HOB - Chapters into Scenes Weekly

[Tuor in Gondolin]

It mat have been Shippey who suggested a gradually
increasingly serious threat by the dangers posed to
Thorin & Co. in TH. If that's the case then it could make
sense to make the troll episode fairly lighthearted,
although I must confess I've been a bit discordant to
hear their cockney accents (in light of later LOTR).

Btw, I've been listening to a series of Tolkien based
lecture tapes about fantasy literature I got at Barnes
and Noble Bookstores where the lecturer argues for
the trolls speech being a deliberate class separation
by Tolkien.

[Thenamir]

Do forgive me as well for being late to this discussion, especially as I was one of the first posters to express some interest in carrying it on.

There is merit to all of the proposed prologue/openings, but there is a part of the Tolkien fan and purist in me that wants to see the opening moments look something like this:

After the last of the interminable trailers for upcoming features, and the obligatory New Line logo, the screen fades to black for a few moments. Quietly, almost imperceptibly (i.e. just louder than the crunching popcorn from the moviegoer next to you), the score begins -- soft strings play a theme not unlike the Shire theme from FOTR but slower, more muted, as if not quite awake yet, as we see the "New Line Cinema presents" and the "A Wingnut Films Production", then the screen fades up.

The view is from aloft, flying (less like a plane, more like a hot-air balloon) over a lush green countryside in the twilight before sunrise. As we drift along, seeing the mist hanging low in the valleys, the music and the light rise in tandem and we begin to descend and zoom in on a small village town. Now, purposefully, you can see that we are coming in from a great distance to a particular door -- a round door in the side of a hill. And as the music reaches a peak-point, the sunlight breaks over the hill, illumining the hill and the door, and you hear the voice of Ian Holm (or whoever plays Bilbo) speak aloud,

"In a hole in the ground...there lived a Hobbit."

Cue the title card, pan around to the window, where you see Bilbo taking a cup of tea to his desk, a large red book open to the first words of "There and Back Again"

Finish the rest of the opening credits however you want, but you MUST have those famous words!

[skip spence]

^Great post, Thenamir. I could see it play out crisp and clear in my head and have nothing to add. That would be a great opening scene.

As for the trolls, I agree with the posters who opted for a more humourous approach. Of course, the party are in grave danger and it should show, but if the director can't see the great potential for comedy in having three cockney trolls arguing how to best cook a bunch of dwarves he should pursue a different carreer.

And isn't it a known fact that orcses, football hooligans and other likeminded scum speak English with a cockney accent?