Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 1306598" data-attributes="member: 812">Here's something to consider. The unabridged audio version of LotR is 55 hours long.Let's just consider that for a second, shall we? 55 HOURSSo in making a 13-hour epic (assuming RotK:EE clocks in at 5 hours and the first two at 4), PJ has stripped roughly three-quarters of the story out -- and that's assuming it takes as long to film something as it does to read it -- frankly, I'd bet the reading was faster, but let's assume they're reasonably close for now.So, given that 13 hours is pretty close to as maximum length anyone was ever going to be allowed to make these films at, can somebody suggest a three-quarters of the story that PJ would have been better off cutting?And to forestall "but that's not all" comments -- cutting necessitates combining, and in some cases creating out of whole cloth, scenes and moments and storylines. There's no other way to do.I've had to cut a film from 25 minutes to 20 and I can tell you it darn near killed me. Pretty much killed the film, too. To go from what was written to what was on the screen and present in large strokes the ideas that Tolkien explores so deftly in tiny scratches -- my hat's off.He did better, frankly, than any of us had any right to expect. Good for PJ. I hope King Kong rocks.</blockquote>