Wow!!!!! I gotta say this seems absolutely ludicrous on the surface of it all. First, after watching the video (Thx for that, Mae!!!) it seems fairly evident that the two hosts have never read the books. Second, the numbers seem prohibitive. Third, I may be off base, but I seem to recall that Chris Tolkien and/or the heirs was/were miffed over the sale of the rights to, Peter Jackson because he/they felt that, Jackson didn't do right by J.R.R.'s original material or something like that. As I recall, he stated that he couldn't wait to have the rights revert back to the family never to be sold again. Of course, $250 million buys a LOT of Kleenex for which to cry into and helps to create a genral sense of well being if you know what I mean!!! lol Anyway, if they are planning 5 seasons of shows that means before they even hire a writer, director, film crew and actors their base cost for each season is $50 million dollars!!! Holy crap!!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by mae
Then there is the question of what story they could possibly be thinking of telling. I admit I am not aware of the machinations/intricacies involved in purchasing story rights, but as a huge fan & collector of the books I would think that the source material they are restricted to is the 3 volume LOTR, which would be the 3 novels and the indexes included in ROTK. Jackson utilized some of the ROTK index material to flesh out "The Hobbit" films, but I was under the impression that the studio/Jackson had additionally purchased the rights to "The Hobbit" and already had the rights to the LOTR trilogy that included the index's. If there is someone here that has a more in depth knowledge of how the book to film rights work I would certainly appreciate an education.
Nevertheless, despite all of that the biggest question to me is still, what freaking story could they possibly be considering telling over 5 seasons? I mean flawed when compared to the novels as you may consider them, Jackson covered the "Money" stories (i.e. The Hobbit & LOTR) pretty damn well in 6, 3 hr (nore or less) feature films IMHO. He also did so with what? 6-8-10 marquee top of the line actors that became iconic in their roles and performances. On the surface I immediately think that the only available story material yet to be covered and also of any true substance would be from "The Silmarillon" which is a prequel of sorts containing what is basically a very expanded version of the material provided in the ROTK indexes. If you haven't read "The Silmarillon" it's basically a collection of unfinished works that, Chris Tolkien hammered into a novel. That would seem to mean that they bought the rights to the wrong book!!! lol Again, I am not an expert in how film rights work and the two video hosts may not be relating the proper terms with regard to the novels either. As I said, I didn't get the impression that they were fans of the novels so the info in the video could be somewhat skewed. Obviously, I need to read the THR article, which hopefully offers more detailed information.
Still, I get drawn back to the shear numbers and what possible profit/benefit, Amazon could get from a 5 season long show that doesn't earn a single dollar in profit until it has generated one billion dollars!!!! Have TPTB at Amazon taken to smoking crack at their luncheons these days? LOL Does the new purchase of the LOTR rights entitle them to all the merchandising and put a stop to all of New Line's merchandise production? Does anybody here know how all that shit works in the business world? And as long as I'm on a roll asking questions who the heck would you possibly cast as say, Gandalf, Aragon, Frodo, etc. that could take your mind off of Ian McCellan, Viggo Mortenson, Elijah Wood, etc?
I apologize for the length of this post and I probably forgot to mention two thirds of the questions in my mind regarding this announcement. Again, I would really appreciate the insight/knowledge of anyone (or collectively?) here that is familiar with how these things work. 'The Hobbit & LOTR" are probably my most favorite novels of all time and I collect rare editions of the books to this day (Pics are available in my collection thread which has some truly awesome and inspired "Dolso" wooden cases for the more valuable editions I've collected) and have passed this wonderful story down to my son and now my grandson all of which is to say I am a HUGE fan of the works!!!
So if there are any "Movie Nerds", Film Moguls, LARPers or film fanatics out there who are well versed in "The Biz" side of something like this please, school me away!!! lol lol You'll not find a more eager listener out there!!!!
