older audience.

Re:Just more Piling On

[MBGMorden]

Depends. TV as a medium has shifted DRAMATICALLY in the last few decades.

If it's 1980's style "self contained story every episode" type TV then yeah, it'll be stupid. If it's the more modern format of it essentially just being one huge story chopped into 1-hour long chunks then that will work fine.