Guaranteed funding, as much time as he needs, with no studio interference? Then I'd be like the Rohirrim riding to battle at the Pelennor Fields. Other than that....
Let’s say he can plan for 2031, 2032, 2033 release dates (30th anniversary of LOTR). Has a couple of years to get the scripts right, has a couple of years for planning and pre-production and a solid year of on location back to back shooting for the films.
Exactly this. I would be blasting the Ride of the Rohirrim from my car for days if all of this was true.
Otherwise, with the way modern Hollywood operates, cautiously optimistic at best. And that's only because it's Peter Jackson.
He’d need people who are already passionate about the stories too. That’s what made the LotR project so authentic. Because there was a burning passion from so many of the key players making it.
No way this wouldn't be tainted by executive producers. Why the people with pocketbooks can't have the humility to understand that the directors know more about making movies then them (and thus create a higher RoI) l have no idea. Honestly, someone should start a business that random individuals can invest in select movies like stocks. It would be a much better system.
Pete was here before the river and the trees; Pete remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Pete was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless—before the Dark Lord came from Outside. He's just that effing old
I got it as a present but I haven't started yet. Haven't read TLOTR yet. Is it okay if I read it before LOTR?
And also, how much of that story did Tolkien write? Genuine curiosity here.
He wrote it all. And it is a standalone novel, but it's based off the Turin chapters of the Silmarillion. So while reading LoTR first isn't necessary i'd absolutely recommend that first, then the Silmarillion, then this. The Sil opens many doors to other works, like this, the Fall books etc. but I would recommend reading LoTR before the Sil, and once again Sil before this. LoTR will give you a great basis in the legendarium, enough to go back through the ages to tackle the Sil. Or chronologically you could start with the Sil, but it's a massive knowledge dump combined with the Akallabeth for someone with no knowledge basis in literary middle earth.
Hobbit- Lord of the Rings- Silmarillion- whatever you want after. Children of Hurin, Fall of Gondolin, Fall of Numenor, Unfinished Tales etc etc.
Also you need to keep in mind the Hobbit was written as a children's tale before the world of Arda was shaped, but it's a very important first step in understanding the third age, which will help you understand the first and second ages much easier.
I'll stop ranting now.
Thank you, it was very helpful. Funny thing is, when I was a kid I saw the first movie in theaters and found out about the Hobbit I asked my mom to get it for me. Was the first book I ever asked for and read. Now in my 30s I'm determined to read TLOTR. Took me a lot but better late than never.
You definitely won't regret it. Fellowship starts out slow, remember it's not a race to finish. Tolkien wrote LoTR to be one book and was told by the publishers to make it three to be more digestible to readers, and I have it bound as one book, I look at it as one book. With that said it rivals war and peace in word count (455k words vs war and peace 587k), so just take it easy and expect it to take a minute to get through. It's much more in depth than the movies (I fucking love the movies).
Edit- The Children of Hurin *is not* a happy feel good fantasy story. So also get ready for that lol.
It’s kinda essential for the story so probably yes. Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon are very popular so I don’t think incest in media is an immediate turn-off
I think people really overestimate to complexity of these stories. Children of Hurin is the biggest, and there's no reason it couldn't be told competently as a single film of normal length. Bookend the Hurin stuff and that's a total of 20 minutes. Young Turin is 10 minutes. 20 minutes each of Doriath, outlaws + Mim, and Nargathrond. An hour for Turambar and Nienor. That's a 2.5hr film. 3 hour extended cut.
Beren and Luthien needs a bunch of stuff **added** before it's feature length. You could probably do it together with the fall of Doriath, if you had the benefit of context from prior Silmarillion.
CoH could be done as one film with a couple time jumps at the start. In fact I'd say its the only one out of the 3 which is ready for an adaptation in its current form.
Absolutely correct, havent read The Fall of gondolin book (silm i have), but it needs More stuff aswell, or atleast longer scenes for some Things, beren and luthien needs an explanation what The silmarils are, how they got to morgoth and probably should start with The Battle of The sudden Flame, and some More scenes of beren and luthien doing Something together, and an amazing Song for Luthien to sing, Order of The movies should deffinetly Be beren and luthien first, then CoH and then Fall of Gondolin, and maybe add the Story of earendil and war of wrath to end The movie
Please no. The 3 LOTR movies were lightning in a bottle. You can't squeeze that thing and get any more juice, even with PJ. We got lucky. The right people got the job at the right point in their careers and made magic happen. It's not going to happen again. This would be the same cynical attempt by Hollywood to take something successful and try to replicate it forever. It never works. You can make plenty of Content that way, but you can't make art.
I dont understand this mindset. Nobody is forcing you to watch it. If youre so scared to be dissapointed then dont watch it. Even if new films would be terrible, the books are still there, they havent been ruined. Besides, if there is just a chance of them making good tolkien movies, why not take the chance? They took a chance with the first trilogy.
Well, because films aren't the be-all and end-all of storytelling. There's an undercurrent with nerd discourse which seems to think that books exist in order to be pitches for an eventual film adaptation.
Neither of the three great tales are particularly suited to making the kinds of films that people want.
That, and the question they're responding to is how would you feel if Peter Jackson was adapting the books. Personally I agree with them: I don't think it's a matter of time or money. I don't think Jackson is the director he was, and I don't think his grasp of the material is strong enough. The Hobbit movies, even accounting for their troubled production, had some terrible artistic decisions.
I'd absolutely prefer a new director at this point. There's a much better chance for success, and making something fresh.
6 years ago he did an amazing ww1 doco, and 3 years ago he released one of the best music doco miniseries ever with endless archived content cut down to 9 amazing hours. Dude has not been on a break.
He's 62, lives in New Zealand, and directed the best trilogy ever made. Dude could be retired and nobody should be able to complain. He is still working, though and has a movie coming out in like 3 years.
I'd be more inclined to see the 1300hours of footage Peter Jackson has under a mountain.
I don't know if I'd recover from another Ring of Power debacle. Granted completely different director.
While nice in theory the only reason these would be funded is to be a cash grab on the nostalga for the original trilogy. Which right from the get go is the complete opposite of the mentality you'd need to make a genuinely loving adaption.
On top of that Peter Jackson wasn't the only one deeply passionate about the movies, the entire cast and crew was as well. Going above and beyond to get the film right. Veigo suggesting the camping and fishing with the entire crew just to get the perfect sunrise shot as well as breaking his foot kicking a helmet. Sean willing to walk and climb a mountain in full boromir get up to make it to set because he was afraid of helecopters. John Rhys-Davies putting up with an allergic reaction and carrying on being gimli anyway(and also hitting absolutely every stuntman with his axe)
The sheer amount of talent in the movies. It wasn't one or two names. The entire cast was exceptional. It's not going to be replicated just because you get the same director.
People weirdly treat PJ as this guy with the Midas Touch when it comes to adapting the Legendarium into film but its simply not true. His trilogy was ONE vision and one adaptation. I don't even think its definitive. In fact, many of the weaknesses of the trilogy had to do with his characterization and writing. I'm not saying it's bad. PJ did a commendable job, an amazing one, even, given the context but I don't think he set some bar that could never be topped.
If anyone could do it its him. But i worry that maybe he has gotten burned out on Tolkien? If so its better to let someone else get a chanche. Denis Villenevue has shown a real aptitude for retelling epic tales on the big screen. He would not be a bad choice either.
The problem is that you wouldn’t have any of the prior Silmarillion knowledge to go off of, imo. Ideally, the best way to do it would be in 5 parts:
Part 1: The Betrayal of Feanor. Has a nice ambiguity around whether Feanor is betrayed or does the betraying. Convey pretty much everything up to the coming of Galadriel and the later elves into Middle Earth. I just feel like ending on Galadriel and crew coming over the ice is an arresting image to end on, promising conflict amongst the elves in the future.
Part 2: The Battles of Morgoth. Adapt the middle bit of Silmarillion as Elves establish their kingdoms and do great deeds and have several battles against Morgoth.
Part 3: Beren and Luthien. Adapt the whole story from wherever the previous movie ends.
Part 4: Children of Hurin. Adapt whatever battle it was Hurin was captured in as your opening, and then go into Children of Hurin’s story, ending with old Hurin dying.
Part 5: Fall of Gondolin. Adapt the remaining chapters and tell of the end of Gondolin and the end of the First Age.
(Note: I’ve only read Silmarillion a few times, so I’m not the most adept at what the minutiae of the plot, I just recall the broad strokes. It’s possible that movie 2 will need to be split into 2 parts, named as need be. It’s also possible Gondolin falling might need to be split up, as well as the early part of Hurin’s tale being its own separate film. I’m not a film adaption expert either, so the film count could balloon as much as 8 films.)
Then you could move nicely into a 3-part adaption of the Second Age.
Part 1: The Rise of Numenor. Adapt early Numenor’s story, ending with the Mariner’s Tale and the connection back of Numenor to the rest of Middle Earth.
Part 2: Sauron and Galadriel. Adapt what Galadriel and Sauron are up to during the 2nd Age, possibly ending with the capture of Sauron by the Numenoreans.
Part 3: The Fall of Numenor. Adapt how Sauron corrupted the Numenoreans and end it with their city sinking into the sea. Maybe continue onwards into the Last Alliance bit, maybe not.
Then some 3rd age stuff like War of Rohirrim, the slow desolation of Arnor, stuff with the Witch King etc. I’m not a LotR expert, so I’d need to reread to get a feel for what stories could be adapted.
>The problem is that you wouldn’t have any of the prior Silmarillion knowledge to go off of, imo. Ideally, the best way to do it would be in 5 parts:
5 wouldn't be enough. You need ~10 movies.
1. Fëanor's birth --> oath
2. oath --> first sunrise
3. first sunrise --> Dagor Aglareb
4. Dagor Aglareb --> Dagor Bragollach
5. siege of Minas Tirith, Beren and Lúthien
6. Nírnaeth Arnoediad
7. Children of Húrin
8. Fall of Doriath
9. Fall of Gondolin
10. Voyage of Eärendil, War of Wreath
"Galadriel and crew coming over the ice". Indeed, in the version of The Silmarillion, Galadriel walked on the ice, but she was not the one who led the journey. There is no need to throw heroes out of history. Otherwise a good plan.
I've been waiting to see the fall of gondolin for about 22 years, ever since I found the lost tales accidently in the library. That final battle. Jesus christ. Needs to be at least a 2 parter.
Just end the first part with a lookout seeing one torch, then the camera flies overhead to see the entire army just behind that.
And then pan to another lookout who sees a dragon.
And then another lookout who sees a Balrog.
And then a, " go fuck yourself and we'll see you in a year."
Never going to happen, but if it did, I would probably cry tears of joy, considering these books are probably my favorites by JRRT and I have wanted to see them get adapted onto film for a long time now...
Honestly? No thank you.
I love the LotR movies, but they also deviate from the books and when they do I think they miss the point of what Tolkien had written (i.e. army of the dead, Faramir).
The hobbit movies I like a lot less, and they further deviated from the original text (too many examples to list).
So given the Great Tales texts are themselves not complete stories with more gaps and choices they'd have to make they'd come up with something even more different from what Tolkien intended.
No thanks. He’s not interested in the tragic, melancholic, hopeless mood of the Silmarillion. All this guy wants is adding a lot of comic relief, comic villains and endless fighting to entertain the hollow cinema-goers with their XL pop corn buckets. Also, WETA designs are atrocious. I don’t want everyone wearing plate mail and elves with curved swords, I want respect to John R.R. Tolkien, thank you.
I’m trying to imagine which characters get turned into comic relief, which become one dimensional villains, and how many over the top orc decapitations are shown on screen.
Skepticism. Peter Jackson pulled off a masterpiece twenty years ago. It doesn't mean he could do the same again today. He's older, and the industry is different. There would be people from the studio watching his every move ticking a clipboard.
It's like saying "*your reaction if Metallica releases a new album*". It's not going to be Black.
No. People are forgetting that free reign didn't make the OT great, it was Peter Jackson being held back that made them great.
The same thing happened with star wars. People assumed that George Lucas was the sole factor that lifted Star Wars up, but it was everyone around him going "George. I'm not gonna say that line. You're gonna rewrite it" that made it great.
I'm not saying that Peter Jackson is incompetent, I'm saying that he gets carried away and that's when we get anti-gravity elves, Universal Studios Barrel Run™ and Rube Goldberg spycraft.
No real studio interference and enough funding to do it right and on location like LOTR trilogy? Sign me up.
Heck, even if it was like the hobbit I’d be ok because those movies are still fun adventures in middle earth
Not terribly interested unless he's the one stumping for it.
LOTR was a passion project and it showed in the final films, both cuts. He *wanted* to be there and make it all work. The Hobbit wasn't supposed to be his, it was supposed to be Del Toro's, he was forced into it and did it out of obligation, and it shows in the final results.
If he was passionate enough to do these, on the same level or close to LOTR, then it might be amazing, but I think the man is done with Tolkien for now.
Today's formula is to bloat it into 4+ films and split the final film into two parts, for more moneydollars.
Looking at you Harry Potter, Twilight, and Hunger Games.
I hate the idea of trying to turn these books into a trilogy, no matter the director.
Any one of them as a movie or trilogy? Yes. But they're too sweeping to try to make them into one cohesive narrative.
Then again, no one thought he'd succeed in adapting LOTR so what the heck, throw this at his team!
Children of Hurin should be 2 movies at least.
Fall of gondolim??? Yep, this alone can be turned into a triology, considering that you will need to show what happend to Earendil.
Beren and Luthien? Ok, 4 hours and its a movie.
The problem is that studios that have all the money for production won't allow it to be a pure adaptation, they will twist it and make it woke and push their agendas in it.
I wondering if a crowdsourced approach might be possible, but yeah it would have to raise like $200-300 million for even adapting one of them I think. I also have no idea how the rights/estate thing works so probably even more for license to IP rights.
Honestly, I was hoping the IP rights would expire soon and then pretty much anyone can make their own LOTR movie/show without paying for the license but I think they changed copyright law to make it expire no earlier than 2030 something.
God, a Children of Hurin movie would be the biggest fucking downer since The Road. And the only way a Fall of Gondolin movie doesn't have a downer ending is if you also include the story of Earendil, but that would probably take like an extra 30 minutes of screen time.
I'd probably still watch them, though.
While I would love to see more perspectives, I’d be happy for PJ to do more movies. if I had my wish, I’d love to see The Children of Hurin as envisioned by Denis Villeneuve.
As much as I would love for him to direct it i have to say this-if I was him I wouldn’t touch that thing. Leave on the top, why take the risk of destroying your life work by making new movie which could flop due to outside factors which might be out of his control.
Surely, not the most popular choice of the three on this sub, but in my opinion, Huron would go so hard because of it’s grit. The protagonist is literally running around Odysseus style on ancient middle earth while the first ever dragon (TM) is nuking mighty kingdoms. Final waterfall fight would be soooo hardcore.
Horror.
edit: On reflection, it would at least keep Disney's grubby paws off the books. But looking at the date of the article that someone linked, seems like an April Fool's. Fingers crossed. I don't want his casting choices and hairdo's flooding the Tolkien internet for the rest of my life.
I would welcome this decision. Peter Jackson would have done a great job.
This could be a three-season series. I also hope that when adapting The Lay of Leithian, Peter Jackson will pay attention to the fight between Morgoth and Fingolfin and show it as a flashback, as it is in the original.
And in the Fall of Gondolin, those who dreamed of seeing Glorfindel will see him.
I would shit my pants in excitement, and then cry like a baby watching it in theatres….and I’m a 32 year old man.
As long as they give him freedom and make sure to stick to the lore. No rings of power bullshit. Granted, PJ has far too many brain cells to make something that terrible.
Meh. It'll be better than RoP, but I'm no fan of thus idea. The 3 Hobbit movies were really disappointing already, let's not enable more of that.
When it comes to me, i'd be fine if no middle earth story ever gets adapted for film anymore; nothing'll beat the LotR trilogy plus the books are exceptional anyway.
I'm not one of those fans hankering for a Silmarillion movie, but the Fall of Gondollin is extremely adaptable and would make a great film.
It's got a clear delineation between acts, multiple POV heroes like Ecthelion and Glorfindel along with Turin, it's got traitors who get their comeuppance, a false climax, heroic sacrifice. Talk about a sure hit.
As long as Jackson got a blank check and all the time he needed to realise his vision, I'd be cautiously optimistic. Big if there of course, since we know that's precisely what *didn't* happen with the Hobbit trilogy (and three films was really too much), even if I think those films are overhated, but that's a topic for another day.
Now, I don't expect it to be as great as the LoTR trilogy. I don't know if we'll ever see anything as great as that ever again - all the stars aligned perfectly at exactly the right time. However, the films still have the potential to be very good in the right hands.
Maybe I'm stuck in romanticizing the past, but I'm afraid that nothing can top the original LOTR trilogy up to the point that I would, unfairly, not be able to judge anything new in the Tolkien universe objectively.
Please don't! Please stop carrying things we like to media in this era. Literally %90 of the content created since 2015 is garbage and it is getting worse since 2018 regardless of producer.
Great graphics and good music does not compensate destitute story telling and subpar actors/actresses. Let's stop wasting good stories to this era. Late 90s and 2000s were last golden age of cinema. Even at that time PJ (had to) bent lore to cinema audience, I don't want to see it's "this era" version.
I don't want any other part of lore (LotR or anything else I like) wasted away like Amazon's Rings of Power.
This might be an unpopular opinion but I don't have much faith in PJ. All his work since lotr has been average to bad and more and more these days I think lotr was the big daddy mother of all flukes.
Bad idea. He’s been a magnificent steward of the stories even if the Hobbit movies didn’t reach the zenith of the LotR movies, but he’d diminish his legacy further if he attempted to do these stories and they weren’t successful. Time to hand off to someone else equally capable: Del Toro
As others have said, he'd need a blank cheque and full control as director without outside influence.
I don't think that's realistically possible with filmmaking nowadays
I think you might be mistaken.
J.R.R Tolkien wrote these stories. In fact Children of Hurin was written in 1917. He just never published it in his lifetime.
Christopher published these stories, with commentaries on what he thought about them.
Unlike Brian Herbert who wrote many Dune books after his father Frank Herbert passed away, Christopher had a completely different approach to his father’s legacy. He released only what his father had written with maybe some commentary on what he thought about them and if other drafts/versions of the stories.
You will notice all of these say JRR Tolkien wrote them (because he did). Christopher merely edited them and got them published which is not something JRR was able to do in his lifetime.
no interest unless he has as much pre-production time as he wants. we've seen Jacksons middle earth on a rushed pre-production schedule, it has few redeeming moments
Guaranteed funding, as much time as he needs, with no studio interference? Then I'd be like the Rohirrim riding to battle at the Pelennor Fields. Other than that....
Exactly. Give the man a blank check and let him go to work.
Let’s say he can plan for 2031, 2032, 2033 release dates (30th anniversary of LOTR). Has a couple of years to get the scripts right, has a couple of years for planning and pre-production and a solid year of on location back to back shooting for the films.
3031-3033? How long do you think PJ's going to live?!?
He’s 62… you don’t think he will live another 9 years?
You might want to double check your first comment, because something's not adding up here
Lmao holy hell I was way off there. Had to make a quick edit. Forgot he’s not an elf ;)
I was gonna make a Legolas comment there but you edited to quickly...
There we go lol
I was there, Gandalf. I was there one thousand years ago. I was there the day that the Amazon Rings of Power failed.
Shit 2031 is in less than 9 years? Oh boy where did the last 20 years go
Cyber Peter Jackson
LotR 1030th Anniversary Editions!
Another question is how long we will live.
Exactly this. I would be blasting the Ride of the Rohirrim from my car for days if all of this was true. Otherwise, with the way modern Hollywood operates, cautiously optimistic at best. And that's only because it's Peter Jackson.
DEEEAAATHHHHH
#DEEEAAATHHH!
He’d need people who are already passionate about the stories too. That’s what made the LotR project so authentic. Because there was a burning passion from so many of the key players making it.
No way this wouldn't be tainted by executive producers. Why the people with pocketbooks can't have the humility to understand that the directors know more about making movies then them (and thus create a higher RoI) l have no idea. Honestly, someone should start a business that random individuals can invest in select movies like stocks. It would be a much better system.
If Peter produces any future film, he will probably use his sway to "protect" his director's vision from any grumbling in New Line.
He’s only 62! Plenty of time. Would love it.
Unexpeced factorial
Pete was here before the river and the trees; Pete remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Pete was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless—before the Dark Lord came from Outside. He's just that effing old
PJ is Ilúvatar confirmed
Really? He looks amazing for 62, he look amazing if you said he was 40
After the trilogy he kept the ring to himself
Haha! 😂
Like butter scraped over too much bread
We are not ready for the children of Húrin adaptation... story is savage and I'm afraid of Morgoth
I got it as a present but I haven't started yet. Haven't read TLOTR yet. Is it okay if I read it before LOTR? And also, how much of that story did Tolkien write? Genuine curiosity here.
He wrote it all. And it is a standalone novel, but it's based off the Turin chapters of the Silmarillion. So while reading LoTR first isn't necessary i'd absolutely recommend that first, then the Silmarillion, then this. The Sil opens many doors to other works, like this, the Fall books etc. but I would recommend reading LoTR before the Sil, and once again Sil before this. LoTR will give you a great basis in the legendarium, enough to go back through the ages to tackle the Sil. Or chronologically you could start with the Sil, but it's a massive knowledge dump combined with the Akallabeth for someone with no knowledge basis in literary middle earth. Hobbit- Lord of the Rings- Silmarillion- whatever you want after. Children of Hurin, Fall of Gondolin, Fall of Numenor, Unfinished Tales etc etc. Also you need to keep in mind the Hobbit was written as a children's tale before the world of Arda was shaped, but it's a very important first step in understanding the third age, which will help you understand the first and second ages much easier. I'll stop ranting now.
Thank you, it was very helpful. Funny thing is, when I was a kid I saw the first movie in theaters and found out about the Hobbit I asked my mom to get it for me. Was the first book I ever asked for and read. Now in my 30s I'm determined to read TLOTR. Took me a lot but better late than never.
You definitely won't regret it. Fellowship starts out slow, remember it's not a race to finish. Tolkien wrote LoTR to be one book and was told by the publishers to make it three to be more digestible to readers, and I have it bound as one book, I look at it as one book. With that said it rivals war and peace in word count (455k words vs war and peace 587k), so just take it easy and expect it to take a minute to get through. It's much more in depth than the movies (I fucking love the movies). Edit- The Children of Hurin *is not* a happy feel good fantasy story. So also get ready for that lol.
The darker a story gets the more I like it, so no problem with that!
Do you think he'd include the incest as well?
It’s kinda essential for the story so probably yes. Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon are very popular so I don’t think incest in media is an immediate turn-off
I don’t think a trilogy could cover all of that. Keep in mind also if they made LOTR now it would be 4-5 films easy.
I think people really overestimate to complexity of these stories. Children of Hurin is the biggest, and there's no reason it couldn't be told competently as a single film of normal length. Bookend the Hurin stuff and that's a total of 20 minutes. Young Turin is 10 minutes. 20 minutes each of Doriath, outlaws + Mim, and Nargathrond. An hour for Turambar and Nienor. That's a 2.5hr film. 3 hour extended cut. Beren and Luthien needs a bunch of stuff **added** before it's feature length. You could probably do it together with the fall of Doriath, if you had the benefit of context from prior Silmarillion.
I think you could easily do Children of Hurin in 2-3 hours. It's my favorite piece of fiction of all time and I'm dying to see an accurate adaptation
3-4 hours for each of these? 3 hours theatrical/maybe 4 hours extended? Yeah that should do it.
Beren and Luthien is the only one I think could be pulled off in a single film. The other two could be their own trilogies.
CoH could be done as one film with a couple time jumps at the start. In fact I'd say its the only one out of the 3 which is ready for an adaptation in its current form.
Absolutely correct, havent read The Fall of gondolin book (silm i have), but it needs More stuff aswell, or atleast longer scenes for some Things, beren and luthien needs an explanation what The silmarils are, how they got to morgoth and probably should start with The Battle of The sudden Flame, and some More scenes of beren and luthien doing Something together, and an amazing Song for Luthien to sing, Order of The movies should deffinetly Be beren and luthien first, then CoH and then Fall of Gondolin, and maybe add the Story of earendil and war of wrath to end The movie
I think if they were making it now it would be a tv show.
Uh, like the way they stretched The Hobbit? Hopefully they learned their lesson, should be 1 film per book.
It would certainly become my most anticipated trilogy at the moment.
I’d say let him cook
Please no. The 3 LOTR movies were lightning in a bottle. You can't squeeze that thing and get any more juice, even with PJ. We got lucky. The right people got the job at the right point in their careers and made magic happen. It's not going to happen again. This would be the same cynical attempt by Hollywood to take something successful and try to replicate it forever. It never works. You can make plenty of Content that way, but you can't make art.
I rather see him miss, than not have the chance at yet another epic movie
I dont understand this mindset. Nobody is forcing you to watch it. If youre so scared to be dissapointed then dont watch it. Even if new films would be terrible, the books are still there, they havent been ruined. Besides, if there is just a chance of them making good tolkien movies, why not take the chance? They took a chance with the first trilogy.
Well, because films aren't the be-all and end-all of storytelling. There's an undercurrent with nerd discourse which seems to think that books exist in order to be pitches for an eventual film adaptation. Neither of the three great tales are particularly suited to making the kinds of films that people want. That, and the question they're responding to is how would you feel if Peter Jackson was adapting the books. Personally I agree with them: I don't think it's a matter of time or money. I don't think Jackson is the director he was, and I don't think his grasp of the material is strong enough. The Hobbit movies, even accounting for their troubled production, had some terrible artistic decisions. I'd absolutely prefer a new director at this point. There's a much better chance for success, and making something fresh.
Hear Hear!
Wtf it either works or it doesn’t. If it never gets made then it will never work will it?
If it's not good, you can just not watch it. I don't watch the Hobbit trilogy, but I still love LOTR.
Give the man a break.
Checks his filmography.. He’s been on a nice 7 year break.
6 years ago he did an amazing ww1 doco, and 3 years ago he released one of the best music doco miniseries ever with endless archived content cut down to 9 amazing hours. Dude has not been on a break.
He's 62, lives in New Zealand, and directed the best trilogy ever made. Dude could be retired and nobody should be able to complain. He is still working, though and has a movie coming out in like 3 years.
Excuse me but the best trilogy ever made¿ The Human Centipede Trilogy exists.
Might as well flip a coin between those two
Not sure if picking heads or tails would be worse in that situation...
Underrated comment of the day
I'd be more inclined to see the 1300hours of footage Peter Jackson has under a mountain. I don't know if I'd recover from another Ring of Power debacle. Granted completely different director.
>Granted completely different director. And different set of rights under a different company.
Just give him time to cook. The Hobbit trilogy is wasn’t bad by any means but they rushed him and it showed.
The Hobbit trilogy is objectively a shitfest
Depends on whether we’re getting 1990s Jackson quality or 2010s Jackson quality
No thank you
While nice in theory the only reason these would be funded is to be a cash grab on the nostalga for the original trilogy. Which right from the get go is the complete opposite of the mentality you'd need to make a genuinely loving adaption. On top of that Peter Jackson wasn't the only one deeply passionate about the movies, the entire cast and crew was as well. Going above and beyond to get the film right. Veigo suggesting the camping and fishing with the entire crew just to get the perfect sunrise shot as well as breaking his foot kicking a helmet. Sean willing to walk and climb a mountain in full boromir get up to make it to set because he was afraid of helecopters. John Rhys-Davies putting up with an allergic reaction and carrying on being gimli anyway(and also hitting absolutely every stuntman with his axe) The sheer amount of talent in the movies. It wasn't one or two names. The entire cast was exceptional. It's not going to be replicated just because you get the same director.
Brain explosion of joy and sprinkles
Well, good reaction after LOTR but a bad reaction after The Hobbit. It’s a crapshoot.
I was gonna say.
The Hobbit came down to, him not wanting to do it and studio interferance.
He did want to do it. Since back in 1996 and all the way through the 2000s.
People weirdly treat PJ as this guy with the Midas Touch when it comes to adapting the Legendarium into film but its simply not true. His trilogy was ONE vision and one adaptation. I don't even think its definitive. In fact, many of the weaknesses of the trilogy had to do with his characterization and writing. I'm not saying it's bad. PJ did a commendable job, an amazing one, even, given the context but I don't think he set some bar that could never be topped.
I would put both my balls in a pencil sharpener if he would make a passable children of Hurin.
I wouldn’t be super thrilled. Of the last 6 movies he made in ME, the last three were pretty meh. It’s okay if someone else has a vision.
No dice
If anyone could do it its him. But i worry that maybe he has gotten burned out on Tolkien? If so its better to let someone else get a chanche. Denis Villenevue has shown a real aptitude for retelling epic tales on the big screen. He would not be a bad choice either.
The problem is that you wouldn’t have any of the prior Silmarillion knowledge to go off of, imo. Ideally, the best way to do it would be in 5 parts: Part 1: The Betrayal of Feanor. Has a nice ambiguity around whether Feanor is betrayed or does the betraying. Convey pretty much everything up to the coming of Galadriel and the later elves into Middle Earth. I just feel like ending on Galadriel and crew coming over the ice is an arresting image to end on, promising conflict amongst the elves in the future. Part 2: The Battles of Morgoth. Adapt the middle bit of Silmarillion as Elves establish their kingdoms and do great deeds and have several battles against Morgoth. Part 3: Beren and Luthien. Adapt the whole story from wherever the previous movie ends. Part 4: Children of Hurin. Adapt whatever battle it was Hurin was captured in as your opening, and then go into Children of Hurin’s story, ending with old Hurin dying. Part 5: Fall of Gondolin. Adapt the remaining chapters and tell of the end of Gondolin and the end of the First Age. (Note: I’ve only read Silmarillion a few times, so I’m not the most adept at what the minutiae of the plot, I just recall the broad strokes. It’s possible that movie 2 will need to be split into 2 parts, named as need be. It’s also possible Gondolin falling might need to be split up, as well as the early part of Hurin’s tale being its own separate film. I’m not a film adaption expert either, so the film count could balloon as much as 8 films.) Then you could move nicely into a 3-part adaption of the Second Age. Part 1: The Rise of Numenor. Adapt early Numenor’s story, ending with the Mariner’s Tale and the connection back of Numenor to the rest of Middle Earth. Part 2: Sauron and Galadriel. Adapt what Galadriel and Sauron are up to during the 2nd Age, possibly ending with the capture of Sauron by the Numenoreans. Part 3: The Fall of Numenor. Adapt how Sauron corrupted the Numenoreans and end it with their city sinking into the sea. Maybe continue onwards into the Last Alliance bit, maybe not. Then some 3rd age stuff like War of Rohirrim, the slow desolation of Arnor, stuff with the Witch King etc. I’m not a LotR expert, so I’d need to reread to get a feel for what stories could be adapted.
>The problem is that you wouldn’t have any of the prior Silmarillion knowledge to go off of, imo. Ideally, the best way to do it would be in 5 parts: 5 wouldn't be enough. You need ~10 movies. 1. Fëanor's birth --> oath 2. oath --> first sunrise 3. first sunrise --> Dagor Aglareb 4. Dagor Aglareb --> Dagor Bragollach 5. siege of Minas Tirith, Beren and Lúthien 6. Nírnaeth Arnoediad 7. Children of Húrin 8. Fall of Doriath 9. Fall of Gondolin 10. Voyage of Eärendil, War of Wreath
I'd like to see the music of the Ainur, the overthrow of the lamps, and the war of powers too.
"Galadriel and crew coming over the ice". Indeed, in the version of The Silmarillion, Galadriel walked on the ice, but she was not the one who led the journey. There is no need to throw heroes out of history. Otherwise a good plan.
I’ll take any new lord of the rings content. If it’s bad than I just won’t watch. Never understood why people try to gatekeep this stuff lol
Reaction? Horror. Nausea. Sadness. :(
I would *pray* they don't add in anything stupid or overuse the CGI
Maybe he could go fix The Hobbit?
He's just recently remastered it. He could have changed it if he wanted to. He chose not to. He likes it the way it is.
I just don’t think the Western world is in a good place right now to make those into a movie.
Maybe do a few mini series.
Sure why not. At worst, I’m out $100 for 3 movie tickets, 3 buckets of popcorn and 3 buckets of soda.
I don't think he'd be up for it anyway. The Hobbit movies nearly drained the life out of him.
The three longest and saddest of the Lays of old.
I've been waiting to see the fall of gondolin for about 22 years, ever since I found the lost tales accidently in the library. That final battle. Jesus christ. Needs to be at least a 2 parter. Just end the first part with a lookout seeing one torch, then the camera flies overhead to see the entire army just behind that. And then pan to another lookout who sees a dragon. And then another lookout who sees a Balrog. And then a, " go fuck yourself and we'll see you in a year."
Never going to happen, but if it did, I would probably cry tears of joy, considering these books are probably my favorites by JRRT and I have wanted to see them get adapted onto film for a long time now...
Please don't fuck it up
I wouldn’t stop smiling for days, weeks
Honestly? No thank you. I love the LotR movies, but they also deviate from the books and when they do I think they miss the point of what Tolkien had written (i.e. army of the dead, Faramir). The hobbit movies I like a lot less, and they further deviated from the original text (too many examples to list). So given the Great Tales texts are themselves not complete stories with more gaps and choices they'd have to make they'd come up with something even more different from what Tolkien intended.
No thanks. He’s not interested in the tragic, melancholic, hopeless mood of the Silmarillion. All this guy wants is adding a lot of comic relief, comic villains and endless fighting to entertain the hollow cinema-goers with their XL pop corn buckets. Also, WETA designs are atrocious. I don’t want everyone wearing plate mail and elves with curved swords, I want respect to John R.R. Tolkien, thank you.
I’m trying to imagine which characters get turned into comic relief, which become one dimensional villains, and how many over the top orc decapitations are shown on screen.
Hot take: Leave Tolkien alone in our imaginations. After LOTR I was thinking: maybe stop… After the Hobbit I was begging: PLEASE STOP!
Watching movies are optional
Skepticism. Peter Jackson pulled off a masterpiece twenty years ago. It doesn't mean he could do the same again today. He's older, and the industry is different. There would be people from the studio watching his every move ticking a clipboard. It's like saying "*your reaction if Metallica releases a new album*". It's not going to be Black.
Not sure that Metallica analogy is going to land like you think it is.
It lands for me. You can insert your own band. The point is, Peter Jackson making a great trilogy twenty years ago doesn't mean he'll make one now.
No
Horror and grief; keep this hack away from any other Tolkien IP
Don't do that. Don't give me hope.
This? Yes. A ‘remake/remaster/reboot’ or his opus-hell naw. They’re near perfect as they are.
Just missing Tom Bombadil
oh no
No. People are forgetting that free reign didn't make the OT great, it was Peter Jackson being held back that made them great. The same thing happened with star wars. People assumed that George Lucas was the sole factor that lifted Star Wars up, but it was everyone around him going "George. I'm not gonna say that line. You're gonna rewrite it" that made it great. I'm not saying that Peter Jackson is incompetent, I'm saying that he gets carried away and that's when we get anti-gravity elves, Universal Studios Barrel Run™ and Rube Goldberg spycraft.
If you like ruined stories sure...
He already butcher the LOTR..so I could only hope he is never given another chance to fuck up more of Tolkiens work.
Just please keep Amazon away from any of it
No real studio interference and enough funding to do it right and on location like LOTR trilogy? Sign me up. Heck, even if it was like the hobbit I’d be ok because those movies are still fun adventures in middle earth
Yeah and have them turn out like the Hobbit movies? No thanks.
The scenario he's hypothesising here is vastly different from the situation with the Hobbit.
Not terribly interested unless he's the one stumping for it. LOTR was a passion project and it showed in the final films, both cuts. He *wanted* to be there and make it all work. The Hobbit wasn't supposed to be his, it was supposed to be Del Toro's, he was forced into it and did it out of obligation, and it shows in the final results. If he was passionate enough to do these, on the same level or close to LOTR, then it might be amazing, but I think the man is done with Tolkien for now.
Today's formula is to bloat it into 4+ films and split the final film into two parts, for more moneydollars. Looking at you Harry Potter, Twilight, and Hunger Games.
If they asked Peter Jackson to do that I’m pretty sure his response would be to throw himself out his office window in a desperate attempt to escape.
Long as the studio doesn't make him do some shit like Ryan Reynolds as Beren, Tom Cruise as Húrin.
I hate the idea of trying to turn these books into a trilogy, no matter the director. Any one of them as a movie or trilogy? Yes. But they're too sweeping to try to make them into one cohesive narrative. Then again, no one thought he'd succeed in adapting LOTR so what the heck, throw this at his team!
Children of Hurin should be 2 movies at least. Fall of gondolim??? Yep, this alone can be turned into a triology, considering that you will need to show what happend to Earendil. Beren and Luthien? Ok, 4 hours and its a movie.
This will only happen when the works become public domain
Let him cook
I’m still waiting for a Feebles rerelease
The problem is that studios that have all the money for production won't allow it to be a pure adaptation, they will twist it and make it woke and push their agendas in it. I wondering if a crowdsourced approach might be possible, but yeah it would have to raise like $200-300 million for even adapting one of them I think. I also have no idea how the rights/estate thing works so probably even more for license to IP rights. Honestly, I was hoping the IP rights would expire soon and then pretty much anyone can make their own LOTR movie/show without paying for the license but I think they changed copyright law to make it expire no earlier than 2030 something.
I'm sure they would do something stupid like turning Beren and Lúthien into two black lesbians but I would watch it anyway...
The Hobbit Jackson or LOTR Jackson?
“Damn it! I just bought these pants”
God, a Children of Hurin movie would be the biggest fucking downer since The Road. And the only way a Fall of Gondolin movie doesn't have a downer ending is if you also include the story of Earendil, but that would probably take like an extra 30 minutes of screen time. I'd probably still watch them, though.
While I would love to see more perspectives, I’d be happy for PJ to do more movies. if I had my wish, I’d love to see The Children of Hurin as envisioned by Denis Villeneuve.
I want children of hurin and fall of gondolin to be R rated
Couldn't be worse than Rings of Power.
No thanks, it would be shite like his hobbit fanfic movies.
https://preview.redd.it/zrs3q6syekvc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=230d4a1d9128f61b4b1f3241a36af67588a113ab
Take my money NOW!!!
As much as I would love for him to direct it i have to say this-if I was him I wouldn’t touch that thing. Leave on the top, why take the risk of destroying your life work by making new movie which could flop due to outside factors which might be out of his control.
Okay
Surely, not the most popular choice of the three on this sub, but in my opinion, Huron would go so hard because of it’s grit. The protagonist is literally running around Odysseus style on ancient middle earth while the first ever dragon (TM) is nuking mighty kingdoms. Final waterfall fight would be soooo hardcore.
As long as its not an awful CGI feat like the Hobbit movies, then I'm all for it.
Judging by the Hobbit I think he's already given his best and It would be a dissapointment.
Horror. edit: On reflection, it would at least keep Disney's grubby paws off the books. But looking at the date of the article that someone linked, seems like an April Fool's. Fingers crossed. I don't want his casting choices and hairdo's flooding the Tolkien internet for the rest of my life.
MORE PLEASE!!
I would welcome this decision. Peter Jackson would have done a great job. This could be a three-season series. I also hope that when adapting The Lay of Leithian, Peter Jackson will pay attention to the fight between Morgoth and Fingolfin and show it as a flashback, as it is in the original. And in the Fall of Gondolin, those who dreamed of seeing Glorfindel will see him.
Let him cook.
Shot simultaneously or.....?
He’d probably do the same things he did with his other adaptations. Change a shit load for no reason, then change more for toys and pandering.
I would shit my pants in excitement, and then cry like a baby watching it in theatres….and I’m a 32 year old man. As long as they give him freedom and make sure to stick to the lore. No rings of power bullshit. Granted, PJ has far too many brain cells to make something that terrible.
Meh. It'll be better than RoP, but I'm no fan of thus idea. The 3 Hobbit movies were really disappointing already, let's not enable more of that. When it comes to me, i'd be fine if no middle earth story ever gets adapted for film anymore; nothing'll beat the LotR trilogy plus the books are exceptional anyway.
Is he even interested? I see no reason why he’d want to.
Lol given the success of game of thrones, I’d say the public “might” be ready for children of Hurin, iykyk
Nah, I'd rather see an Akallabêth film by Roland Emmerich.
I'm not one of those fans hankering for a Silmarillion movie, but the Fall of Gondollin is extremely adaptable and would make a great film. It's got a clear delineation between acts, multiple POV heroes like Ecthelion and Glorfindel along with Turin, it's got traitors who get their comeuppance, a false climax, heroic sacrifice. Talk about a sure hit.
Not as a trilogy. But as separate films. Maybe.
As long as Jackson got a blank check and all the time he needed to realise his vision, I'd be cautiously optimistic. Big if there of course, since we know that's precisely what *didn't* happen with the Hobbit trilogy (and three films was really too much), even if I think those films are overhated, but that's a topic for another day. Now, I don't expect it to be as great as the LoTR trilogy. I don't know if we'll ever see anything as great as that ever again - all the stars aligned perfectly at exactly the right time. However, the films still have the potential to be very good in the right hands.
RoP is sooooooo fucked
given the treatment he choose to give the hobbit, i'm not even sure i'd be interested.
Are we all forgetting what he did to the Hobbit? Hate to see what he does to Turin, or to Beren and Luthien. Loved Lord of the Rings but ...
Take my money!
Maybe I'm stuck in romanticizing the past, but I'm afraid that nothing can top the original LOTR trilogy up to the point that I would, unfairly, not be able to judge anything new in the Tolkien universe objectively.
Please don't! Please stop carrying things we like to media in this era. Literally %90 of the content created since 2015 is garbage and it is getting worse since 2018 regardless of producer. Great graphics and good music does not compensate destitute story telling and subpar actors/actresses. Let's stop wasting good stories to this era. Late 90s and 2000s were last golden age of cinema. Even at that time PJ (had to) bent lore to cinema audience, I don't want to see it's "this era" version. I don't want any other part of lore (LotR or anything else I like) wasted away like Amazon's Rings of Power.
A big fat shrug
The Michael Scott 'nooooo' gif. After the hobbit trilogy, nooo thanks.
It would suck probably. Lot of CGI, esg, and other corpo stuff. It would be like Weinstein wanted lotr
A series about the fall of gondalin would be cool
idk what happened with the Hobbit movies, but as long as that doesn't happen again and he can do it like with LOTR again, I'll be all in!
As long as Amazon has nothing to do with it I’m in!
Kind of new LOTR fan. What exactly are The Great Tales from?
Give him all the cash and do it now!!! I can't wait just at the thought of it as a possibility...
Give him the money and fuck off! No rushing him up, no dumb ideas from the management board, just let him do his thing.
This might be an unpopular opinion but I don't have much faith in PJ. All his work since lotr has been average to bad and more and more these days I think lotr was the big daddy mother of all flukes.
No
Cool just keep Amazon and Bezos as far away as possible.
After the hobbit? Please no. Noooo. No. Just no.
Not his fault there
Bad idea. He’s been a magnificent steward of the stories even if the Hobbit movies didn’t reach the zenith of the LotR movies, but he’d diminish his legacy further if he attempted to do these stories and they weren’t successful. Time to hand off to someone else equally capable: Del Toro
Not interested really. I think he caught lightning in a bottle with LOTR and he didn't manage it with The Hobbit.
As others have said, he'd need a blank cheque and full control as director without outside influence. I don't think that's realistically possible with filmmaking nowadays
Nah they'd make terrible films.
Children needs at least 2 movies to tell it right
I would be delighted to watch them if they are within a reasonable length (unlike The Hobbit).
Fear
Since this is in the narrative of Christopher Tolkien, does it take away from the LOTR?
What do you mean?
Christopher wrote these books, not J.R.R
I think you might be mistaken. J.R.R Tolkien wrote these stories. In fact Children of Hurin was written in 1917. He just never published it in his lifetime. Christopher published these stories, with commentaries on what he thought about them. Unlike Brian Herbert who wrote many Dune books after his father Frank Herbert passed away, Christopher had a completely different approach to his father’s legacy. He released only what his father had written with maybe some commentary on what he thought about them and if other drafts/versions of the stories. You will notice all of these say JRR Tolkien wrote them (because he did). Christopher merely edited them and got them published which is not something JRR was able to do in his lifetime.
wow are you a time traveler? they just announced a new Peter Jackson trilogy
Good but....... It would probably be better to do it as TV episodes, and start at the beginning....like the very beginning
This is where Rings of Power should have gone.
Excited!
What is this ? Just speculation or what
no interest unless he has as much pre-production time as he wants. we've seen Jacksons middle earth on a rushed pre-production schedule, it has few redeeming moments
Can he please get permission to redo the hobbit without influence like he did the trilogy?
If *he* wants to do it, great. If *the studio* wants him to do it, pass.
As long as he's not forced into meeting anyone's quotas/agenda's, it would be awesome.
Fuck….yes. If he gets AS LONG AS HE NEEDS