Spoilers Rings of Power is back!

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I enjoyed Tin Man, ymmv.

I think it's definitely possible to do a good remix. Return to Oz sort of was, due to studio interference, and that was fun.

I just think "X but dress all the women like strippers" or "Y but beloved characters are now serial killers" isn't interesting enough to be shocking.

 

[Hriston]

I think it's definitely possible to do a good remix. Return to Oz sort of was, due to studio interference, and that was fun.

I just think "X but dress all the women like strippers" or "Y but beloved characters are now serial killers" isn't interesting enough to be shocking.

Oh yeah, it was great to get what looked like a sequel to the 1939 movie and have it be so creepy. The original material was pretty creepy too, what with Princess Langwidere and the Wheelers. Oz can be kind of dark, a bit like Wonderland in a way.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh yeah, it was great to get what looked like a sequel to the 1939 movie and have it be so creepy. The original material was pretty creepy too, what with Princess Langwidere and the Wheelers. Oz can be kind of dark, a bit like Wonderland in a way.

Yeah, some of the stuff Baum came up with was nuts. The Oz Beasts and Beings book that was Kickstarted a few years ago is a great bestiary for people who want their faeries to be less twee.

 

[Dausuul]

Yeah, this does seem to be the first mention, and it's easy to be taken by surprise by it, since it does look like something a couple of orcs could hammer together in half an hour.

Well, if it really is the original Iron Crown, it had its gems pried out of it, then it got beaten into a collar and put around Morgoth's neck while he was being hauled back to Valinor to be cast into the Void. And then it had to be refitted to a human-sized head, since Morgoth was gigantic.

It ain't exactly in mint condition, is the point.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Thing is, if Tolkein was alive folks wouldn’t be able to get away with all the gatekeeping but because he’s dead they treat it like it’s their own work.

Tolkien tells us exactly what he thinks of adaptations which veer from the source material in letter 210:

The canons of narrative in any medium cannot be wholly different; and the failure of poor films is often precisely in exaggeration, and in the intrusion of unwarranted matter owing to not perceiving where the core of the original lies.

I suspect his gate would have remained firmly kept after the 1981 BBC Radio adaptation.

 

[TheSword]

Tolkien tells us exactly what he thinks of adaptations which veer from the source material in letter 210:


I suspect his gate would have remained firmly kept after the 1981 BBC Radio adaptation.

Maybe, I’m pretty sure what was capable with media back then has changed a fair bit and he may have been a little more impressed with the Peter Jackson Films or the current series. We’ll never know.

Though your example is an excellent case in point. Referring to a dead authors private letter as proof for what he would think about a future event or activity which hasn’t yet happened. You almost certainly wouldn’t see a living author’s private letter or notes and yet time and time again these are used by ‘fans’ to make a general impression about what was going on in Tolkien’s head. As if the fellow never changed his mind.

Frankly I don’t much care. Once a work is released into the wild it becomes it’s own creature. Particular when the rights are sold at enormous cost to someone else. What Tolkein would have thought is neither provable or particularly relevant.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Maybe, I’m pretty sure what was capable with media back then has changed a fair bit and he may have been a little more impressed with the Peter Jackson Films or the current series. We’ll never know.

I think the crux of the letter - which was written objecting to Zimmerman's proposed movie adaptation of LoTR - is really about the fidelity of any adaptation to the original characters and themes, regardless of media.

Though your example is an excellent case in point. Referring to a dead authors private letter as proof for what he would think about a future event or activity which hasn’t yet happened. You almost certainly wouldn’t see a living author’s private letter or notes and yet time and time again these are used by ‘fans’ to make a general impression about what was going on in Tolkien’s head.

Given the obvious parallels between the specific issues which Tolkien raises with regard to the Zimmerman script (here), and the divergent elements in the Jackson adaptation - and far more so in the Amazon adaptation - I think it is fair to surmise that he would have despised the movies, and regarded the TV series as utterly beneath contempt. YMMV, of course.

Frankly I don’t much care.

Honestly, nor do I. I would have settled for a well-written, well-executed, internally consistent story with robust characterization.

But to suggest that Tolkien might have regarded the movies as anything other than lamentable, or the TV show as anything other than risible, does seem to run contrary to what we know of his own sensibilities.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think it is fair to surmise that he would have despised the movies

Tolkien despised ALL movies and TV, as the One True form of entertainment was an evening down the pub with friends, alcohol and tobacco. So that would be a very safe bet.

But his opinion is irrelevant, since he is not the person watching it.

 

[Zaukrie]

Tolkien despised ALL movies and TV, as the One True form of entertainment was an evening down the pub with friends, alcohol and tobacco. So that would be a very safe bet.

But his opinion is irrelevant, since he is not the person watching it.

That last part is key. Why do I care what he might think?

 

[Parmandur]

That last part is key. Why do I care what he might think?

Well, the person responsible for caring what J. R. R. Tolkien thought is Simon Tolkien: apparently he went with the pitch from these particular showrumners because he felt his grandfather would have preferred someone passionate about their own original story, rather than sloppily adopting an existing one.