Comments on: What Has It Got In Its Pocketses?

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 18:37:05 +0000

From the previews I’ve seen, the “expanded female role” appears to be a Gandalf-Galadriel romance — adulterous as it is, since Gandalf didn’t appear in Middle Earth until the Third Age, and Galadriel and Celeborn were married in Doriath.

In Tolkien’s version, Galadriel is part of the White Council, but said council is very much offstage (and dominated by Saruman, besides).

By: Brian Ulrich

Brian Ulrich — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:06:53 +0000

Also, I suspect that an expanded role in later films could be given to Tauriel.

By: Brian Ulrich

Brian Ulrich — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:59:12 +0000

According to wikipedia, actors have already been cast as Thror and Thrain. Since the prospective new filming is after the release date of the first movie, though, new stuff to make a third film would have to come after the early stages. I was thinking there’s actually a plausibly TH-LotR bridge movie focused on Aragorn, his hunt for Gollum, meeting and courtship of Arwen, and early rivalry with Denethor. You could also get the Erebor story up to the battle there in the War of the Ring, though the narrative line starts looking like that in Babylon 5’s In the Beginning.

By: Timothy Burke

Timothy Burke — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 20:37:42 +0000

Nasty elveses, with their spelling corrections.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:44:19 +0000

“Pocketses.”

Yes, precious.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:26:13 +0000

Makes sense.

I was asking myself the same question and came up with about the same first film you described, certainly with the same end-point, but could not figure out how to get two movies out of the rest of it.

I agree with your concerns about movie two. I think he can make the movie you describe, but I am worried it will be painfully filler-esque. FWIW it’s a good arc for a single movie: backstory/simple journey : variety of filler/divergent stories/etc. : ENDLESS FIGHTING. (Also a lot like his LotR, now that I think of it.) But when that middle becomes its own film and has nothing anchoring it on each end, ouch.

My only contribution is that it might be fun to run a pool on how long the Battle of the Five Armies will rage on screen. I am starting the bidding at 40 minutes.

As long as he doesn’t ruin Thorin, I’ll complain less than I did about LotR.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 19:20:49 +0000

Introducing Aragorn is going to be a little confusing. Although the Extended Editions of the films mention that he’s actually quite old and “blessed with long life,” this is the sort of pedantic detail most people aren’t going to remember. So seeing Viggo Mortensen looking more or less the same age in a story set 60 years earlier is going to be slightly odd for the non-Tolkienists in the audience.