Young Aragorn TV Series

[Snowdog]

So Amazon has paid big to bring us a Middle Earth TV series. Rumor has it that the Appendix tale of Aragorn will be the subject. Makes sense, as being in the Return of the King book, it is covered by the licensing sold in 1969 that has led to the board games, Rnkin Bass cartoons, the Bakshi movie, the PJ fanfic movies, LOTRO MMORP game, Shadow of Mordor game, etc.

Hoping this is done well, and that PJ is kept as far away as possible.

[Valandil]

Yes! We should be talking about this. And somewhere in the Tolkien half of the board. I wonder if it needs it's own forum. Maybe not, since we're so slow.

[Earniel]

Middle-earth forum should do nicely until we know what source material will be used.

Allow me. :)

I have heard Amazon wanted the Middle-earth TV series to compete with Game of Thrones. That news slightly worried me, I'm tired of the trend that adult fantasy 'needs' to be dark, patriarchial and bloody. I'm not waiting for a grimdark, gorier take on Middle-earth.

[Valandil]

Yes - this was where I thought best too. But I didn't want to say so before anyone else weighed in. :)

[Valandil]

Here's one from a satirical web site:

http://babylonbee.com/news/peter-jackson-to-help-amazon-trim-lord-of-the-rings-episodes-down-to-just-14-hours-each/

[Mari]

Tolkien created, despite all the horror of war etc. , a dreamy place where good will always win over evil. It's fundamentally different from Game of Thrones and should stay that way.

[Valandil]

Sounds like I need to get on with writing my "Early Adventures of Aragorn" fanfic - so they have something a bit more substantial to base all those TV episodes on! ;)

[Snowdog]

When it is said that something is wanted to 'compete' with something, it doesn't always mean it will 'be just like' what they are competing with. That said, I still hope for the best and expect the worst with this project, especially if PJ gets involved in any significant way.

[Earniel]

Heh, I always like to be proven wrong in this sort of thing.

But too often media bosses do think that to be able to compete with something they have to do something similar to reach the same audience.

Maybe the possibility for interesting sceneries and costume drama are enough simularities, who knows. That would be cool.

[Mari]

Well, if it's remotely like GoT, I'm not watching it. Too bloody and too much sex.

[Rían]

Here's one from a satirical web site:

http://babylonbee.com/news/peter-jackson-to-help-amazon-trim-lord-of-the-rings-episodes-down-to-just-14-hours-each/

The Bee is really funny!

[Earniel]

This article takes a bit of a gloomy view of the proposed series possible success: Amazon’s Proposed ‘Lord of the Rings’ Series Misses the Point of Middle-Earth (https://filmschoolrejects.com/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-misses-the-point-of-middle-earth/)

But it makes some good points and manages to articulate one of the problems I had with the Hobbit movie Trilogy.

[Alcuin]

Aragorn does have an exciting, rich, well-developed backstory, provided the producers and directors will tell it, and not some vile pabulum instead. Unfortunately, I cannot imagine that Amazon or Netflix or anyone else on the Left Coast will tell it as Tolkien told it. Instead they’ll use or abuse his characters, names, and settings to tell a completely different, wretched tale as they did with Jackson’s trilogy or the awful mess they made of The Hobbit.

But there are a vast number of stories just in the Appendices to Return of the King: the fall of Isildur, the wars with Angmar in the North, the Kin-strife, the pride of Eärnur, Durin’s Bane and the ruin of Khazad-dûm, the coming of Eorl and the Rohirrim, and Gondor’s endless wars with Umbar, Rhûn, and Harad.

Besides these tales, all of which are influenced by the Saul Zaentz group by dint of their appearing The Lord of the Rings, there are the voluminous tales presented in The Silmarillion, particularly The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin.

These Hollywood types have no imagination, and certainly no respect for authors living or dead!

From Tolkien’s Letter #13, 13 May 1937:It might be advisable, rather than lose the American interest, to let the Americans do what seems good to them – as long as it was possible (I should like to add) to veto anything from or influenced by the Disney studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing).

[Earniel]

Besides these tales, all of which are influenced by the Saul Zaentz group by dint of their appearing The Lord of the Rings, there are the voluminous tales presented in The Silmarillion, particularly The Children of Húrin, Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin.

These Hollywood types have no imagination, and certainly no respect for authors living or dead!
Heh, which why I think Christopher Tolkien is going to let those rights only be prised from his stone cold dead hands and will happily turn Barrow Wight over them.

And a lot of the Appendices will be useless to use since several scenes have been explored again in UT and those rights are not sold. A rights quagmire. Reminds me of the Sherlock Holmes thing.

Although... sometimes I wonder, if New Line hadn't surprised the Tolkien Estate Lawyers with their Hollywood accounting (a fact that still surprises me, though) they might have been more willing to part with more rights to other works. But I am not entirely sorry this didn't happen either...

Returning to the topic at hand, five entire seasons about a young Aragorn is a lot to commit to from the start.

Which stories they'd use, I wonder. Can't have the whole first season about Arathorn and Gilraen. Perhaps starting from his first meeting with Arwen and his discovery of his descendance? The hunt for Gollum could fill an entire season. As would his stint as Gondorean general against Umbar. If they play it right, they might get two seasons out of that.

[Valandil]

SO afraid it will become something like this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoPuTeFhsUw

[Valandil]

Rather than simply "Young Aragorn" - I wonder if they ought to use a format like this:

Shire Year 1484 (Fourth Age, Year 63?) - Gondor. King Elessar Telcontar is 153, and, it would turn out, just over halfway through his reign as King of both Arnor and Gondor. Queen Arwen, his heir Eldarion and his daughters surround him. The aged halflings, Meriadoc and Peregrin, have just arrived in Gondor from the Shire (to which they never return) and Rohan (where they were with King Eomer when he died).

The show is a collection of "flashbacks" - as Elessar/Aragorn recounts stories to the elder halflings, while a scribe dutifully records them, to be sent back to the Shire for inclusion in the various copies of accounts of elder days. Some could be stories of Aragorn when his is young. Others might be stories of Arnor and Gondor in former days. Even stories of Rohan, Imladris, Dwarves, etc - all the things which make up the Appendices.

What do we call that? "Stories From Middle Earth"?

[Earniel]

What did I just watch? Some unholy love child between GoT and LoTR?

Hm, you're going to need a cohesive story from the start or it'll become too much of a clip show.

And I'm not sure that by using an elder Aragorn and company for that, you won't have given too much of the tales away from the start.