Best Lotr/hobbit movies

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by PrinceOfTheHalflings

I would have thought that the Appendices were fair game, since they ARE part of "The Lord Of The Rings". I am unaware of any copyright law that says that only certain parts of a book are adaptable.

It's just what I've heard - that they can't adapt things from the Appendices that aren't referenced in the main body of the text. Someone here said that, although I can't remember who.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

It's just what I've heard - that they can't adapt things from the Appendices that aren't referenced in the main body of the text. Someone here said that, although I can't remember who.

This is news to me. Was it something that came up recently?

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

This is news to me. Was it something that came up recently?

No, it would have been a few years ago now, when the Hobbit films were coming out.

Now I feel like I'm going crazy

EDIT: Now that I think about it, I think it was more something like this:
If something is:
1. Mentioned in The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth etc., AND
2. Mentioned in the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, BUT
3. NOT Mentioned in the main body of the text of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit,
they can't use it.

I was oversimplifying before.
So this would mean, for instance, they couldn't make a film about Morgoth stealing the jewels and hiding them in Angband, with Fëanor waging a war to reclaim them, because while this is mentioned in the Appendices, it's not in the main body of the text and is primarily in The Silmarillion, if that makes sense.

On the other hand I could be completely wrong and these stipulations might not exist at all.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

No, it would have been a few years ago now, when the Hobbit films were coming out.

Now I feel like I'm going crazy

EDIT: Now that I think about it, I think it was more something like this:
If something is:
1. Mentioned in The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth etc., AND
2. Mentioned in the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, BUT
3. NOT Mentioned in the main body of the text of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit,
they can't use it.

I was oversimplifying before.
So this would mean, for instance, they couldn't make a film about Morgoth stealing the jewels and hiding them in Angband, with Fëanor waging a war to reclaim them, because while this is mentioned in the Appendices, it's not in the main body of the text and is primarily in The Silmarillion, if that makes sense.

On the other hand I could be completely wrong and these stipulations might not exist at all.

Well, there were those who argued that the mention of First and Second Age events in the Appendices somehow meant that the "Lord of the Rings" film rights extended to *all* related material, even if unpublished at the time. (One poster, in fact, was very insistant that Christopher Tolkien had morally and legally wronged Zaentz by publishing "The Silmarillion", and was anticipating a court case!)

What I can't recall is anyone proving the rights didn't even include the stuff in "The Appendices" in the first place. I'd love to be wrong, though...

[Kuruharan]

Here's a question: after the tepidly received Hobbit trilogy, would a Jackson made Appendices based movie even be at all successful?

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

Here's a question: after the tepidly received Hobbit trilogy, would a Jackson made Appendices based movie even be at all successful?

You mean this time people might check that everything claimed to be "in the Appendices" is actually there?

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

You mean this time people might check that everything claimed to be "in the Appendices" is actually there?

"When did Tolkien say that Radagast rode a rabbit sled?"
"...um, I think it was somewhere near the back..."

I think I saw something recently in which someone else had arrived at the same idea as me that the Kin-Strife was something "in the Appendices" that was ripe for adaptation.

I think if it was done in the manner of the "Hobbit" films, though, it would probably turn out that Castamir was secretly working directly for Sauron himself (perhaps meeting him in an audience chamber the way Darth Vader talks to the Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back) and Orcs would be sent to "reinforce" the Gondor usurpation armies.

Legolas would, of course, assist the Northmen. In the Battle of the Crossings of Erui (the title of the fifth film would be "The Battle of the Crossings of the Erui"), Legolas would kill Castamir on top of a collapsing tower, while Eldacar, who hasn't had a line since the third film, is forced to fight the evil, resurrected zombie version of his son Ornendil, who has been brought back through "certain necromantic magicks".

At the very end Thranduil (who is also there, mostly to second-guess Eldacar's decisions) would tell Legolas to "Seek out a young wizard I know."

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

You mean this time people might check that everything claimed to be "in the Appendices" is actually there?

No, I mean would people turn up at the theater and plunk down money for another Jackson Middle-earth flick?