Ten, and twenty and thirty years on.....

[Elladan and Elrohir]

Lord of the Rings will never be remade, but not for the same reason Star Wars will never be remade.

In my opinion, the only reason Star Wars will never be remade is because of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford. Those three actors embodied their roles and helped to immortalize Lucas' galaxy. Yes, there is the matter that the movies are awesome, especially for their time, but to me, that's secondary.

Lord of the Rings will never be remade because there's no point. What's going to impress you in a remake? They've already got ten thousand Uruk-Hai attacking Helm's Deep, they've already got the camera following Leggy's arrow right into an Orc's forehead, and they've already got the epic Pelennor Fields. What can really be improved? Sure, I know technology twenty years from now may make LOTR seem to us like the old Star Wars now do, but I don't see how it can be improved upon much.

Like it or not, Peter Jackson has made the definitive Lord of the Rings, for film.

My $0.02.

[Neurion]

Originally Posted by Elladan and Elrohir

Lord of the Rings will never be remade because there's no point. What's going to impress you in a remake? They've already got ten thousand Uruk-Hai attacking Helm's Deep, they've already got the camera following Leggy's arrow right into an Orc's forehead, and they've already got the epic Pelennor Fields. What can really be improved? Sure, I know technology twenty years from now may make LOTR seem to us like the old Star Wars now do, but I don't see how it can be improved upon much.

It's too bad I can't visually show you how I'd change it (hopefully for the better).

Unfortunately, no one can really be told how it could be improved- you have to see it for yourself.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Elladan and Elrohir

Lord of the Rings will never be remade because there's no point. What's going to impress you in a remake? They've already got ten thousand Uruk-Hai attacking Helm's Deep, they've already got the camera following Leggy's arrow right into an Orc's forehead, and they've already got the epic Pelennor Fields. What can really be improved? Sure, I know technology twenty years from now may make LOTR seem to us like the old Star Wars now do, but I don't see how it can be improved upon much.

Like it or not, Peter Jackson has made the definitive Lord of the Rings, for film.

I would have to disagree. Hollywood is notorious for remaking films ad nauseum - whether the remake is better, worse, exact, modified - as they tend to go with what works/worked. And aren't plays by Shakespeare still being performed? How old's that stuff, and hasn't all of his works been done to death?

There was a time when the Bakshi movie was the end-all, be-all, yet here we are in another century with a new production. Think what life will be like in 20 or 30 years. If I were to look back that much time, most if not all of what you may take for granted wasn't here, wasn't available or wasn't even imagined. Think the original Star Trek TV series - in the Sixties people couldn't even conceive that in the 23d century that a person could carry a device with a color image screen, like most cell phones have today. Look at the evolution of computers! What will they bring to the movies in that many years? Like no more live actors ?

Plus, back in the Glorious 80's, my friends and I started filming our own version of LOTR. Surely JRRT is grave-spinning due to our 'rewrite ,' yet we too were inspired by the books to make a movie. Wanna bet that there's someone out there right now who has read the books and/or watched the PJ movies and thinks that he/she can make a better flick?

Anyway, I've posted my thoughts earlier in the thread, but just wanted to point out that LOTR will be remade in my lifetime..hopefully by my children so that I can due a cameo - I have my carrot at the ready.

[Bêthberry]

Most here are, I would think, assuming some kind of straightforward remake of the LotR. Yet once the copyright wears out--will it ever?--there could well be many different takes on how to re-imagine the story for film.

I can imagine a film made solely from, say, Eowyn's POV. It wouldn't begin with The Shire of course, but it would cover aspects of the story only lightly treated in the books and instead of glorifying a return of the king it could feature the problems peole in Ithilien and Rohan face in restoring some semblance of social order. What about the battle in Erebor and Dale? Would it be possible to create a film which so thoroughly eclipsed the story of the Ring? Now that would be a creative challenge.

Would a post-modern, sardonic version be possible which would focus on the long defeat rather than Frodo and Sam's heroism? How about a completely revisited version set in the Seventh Age? It's done with Shakespeare, as Alatar suggests.

Would that someone as creative as Zhang Yimou conceive of such a remake.

[Neurion]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Most I can imagine a film made solely from, say, Eowyn's POV. It wouldn't begin with The Shire of course, but it would cover aspects of the story only lightly treated in the books and instead of glorifying a return of the king it could feature the problems peole in Ithilien and Rohan face in restoring some semblance of social order.

Interesting idea.

By the same the same token, I'd love to see a "grunt's-eye-view" film, showing the perspective of the average Gondorian soldier.

[Mithalwen]

In "my version" also would have a different viewpoint . One of the things that wasn't really tackled in PJ's version to my mind is the workings of destiny. I think I would have started in Gondor with the threat of war and Faramir's dream ....which summoned a son of Denethor to Imladris long before Frodo set out but more or less the same time as Gollum escapes the woodelves. Needless to say there would be lots more character development and a lot fewer tedious battle scenes.

[Anguirel]

Hmmm. Big surprise coming up; in my version...

...the entire story would be told through the eyes and voice of Maglor!

[Neurion]

Originally Posted by Anguirel

Hmmm. Big surprise coming up; in my version...

...the entire story would be told through the eyes and voice of Maglor!

With intermittent intervals for him to sing sad songs on his harp by the sea, no doubt.

[Anguirel]

Originally Posted by alatar

Plus, back in the Glorious 80's, my friends and I started filming our own version of LOTR. Surely JRRT is grave-spinning due to our 'rewrite ,' yet we too were inspired by the books to make a movie. Wanna bet that there's someone out there right now who has read the books and/or watched the PJ movies and thinks that he/she can make a better flick?

Me too! A couple of old schoolfriends and I are (painfully slowly) "remaking" LOTR...we've reached the Council of Elrond.

So far I've got myself the roles of Butterbur, Aragorn, Arwen and Boromir...one my friends is Sauron, Bilbo, Frodo, Pippin, and Legolas, while the other is Isildur, Gandalf, (a "gangsta rappin' wizard", somewhat to my horror, but undeniably amusingly), Sam, Merry and Gimli (in "prosthetics" consisting of all the overcoats and scarves in the house.)

Oh, and the Nazgul? Their dread number consists of two extremely threatening looking black cats, (quite difficult to film, but with rewarding results!), several black teddy bears on strings, and a badger handpuppet.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Anguirel

Me too! A couple of old schoolfriends and I are (painfully slowly) "remaking" LOTR...we've reached the Council of Elrond.

Good luck with your project. Is a visit to Cannes far off?

Our remake was entitled "The War of the Ring" as we didn't want anyone to confuse our version with that of Bakshi. We used many of the JRRT character names, included a Ring and sort of followed the general story line, but other than that it was mostly out of our heads. Definitely a spoof. I had a hand in writing the script, and so can say that not only was the screenplay atrocious, but the story made little sense. Given different names, one may never know that it was Tolkien-based (hmm...one might say that of other's works too ). I got to be Gandalf (I have no! acting abilities) and wrote myself a love interest named Tinúviel (I had a crush on the woman playing this character, and so... ).

Problem was that we received no support from our families, who just didn't get what we were doing - yes, it was like that back then too - nor a school program that we pretended to be doing the project for - "Sure, you can make a film for your class project; we just won't help you do it." And this was back in the days when VHS was just starting out. Our school had a videocamera, and we could *use* it, yet were not permitted to leave the school with it. Try shooting the Bridge scene or Weathertop in your school's hallway .

So we used Super 8MM film. Each minute of film cost about $5 (to buy it and have it developed), and as I made about $5 a week cutting lawns...well, you do the math. Every scene was run twice 'dry,' then we did the one and only final take. At times the script was rewritten to account for what was filmed. We drew up contracts for the actors, and part of their contract was that they had to supply their own costumes. One such costume was a white garbage bag! And my buddy spliced the scenes together using ordinary clear tape and scissors, and so you can see that it was a real production.

So we didn't get very far. Would like to start again sometime, but with the kids, don't have that kind of time to spend.

Note that this footage has become priceless as all of the cast and crew are now about 100 years older, and it's so funny to look back at how we looked and what we did, etc. So if you can, do it.

Anyway, again good luck.

[Archaic Elf]

Originally Posted by Elladan and Elrohir

Lord of the Rings will never be remade, but not for the same reason Star Wars will never be remade.

In my opinion, the only reason Star Wars will never be remade is because of Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford. Those three actors embodied their roles and helped to immortalize Lucas' galaxy. Yes, there is the matter that the movies are awesome, especially for their time, but to me, that's secondary.

Lord of the Rings will never be remade because there's no point. What's going to impress you in a remake? They've already got ten thousand Uruk-Hai attacking Helm's Deep, they've already got the camera following Leggy's arrow right into an Orc's forehead, and they've already got the epic Pelennor Fields. What can really be improved? Sure, I know technology twenty years from now may make LOTR seem to us like the old Star Wars now do, but I don't see how it can be improved upon much.

Like it or not, Peter Jackson has made the definitive Lord of the Rings, for film.

My $0.02.

Like Alatar said, every few decades, a classic film is remade. They just remade the Karate Kid for some reason. They'll probably want to remake the Rocky movies in thirty years with a younger actor that people will be fawning over at that time. They'll probably remake any major franchise that can be squeezed for a few more pennies. It's that simple.

PJ's film is not perfection, so someone will try to make it better in thirty years from now. Film studios will do anything if it turns a nice profit. The new films will probably be as far beyond Jacksons' films as Jackson was beyond the lame Bakshi film.

Star Wars won't be remade. No, Lucas will keep splicing out the footage of Harrison Ford and the others and putting them over newer and grander CG backgrounds. He's already done it a few times, and he'll do it a few more, taking on extra scenes in the process. Just wait till the Star Wars movies are ready for 3D.