Quote:
Originally Posted by joeneri
The best way to do a movie of the Silmarillion is to pick up where LOTR left off: Frodo is on his way to Elvenhome and begins asking quesitons and, soon enough, the stories of the Silmarillion are told to him: Beren and Luthien (told by Gandalf, who was always concerned with Aragorn's ancestry); Turin (told by Galadriel, who was close with Melian in Doriath where Turin was fostered) and The Fall of Gondolin (told by Elron, whose grandfather, Tuor, was involved with. Tolkien, himself, laid out these three stories as the most important of all his Eldar Days legends according to his son, Christopher. Why not follow his own outline with a prologue about Feanor and the making of the jewels to the fall of Fingolfin which would lead to the story of Luthien for the first film? Turin's story is the most completely developed and acts as a natural bridge to the third movie, the Fall of Gondolin and then an epilogue concerning Elrond's father and brother that lay the seeds for the future conflicts with Sauron.
Naturally, it would have to be three movies with the same budget or more that LOTR had.
Or, you could do an HBO series, ala "Rome" and cover everyone.
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I guess I wouldn't mind seeing The Silmarillion as a very long miniseries, be it live action or animated (I haven't seen "Rome," but I guess that's the course to take). Any film on the Silmarillion must be given plenty of time for the story to play out or it will be doomed. Never mind making a Hollywood film. That would be nonsense, and I still haven't seen Peter Jacksons' films (though I'll get too it eventually).
I would prefer to see a Silmarillion documentary more so than a movie. In the US, the History Channel has put out some really good documentaries over the last few years, and I think their style could carry over quite well for the Silmarillion. Take the documentary "The Dark Ages" from 2007 as an example. Just round up some Tolkien scholars to tell the stories in the Silmarillion, interweave their interviews with art work and dramatic reenactments with a solid cast. No need for costly actors or anything like that. The budget would mostly go to wardrobe, special effects, and things like that.
No, I'm not going anywhere near the discussion about the Tolkien Estate. It's okay to be hypothetical in conversations like this.