Middle Earth Ranger Forum

I just recently saw the third installment of the Hobbit....and while many of my friends found it lacking I thought it was very enjoyable and commend Mr. Jackson for the gargantuan effort of bringing Tolkien's works to the screen. I have also been playing SHADOW OF MORDOR and find that story entertaining as well.

What do you think is the future of Middle earth in cinema? Do you think it is possible to make a good movie based in Middle Earth, that is not based on a Tolkien book?

I am look forward to reading the thoughts of my ranger brothers,
RHG

I don't know how much of a future Middle Earth has...Christopher Tolkien has said he's not going to grant any more licenses or rights to his fathers' materials. That kind of limits things, I think, unless he changes his mind.

Eledhwen

My personal opinion is that the atrocity that Peter Jackson calls the Hobbit leaves the story open to someone to make a good movie version sometime in the future.

With the propensity that Hollywood has for the remake/reimagining, I am sure we are looking at LOTR starring Jayden Smith somewhere around 2020.

All kidding aside (we hope!) I think that any other tales of Middle-earth will have to be told by us, the fans. We are lucky enough to have 8 ME films (3 Hobbit films, Born of Hope, The Hunt for Gollum, and 3 LOTR films) two of those being fan led efforts that took the Appendices and fleshed out stories that are little more than footnotes in the text. For our part, we have a whole Age to play with, where the brave Rangers of the North kept evil at bay, and the Rangers of the South could see evil on their very doorstep. I guess we will have to pick up our digital devices and start recording for ourselves!

Ken

I too have been playing shadow of Mordor and while enjoyable and so were the Hobbit films as entertainment rather then interpretation I do not think we'll see anything else until the rights pass to someone else and I sadly imagine star wars styled spin offs with new characters and tie ins like shadow of mordor does.....that game could have been a movie almost or a tv series. Sometimes though it's best to let things pass into the west and appreciate what we had/ have

I believe the future of Middle Earth cinema rests on Indy films, at least for the next 20 years.

It would be nice if it got the Game of Thrones or Band of Brothers treatment by someone like HBO of AMC.

That could definitely be cool. I'm glad that big cable networks at least are learning the merits of picking up novels and long-running novel series as material for their shows. We also seem to be getting something of a mini-series renaissance, which is nice. I've always felt that a mini-series (say maybe one or two seasons long, maximum) is one of the best ways to tell a story on film. You don't have to cram everything into two or three hours, but you don't have to spread it out over ten seasons either.

Still, I'm fairly happy with what we've got - especially if/when someone really nails that whole "Hobbit Ultimate Fan Edit" thing.

especially if/when someone really nails that whole "Hobbit Ultimate Fan Edit" thing.

Oh heavens please. That's the one I'm really waiting for.
Most of PJ's team has a great design sense, good budget, and good actors (weakest part of most fan edits I think).
With a decent editor, PJ's Hobbit could rock.

That's Jackson's biggest problem: editing. As-in, he doesn't know how to do it.

He's gotten to the point that no one will say no to him, I guess he has become Lucasified...sad, really. Looking forward to the fan-edit!

Ken

I agree with Pete that the future will only be from the indie front. The differences between the Tolkien estate and PJ & the studios, have created such an unfavorable climate for future developments. From some reports I have heard, the Tolkien estate have become more protective and aggressive with challenging perceived copyright & trademark issues.

Yeah the estate will no longer release rights to anything. There's plenty of video games for consoles and PC, 6 feature films and at least 2 indie films. The estate wants people to go back to the books I think, there's no deluding of the vision there.

Something to note, just because the Tolkien estate is not heppy with PJ and is currently saying they wont grant future movie rights does not mean that in say 5 years if some great film maker comes to them with a well layed out film script for the Hobbit that the Tolkien estate wont grant the rights then. Yes they feel like PJ burnt them with his destruction of the Hobbit, however if they see a chance to make the Hobbit right I am pretty sure they will grant the rights.

And this is the one good thing about PJ's so called Hobbit, he did it so badly that it does really leave it open to be done again with no real competition. I can actually see it possible that a Hobbit reboot could be made in the near future.

I'm still waiting for a Starship Troopers re-boot, so I won't hold my breath for a Hobbit one.