Amazon, Warner Bros in Talks for LOTR Series Adaptation: Variety

There is probably a reasonable amount that could be reused. I imagine Rivendell wouldn't be much different. The general architecture of Gondor I dont think is too dissimilar to Numenor (could be wrong there) so sure there could be some reuse.

Barad Dur existed in the second age too so sure we will get some fiery eye action.

I would actually quite like to see some Khazad Dum at the height of its powers!!! That could be very interesting.

Guy talks too much. Repeats himself endlessly, could have been a 90 second post.

Agreed he liked the sound of his own voice but, one or 2 ideas were interesting ? Why is it that people cant leave anything alone ? They have to bend it stretch it pull it out of character, tweak it, completely wreck it just for the fact they can I guess.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{ Well you know me Eldy, not afraid to drunkly charge into an ethical dilemna when I see one!

"Ethnic diversity" is fine if they are portraying multiple ME ethnic groups- Harad and all. And how much would I object to dark skinned or Asian or Arabic Elves, Hobbits and Dwarves, it'd be odd and might well take me out of the world building aspect as I'd be immediatly filled with a lot of questions about races, mixing and movement of peoples in ME and how it would fit Tolkien's histories of such things. People aren't dark or light skinned because nature thought the world just needed a bit more variety and colour, its a response to environment. And if people feel off in their environment, like they don't fit it something subconciously is off in the world building immediatly.

But as a general principle, if the creative folks, writers, directors etc are left to freely cast who they think is best to portray what they want to then thats generally a good thing.

If on the otherhand they are casting diversly solely because the production company handed them a check list and said 'make sure youve one of each by the end of the day,' then no. I am opposed to it. }}

I feel like there's a huge trend lately of recasting fictional characters as different races than they originally were. I think if they felt that they absolutely had to have minorities in the movie and so wrote in some characters from Harad or Easterlings, then ok. But I don't think that the Numenorians were meant to be dark skinned. Or the elves. I don't think most of these groups were meant to be that, looking at Tolkien's upbringing in early 20th century England. And then adding in characters from far off lands means giving those characters some sort of culture which wasn't expanded upon by Tolkien, so that has to be invented. And that brings up the wall that any new story set in Middle Earth has to address.

When I really look on it, most fan fiction for Lord of the Rings is god awful. I kinda expect this series to fall into that category... The Hobbit movies aside, did anyone play those Shadow of Middle Earth games, or War in the North?



I only bring them up because they were produced by Warner Brothers, the stories were horrendous. I don't see why this series would be any better than Peter Jackson's hobbit trilogy or those games stories (both being awful). So even without the producers incorrectly portraying the ethnic groups in Middle Earth, I think this series being good is an uphill battle. I don't know if any new story set in Middle Earth can overcome that wall - Writing a story set in Tolkien's universe as well as he would have.

{{ It is definently the biggest issue- Tolkien left outlines with occasional highlights of detail- what he didnt give were complete stories, with complete characters, lines of dialgoue and the like- that will all have to be invented and slotted into Tolkien's world- and even if youre the biggest fan of PJ's LotR's you'd have to admit there is a huge gulf between the writing of the stuff they added and invented and when they use genuine Tolkien.

The most common method, and its undertandable is the Born of Hope way- you take the original story Tolkien wrote and dont tamper with it but you use it only to frame the setting and characters of your own you've inserted into it- that way you can tell your own story, whilst in broad outline keeping in tact the one Tolkien told as your added characters never directly interfere in it.
And I supect thats as good as you can get in terms of how to do it.
The problem here is they are going to have to invent personalties, dialogue and motivations and life events for characters, who whilst massively important, we often dont even have a physical description of and only a few paragraphs to outline the major events of their life. And who are not invented secondary character slotted into that world apart from the Tolkien narrative but in it, but rather they will be the main players directly effecting events.
The amount of extrapolation needed to get from the scant detail Tolkien gives us to a fully fleshed out tv show is massive. }}

And could certainly lean toward whole-sale invention, rather than extrapolation.

It would all be much easier I think if the show was entirely original. I don't think it's so very difficult to create a Tolkien-esque story. As long as we allow some creative wiggle-room we can achieve something that flows thematically into Middle-earth. I've read some of the published adventures for The One Ring role-playing game, for example, and they are excellent at, as Petty says, extrapolating on what we have already without, and this is important, re-doing what we've already seen.

But still, as long as they don't do anything too egregious like telling the story of Numenor's fall by painting Sauron in a sympathetic light, then we should be okay.

Sauron's just a misunderstood sensitive soul who was bullied in his childhood.

Ha ! can you imagine the "Special Needs Unit" at school ?
Sauron, Voldemort, Leatherface, Jason vorhees, Horrid Henry ?

{{{ }}

Indiewire just had one those "everything you need to know" stories about this series. 90% of it is just a rehash of what we already know, but I found this somewhat evocative:

According to Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke, the writers room is “working under lock and key: “They’re already generating really exciting material. They’re down in Santa Monica. You have to go through such clearance, and they have all their windows taped closed. And there’s a security guard that sits outside, and you have to have a fingerprint to get in there, because their whole board is up on a thing of the whole season.”

The end of that sentence really got away from her.

Santa Monica... beach areas. Numenor or Tol Eressea or something then maybe

{{ They are probably not shooting they're likely just holed up there for the writing- its quite common for writers to be shut up somewhere warm, sunny away from distractions, family, and bustle and that serves cocktails with little umbrellas in 24 hours a day to get the job done. }}

Monty Python went to Barbados to write Life of Brian.

I suppose they're casting all the young'uns first because those require longer casting calls.  But no casting calls have been reported.  Older actors they can just pick based on long history of previous work.

EDIT: I'm wrong, there ARE some casting calls.

https://www.cnet.com/news/lord-of-the-rings-amazon-show-is-looking-to-cast-actors-with-missing-teeth/

"We are looking for a mix of people of all ages, genders/other from multiracial backgrounds with interesting character faces and (physicalities)," the Talento post read. The post went on to list just some of the descriptions the agency is looking for, citing "earthy, weathered, dark skin (tones), missing teeth, wonderful noses, etc. etc."

The agency is also interested in "bearded hairy biker men/woman/other," "lean, tall, androgynous looks," "beautiful, fair, fine-boned faces" and musicians. Height extremes are also a plus -- the site's looking for actors who are over 6 feet (182 cm) tall, especially those 6 feet 8 inches (203 cm) or taller, as well as people who are in the 4 feet 6 inch (137 cm) to 4 feet 11 inch (149 cm) range.

Also a call out for "soldiers, villagers and villains": https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/114023419/lord-of-the-rings-tv-series-casting-call-for-middle-earth-soldiers-villagers-and-villains

'as well as people who are in the 4 feet 6 inch (137 cm) to 4 feet 11 inch'

{{ That would be pretty spot on for casting dwarves. Tolkien gives their height as averaging 4 feet 6 (hobbits rarely make 4 and usually come in about a foot shorter than dwarves).

That makes sense for the period they are supposedly covering. They'll need dwarves but not hobbits who have no part to play in it, unless somehow they are going to cover hobbit migration northwards to the Anduin and then west across the mountains.}}

Is there a casting call for grass of a certain height and colour?

{{ They are shooting in NZ again- it'll already be wrong! Rohan wont be grass plains again, and the Fields of the Pelennor wont have any fields in them. }}

Won't matter because there are no fields of Pelennor or Rohan in the second age.

{{ Still there just got a different name, and we might get Osgiliath and founding of Gondor depending on what they are actually going to cover. And that region should have a meditererrean vibe. }}

My only comment: "Oren" sounds like "Sauron"

https://deadline.com/2019/10/the-lord-of-the-rings-joseph-mawle-cast-star-amazon-series-oren-game-of-thrones-alum-1202765493/

New character? dont like the sound of that. Hope Halfy's right.

'Mawle will play the series’ lead villain, Oren, opposite Poulter’s young hero Beldor and female lead Tyra (Kavenagh)'


{{Thats not one made up character, far as I can tell thats all three main characters are made up!
Got to hope these are place holder names, closest I can find to any genuine Tolkien names is Baldor is close to Beldor- Baldor was the guy who dared enter the Paths of the Dead (its probably his body Aragorn finds clawing at the door) but he was 3rd age }}