Our friend C.E. High recently sent us an interesting take on making The Silmarillion into a trilogy of movies. While the odds of that happening are almost nil, it’s still fun to think about how it could be done. Which stories would make the best cinematic exposé in terms of both content and characters? What would have to be cut to keep the storyline cohesive? Have a look at C.E.’s essay, then let us know what your Silmarillion trilogy would look like!
The Silmarillion as a Movie Trilogy – by C.E. High
It’s an idea that has been capturing the minds of fans since the days of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and probably before that too; will Peter Jackson or anyone make The Silmarillion into a motion picture? After the success of The Lord of the Rings franchise, the natural question was “When will he make The Hobbit?” Ten years, eleven Oscars and a few green light hitches later, we have just been treated to the second Middle-earth film trilogy. Old fans are loving the opportunity to delve back into the world of Tolkien again, new fans are discovering it for the first time and at the end of it all, naturally (and hopefully), we still want more. Eyes have already been looking toward The Silmarillion – Tolkien’s posthumously released life’s work telling the story of the First and Second Ages of the world, the awakening of the Elves, Dwarves, and Humans, and the events that ultimately create the world that we know from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Continue reading “An essay: The Silmarillion as a trilogy”
If you happened to have some spare pocket change at a recent Sotheby’s auction, you could have picked up a first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit for a mere £ 137,000, or the equivalent of about $214, 370 U.S. dollars at today’s exchange rate. This first edition, which more than doubled the record for sales of The Hobbit book, was a very special one indeed: it included an inscription by the author in Old English to a former student, Katherine Kilbride.
“Tolkien inscribed only a “handful” of presentation copies of The Hobbit on its publication, said Sotheby’s, with CS Lewis also a recipient. Kilbride’s includes an inscription by the author in Old English, identified by John D Rateliff, author of The History of The Hobbit, as an extract from Tolkien’s The Lost Road. This time-travel story, in which the world of Númenor and Middle-earth were linked with the legends of many other times and peoples, was abandoned by the author incomplete.”
Read the full story, and see if you can decipher the inscription, at theguardian.com.
Actress Evangeline Lilly (Tauriel) will be participating in a live chat with fans tomorrow, Thursday, March 6, at 12:oopm PST, on Facebook. Lilly says she will be discussing “The Hobbit” films and her character, Tauriel. Based on past experiences with the fan-friendly actress, it should be a fun opportunity!
To participate, go to the Evangeline Lilly Official Facebook page.
Every fall, Los Angeles Ringers hold a fabulous Hall of Fire party that features all the things Hobbits, Elves, and Dwarves love most: food, drink, and fabulous costumes. The yard of a private residence in Glendora is transformed for the evening with pavilions representing the Shire, Rohan, and other regions of Middle-earth. You can visit Smaug’s Horde and Gollum’s pool, then relax with a drink at the Flaming Mumak Tavern.
Hosted by Tolkien Forever, the local smial of the Tolkien Society, “costumes are highly encouraged (though not required), and just like the Hall Of Fire from the book, people often bring games to play; sing and play music; and share the art and inspiration that Tolkien has given them.”
If you are in the Los Angeles area, join us this Saturday, October 19, at 6:00pm. Visit the event’s Facebook page and read the event details to RSVP and be sent the party address. The party is open to all, but it is being held at a private home, so you must email the host to receive directions. All ages are welcome, but please be responsible for your children. This a big backyard with a pool in the middle of it. Some parts of the yard are dimly lit. so please be aware of your surroundings. All party attendees must respect the wishes of the home owners at all times.
[Visit the event page] [Local to LA? Check out Tolkien Forever] [See photos from last year’s Hall of Fire]
Could the Disney theme parks be the next potential location for a Lord of the Rings-themed attraction? We reported back in January and also in February that tongues were wagging about a possible Middle-earth theme park partnership between Warner Brothers and Universal. There was even documentation that the Saul Zaentz Company had registered “several uses for Middle-earth properties that includes theme parks.” But those rumors seemed to have fizzled.
Now it seems that, “Disney and Warner Brothers have either signed or are very close to singing an agreement that will bring “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” movie-inspired areas to the Disney Parks.” WDW News Today is reporting that the partnership has been in the works since late last year and is now practically a fait accompli. The story claims that Disney may incorporate a Middle-earth attraction as part of an overhaul at the California Adventure park in Anaheim, CA. It also suggests that Disney may be looking for Hobbits to give them an edge over Hogwarts in order to compete with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter area at Universal Studio’s theme park.
WDW News today says, “As with any rumor, you should take this with a grain of salt until it is actually announced.” Is it likely that Disney would be able to overcome the hurdles that have hung up similar ventures? That they could overcome the long-held anti-Disney prejudice from within the Tolkien Estate itself? TORn staffer Demosthenes points out Tolkien’s Letter #13, where he famously insisted that he would “veto anything from or influenced by the Disney Studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing).”
Additionally, should the supposed negotiations be happening on the studio level, making an end-run around the Tolkien Estate, it seems unlikely that Warner Brothers would be keen to work together after Disney stole Oz out from under them when they released Oz the Great and Powerful earlier this year. “The Walt Disney Company did not own rights to the original 1939 The Wizard of Oz movie but moved stealthily to mount an audacious raid on the story and leave a rival studio flat-footed.”
But perhaps TheOneRing.net’s April Fools’ story this year was actually prescient and we will enter an era where Hobbit feet and Mouse ears can coexist in one big glorious theme park universe. Or maybe we’ll all just have to aspire to visit the real Hobbiton for a while longer.
[Read the original story here.]
Twenty-five minutes in to the film, I suddenly thought, “Wait, people said it takes this long to get used to the 48fpm and the 3D. I’ve only just noticed it – and it’s fantastic!” Perhaps there’s something wrong with my eyesight, but for me at Wellington’s Embassy at least, the colours glowed, the sparkling detail shone, and the screen showed a sumptuous feast of Middle-earth from the first frame. I was immersed in the reality from the first frame.
We were impressed by the clever way the introduction, which frames the story, wove this film neatly into the start of FOTR. You couldn’t help but smile fondly at Ian Holm’s cameo with Elijah Wood.
After a glance at the Bagginses in the Shire, we got our first glimpse of the dwarf kingdom, which was filled with details I think Tolkien would have loved. There was the lovely rhythm of Old English in lines such as (near as I can recall) “The dragon laid waste/ Death he dealt” – a cadence that Tolkien himself fell into readily enough. A nice touch was the rhythm of the countless hammers on the anvils as we first see the smithies of Erebor – for a second I’m sure I heard the unmistakable, frenetic anvil rhythm of Wagner’s Rheingold. I’ll have to see it again to check if I was imagining things.
Talking of sound and music, the sound could well win another Oscar for sound editing. The sound was as deeply 3D as the picture, and used to striking effect during the Riddles in the Dark scene. Just as you can imagine that, lost in the dark, one’s ears would magnify everything and prick the emotions unbearably.
The music disappointed me though. The cues for what we should feel were too obvious, and I wanted more new themes. It made sense to have an established sound-world for each place or character, but I kind of sighed internally when the angelic choir struck up again to signify Rivendell, or the music moved so obviously towards a restatement of the Ring theme or the Shire theme. It all felt a bit recycled, and unless some new themes or orchestration are introduced, I’m going to be heartily sick of them by the end of the third movie.
What’s with the rampant contrabass trombones in every film score these days, too? Lately they’ve become de riguer for every action scene. Great instrument, but you can have too much of a good thing.
Some critics have complained of the film’s slow introduction, but the action is worth the wait – to me the film felt very well paced indeed. You get a glimpse of Smaug right near the beginning – and like James Cameron’s Alien, a glimpse, combined with superb sound effects, works tremendously on the imagination.
The acting was as I expected it to be: Superb. I’m speaking as a person who would be enthralled by watching Sir Ian McKellen or Martin Freeman reading a laundry list. But Richard Armitage I haven’t seen before, but he was equally compelling. The writers’ choice was to keep the film tightly focused on their story arcs. Their evolving relationship is at the heart of the film, and if things are sacrificed, they are in favour of this. You will find a chapter of Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales very illuminating in this respect – Tolkien described the initial distrust between Gandalf, Thorin and Bilbo absolutely like this. The relationship between these three is the crucial dramatic arc of this story.
Some scenes are framed slightly differently than in the book: Bilbo leaving Bag End for instance, or his encounter with the trolls. They keep much of the dialogue we know and love, but the changes reinforce the central drama of Bilbo, who chooses to follow his Tookish side rather than being bullied into the quest by Gandalf. The troll scene was always a bit unbelievable when I read it – 13 dwarves taken unaware and popped into sacks? The film version solves that.
We get to see some of the dwarves in more detail than others. Balin, Fili and Kili stand out from the crowd a little in this film; over the course of three films no doubt we will see more of the others.
Radagast was a bit of a scene-stealer, and provided a necessary link between the Dwarves’ quest and the goings-on at Dol Guldur, with its hints of the larger story of the rise of Evil in Middle-earth. Sylvester McCoy had both charm and force as the dotty but spirited Brown Wizard.
You get to see a bit more of Saruman too. Gandalf is placating and mild before Saruman’s ruthless beaurocratic coldness. How much does he know under the surface? It’s an interesting scene as they fence with each other, Gandalf appearing to give way and offer no resistance – surely just a harmless old man. You get the sense of a game that has been played for a long time between these powers; Elrond and Galadriel are present too.
Riddles in the Dark was a tour de force by Freeman and Serkis. They acted the hell out of it, and it was fantastic. As others have said, the Oscars need to institute a new award, for best CGI character. In a film that relies so heavily on CGI, when it really counted, PJ fell back on good old theatre technique for scenes like this to give performances that were intimate, rehearsed and honed to perfection.
It was an excellent film and I can’t wait to go again.
We were lucky enough to go to the midnight screening at Wellington’s Embassy theatre. Fully half the audience were in costume, and the buzz of anticipation was incredible in this audience, which included many extras no doubt anxious to see whether they’d made the cut. People were entertained by having their photo taken with an orc in full Weta prosthetics, or just watching the parade of magnificent costumes. What a great crowd to see it with!
Our friend C.E. High recently sent us an interesting take on making The Silmarillion into a trilogy of movies. While the odds of that happening are almost nil, it’s still fun to think about how it could be done. Which stories would make the best cinematic exposé in terms of both content and characters? What would have to be cut to keep the storyline cohesive? Have a look at C.E.’s essay, then let us know what your Silmarillion trilogy would look like!
