Lord of the Rings is the new Star Wars

[wingsandsword]

I'm sure it won't take 25 years to put The Silmarillion on film.

But it will take 25 years to show it all

I'm sure if they make a prequel, they'll do The Hobbit first, it's just a matter of time.

 

[wingsandsword]

And it's also influencing our culture. Just today I was reading an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer comparing the extensive limestone caverns in a county in Eastern Kentucky as similar to the 'Mines of Moria from the Lord of the Rings' and I just saw a guy in a Miata with the license plate '2 Hobbit'.

Eastern Kentuck is perfect Dwarven territory. It is filled with mountains and hills all over, loads of rocky crags & ravines, it has significant mineral wealth and many mines (coal), and the area is loaded with huge cave complexes.

Another example of the influence of LOTR on culture though would be that when anthropologists discovered that race of 3 foot tall humans that coexisted with our ancestors until a few thousand years ago in Indonesia (with isolated accounts of them appearing until only a little more than a century ago), and the media immediately started calling them "hobbits", and although that's not their scientific name, it's certainly their common name. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3948165.stm)

 

[Ranger REG]

Another example of the influence of LOTR on culture though would be that when anthropologists discovered that race of 3 foot tall humans that coexisted with our ancestors until a few thousand years ago in Indonesia (with isolated accounts of them appearing until only a little more than a century ago), and the media immediately started calling them "hobbits", and although that's not their scientific name, it's certainly their common name. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3948165.stm)

So that's where the menehunes went.

 

[Aris Dragonborn]

Gah! Not a 12 hour Silmarillion prequel!!!!

I would love to see a new trilogy based on the Silmarillion. Just imagine. Morgoth, Ungoliant, Earendil the Mariner, Beren and Luthien, Ancalagon the Black, Balrogs, and the Fall of Gondolin.
Oh, my.

But I wouldn't mind Peter Jackson do a re-imagined Star Wars.
Just imagine the power of WETA and ILM working together on effects ... that is unholy. Commence fully-body ecstatic shaking.

You realize, of course, that we would have to start a casting call thread for the remake of the classic trilogy.

 

[Henry]

As far as a culture-changing event, usually those aren't recognized as culture-changing until long after they occur.

As a generational-defining event, I'll say that LotR fits that bill; it will be a standard upon which future generations will define movie-crafting, particularly the Fellowship.

But there are movies that are truly ground-breaking, and you recognize them by grass-roots reference, not by critical hype or marketing. No one had a tremendous billboard campaign for "The Usual Suspects" - you just started seeing people refer to events and characters in it; comedians started parodying it; its climax became an in-joke for many people. When Star Wars hit, "May the Force be with you" became as common as, "DY-NO-MITE!" "The Terminator" became ground-breaking to a lesser extent, when the name "Sarah Connor" became a household name. But you don't hear that many people outside of Tolkien fans saying, "One ring to rule them all" just yet.

 

[Desdichado]

GAAH! Still the worst movie I ever paid to see, and that's saying something...

I paid to see Street Fighter and the D&D movie in theaters. Nothing will ever top (bottom?) those travesties.

 

[nakia]

I paid to see Street Fighter and the D&D movie in theaters. Nothing will ever top (bottom?) those travesties.

Ummm. . . Highlander 2. Opening night.

 

[Kesh]

So that's where the menehunes went.

Nah, they went into the bottled water business.

(Ahhh, cultural in-jokes. )

 

[Kesh]

I paid to see Street Fighter and the D&D movie in theaters. Nothing will ever top (bottom?) those travesties.

Battlefield: Earth on opening night.

I literally apologized to the friend I dragged out to see it as we were going back to the car.

 

[Ranger REG]

I would love to see a new trilogy based on the Silmarillion. Just imagine. Morgoth, Ungoliant, Earendil the Mariner, Beren and Luthien, Ancalagon the Black, Balrogs, and the Fall of Gondolin.
Oh, my.

But as long as Christopher Tolkien is still breathing or maintain his chief trustee position at Tolkien Estate, we won't see Silmarillion film right be sold for options.

You realize, of course, that we would have to start a casting call thread for the remake of the classic trilogy.

Well, I'm not the one to start a thread, but I'd be happy to join in on the conversation.