The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Could (Should) the Simarillion become a film?

Firefoot · 01-12-2004, 05:23 PM

I can think of two more things that could prove difficult in the making of the Sil into a movie.One is that the book takes place over the course of 500+ years. Moviemakers could try to compress that but it would still take place over an extremely long time. Even if you made it into several movies it would still be a long time.The other is that even if you decided to make it into several movies and started, say, with Feanor, you would still have to come up with a kind of prologue explaining Valinor, the Valar, the Maia, etc. I have had several people ask me what Sauron is - people who have read the book even!- and by the time I say Maia, they are lost. Otherwise you end up with questions about why leaving Valinor and disobeying the Valar was such a big deal.As for adding on to things that have already been said, there have been thoughts that you would need at least one main character. BUT can anyone give a MAIN character that stays alive throughout the duration of the book? There are a couple of smaller characters, or characters that do big things but very few: Galadriel has been mentioned, and some of Feanor's sons are living for most of the book, Turgon lives until almost the end, and there are several others. But these charaters have nothing to do with some of the important events: Beren and Luthien, Turin, etc. Almost all of the real main characters DIE!I don't think the movie would sell to the average people. Most (all?) of the people who really enjoyed the movie would have probably have read the book. I don't think most Americans anyway would be too keen about Turin sleeping with his sister either... The thing is, most people like happy endings. Or if not happy, atleast the ending should be tied up and not be completely depressing. Some of the endings to the individual stories in the Sil are just that - depressing. Some of them are "happy" but it is hard to have a happy ending when almost all the main characters die. Can you imagine filming LotR if in the book Frodo, Sam, Merry, Gimli, and just for the heck of it, let's throw in Eomer, Eowyn, and Legolas, all died? You would have your king, and at least one of the Hobbits is still alive, but all the rest died. It wouldn't work. Maybe that is an extreme example, but basically that is how I see the Sil coming out if you tried to do the whole thing.The long and the short of it is I don't think you could make the Sil a movie that does justice to the book. I know people said the same thing about LotR but I think that the Sil entails a lot more problems than LotR did.

01-12-2004, 05:23 PM	#53
Firefoot Illusionary Holbytla Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 7,547	I can think of two more things that could prove difficult in the making of the Sil into a movie.<P>One is that the book takes place over the course of 500+ years. Moviemakers could try to compress that but it would still take place over an extremely long time. Even if you made it into several movies it would still be a long time.<P>The other is that even if you decided to make it into several movies and started, say, with Feanor, you would still have to come up with a kind of prologue explaining Valinor, the Valar, the Maia, etc. I have had several people ask me what Sauron is - people who have read the book even!- and by the time I say Maia, they are lost. Otherwise you end up with questions about why leaving Valinor and disobeying the Valar was such a big deal.<P>As for adding on to things that have already been said, there have been thoughts that you would need at least one main character. BUT can anyone give a MAIN character that stays alive throughout the duration of the book? There are a couple of smaller characters, or characters that do big things but very few: Galadriel has been mentioned, and some of Feanor's sons are living for most of the book, Turgon lives until almost the end, and there are several others. But these charaters have nothing to do with some of the important events: Beren and Luthien, Turin, etc. Almost all of the real main characters DIE!<P>I don't think the movie would sell to the average people. Most (all?) of the people who really enjoyed the movie would have probably have read the book. I don't think most Americans anyway would be too keen about Turin sleeping with his sister either... The thing is, most people like happy endings. Or if not happy, atleast the ending should be tied up and not be completely depressing. Some of the endings to the individual stories in the Sil are just that - depressing. Some of them are "happy" but it is hard to have a happy ending when almost all the main characters die. Can you imagine filming LotR if in the book Frodo, Sam, Merry, Gimli, and just for the heck of it, let's throw in Eomer, Eowyn, and Legolas, all died? You would have your king, and at least one of the Hobbits is still alive, but all the rest died. It wouldn't work. Maybe that is an extreme example, but basically that is how I see the Sil coming out if you tried to do the whole thing.<P>The long and the short of it is I don't think you could make the Sil a movie that does justice to the book. I know people said the same thing about LotR but I think that the Sil entails a lot more problems than LotR did.