Film Rights to First & Second Age

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

Appendix A does, however, include a long synopsis of the story of the downfall of Numenor and the establishment of the realms in exile. One could, then, imagine the holders of the film rights attempting to produce an adaptation of this story (though there is, of course, vastly more material on the same subject that is not within their rights).

But that's the problem– such an adaption would have to be either very sparse or completely inauthentic. All the detail's in the Akallabêth. I mean, the Appendix A version has one line of dialogue and says nothing about Amandil sailing West or Sauron's human sacrifice cult or Isildur rescuing the seedling of the White Tree.

The only way I can see to get round this is for the filmmakers to say they're drawing on Appendix A, then sneak in Akallabêth material to flesh the story out. They'd have to be prepared to go to court over it, though.