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An interview with screenwriter Philippa Boyens

News from Bree
spymaster@theonering.net

Nov 19 2012, 9:47am

Post #1 of 13 (1386 views)
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An interview with screenwriter Philippa Boyens Can't Post

[caption id="attachment_65441" align="alignright" width="300"]Philippa Boyens. Photo: KENT BLECHYNDEN/Fairfax NZ Philippa Boyens. Photo: KENT BLECHYNDEN/Fairfax NZ[/caption] Wellington's Philippa Boyens is one of the most successful screenwriters in the world. She's won an Oscar, a Bafta and has been a nominee for many more, including a Writers Guild of America Award.

Boyens owes much of this to her screenwriting debut with Sir Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings. She went on to co-write King Kong and The Lovely Bones with Jackson and Fran Walsh, as well as co-produce both films.

So with the fruits of her most recent labour, the US$500 million trilogy The Hobbit, soon to be revealed to the world with the release in December of An Unexpected Journey, we'd be forgiven for assuming Boyens was keen from the very beginning to return to Middle-earth.

When asked, there's a long pause before she answers. "I loved the world. I loved [JRR] Tolkien's writing. [But] I think there was a quality about myself where I felt like 'I'd done it'," she says while in Wellington.

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Eleniel
Dor-Lomin


Nov 19 2012, 3:02pm

Post #2 of 13 (879 views)
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Intriguing... [In reply to] Can't Post


Quote
"We could have introduced a female human character. But we decided on an elf. There was a little story thread in Lord of the Rings that we wanted to pick up on and develop and it involved a very feminine energy, so we decided to use it and the character of Tauriel came into being."



Surely not...Xenarwen????? Wink


"Choosing Trust over Doubt gets me burned once in a while, but I'd rather be singed than hardened."
¯ Victoria Monfort






painjoiker
Hithlum


Nov 19 2012, 3:25pm

Post #3 of 13 (833 views)
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At least this confirmes that Smaug will die as he does in the book! // [In reply to] Can't Post

 

Vocalist in the semi-progressive metal band Arctic Eclipse


Bombadil
Gondolin


Nov 19 2012, 3:34pm

Post #4 of 13 (802 views)
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Istn't this article already over on Main?/// [In reply to] Can't Post

 


burgahobbit
Nargothrond


Nov 19 2012, 7:50pm

Post #5 of 13 (720 views)
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Interesting quote on Smaug [In reply to] Can't Post

More evidence that Sauron will take up Smaug's body or resurrect it in BOFA? Sure, it says that Smaug will die where he does in the book. But it doesn't say that's the end of Smaug.


Quote
Smaug, in the book, dies a good way before the story ends. "What's that all about? You don't want to be restarting the story. The death of the dragon has to be part of a bigger whole," Boyens says.


Lacrimae Rerum
Hithlum

Nov 19 2012, 7:55pm

Post #6 of 13 (701 views)
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Haha - I'm not sure that passes Occam's test! [In reply to] Can't Post

 


There&ThereAgain
Nargothrond


Nov 19 2012, 8:27pm

Post #7 of 13 (683 views)
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she's amazing [In reply to] Can't Post

I feel like I'm very in tune to her thought process as a writer.

She has good instincts about story structure.

"The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair; and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater."-J.R.R. Tolkien

"Thanks for the money!" -George Lucas


There&ThereAgain
Nargothrond


Nov 19 2012, 8:28pm

Post #8 of 13 (687 views)
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the death of smaug as an instigator of events [In reply to] Can't Post

which it is in the book. He's the reason for the final battle. That's why I hope he dies at the beginning of part 3 instead of the end of part 2. His death isn't a climax.

"The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair; and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater."-J.R.R. Tolkien

"Thanks for the money!" -George Lucas


Ardamírë
Doriath


Nov 19 2012, 11:36pm

Post #9 of 13 (634 views)
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Completely agreed [In reply to] Can't Post

For a long time I didn't understand that his death wasn't a climax. Then in the past few years as we've been discussing the 2-film split and now the 3-film split, I finally realized that his death is what you said - the instigator of events.

I very much hope that that's what Philippa meant, because that's really what is supported by the story. And I hope that Smaug's death is reserved for film 3 because of it.

"...and his first memory of Middle-earth was the green stone above her breast as she sang above his cradle while Gondolin was still in flower." -Unfinished Tales


totoro
Menegroth

Nov 20 2012, 9:52am

Post #10 of 13 (545 views)
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I think it would work if Smaug died at the end of TDOS [In reply to] Can't Post

That's not a prediction, but I don't see why it couldn't work. The start of TBO5A could do a rehash kind of like was done for the death of GtheG.


Fardragon
Nargothrond

Nov 20 2012, 10:16am

Post #11 of 13 (532 views)
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It wouldn't work [In reply to] Can't Post

because a lot of people would assume that the death of the dragon was the climax of the story, and wouldn't see the point in going to see the third film.

A Far Dragon is the best kind...


DanielLB
Elvenhome


Nov 20 2012, 10:21am

Post #12 of 13 (550 views)
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Not if the film-makers are clever about it ... [In reply to] Can't Post

Your right, in that if people don't realise there is more to the story than the dragon's death, then people won't see the point in another 3 hour film.

If, however, they set up the repurcussions of the death of Smaug at the end of the film, then it will easily draw people back in.

The could show the Dwarves swimming in the gold (unsure of where Smaug is), the marching army of Goblintown, and Thranduil and Laketown making a pact to march to Erebor.

Want Hobbit Movie News? Hobbit Headlines of the Week!



Michelle Johnston
Mithlond


Mar 23 2013, 11:22am

Post #13 of 13 (513 views)
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The character inspiration for Tauriel [In reply to] Can't Post

"We could have introduced a female human character. But we decided on an elf. There was a little story thread in Lord of the Rings that we wanted to pick up on and develop and it involved a very feminine energy, so we decided to use it and the character of Tauriel came into being."

As the majority of my Tolkien books are currently in storage I decided to down load Unfinished Tales which has a good deal to say about among other matters Lothlorien's history. One of Tolkien's last musings was on the back story to the Song Of Nimrodel chanted by Legolas in the Fellowship of The Ring. I was drawn to this section because Phillipa's words, replayed above, made me consider Nimrodel.

Nimrodel, was a silvan elf, who falls in love with a Sindarian Prince. It is a story of unrequited love and in particular a love that demands much but offers much of herself. I am wondering whether Tauriel who is the leader of the Elven Guard of the King has an unresolved love for Thranduil. Nimrodel whilst loving Amroth resented the coming of the Sindar, the consequences of the wars of Beleriand and fled from her home because of the coming of the Balrog and the incursion of Orcs thus resulting. She may resent the various incomings but ultimately she takes action though at the ultimate personal cost.

We have heard of her dedication to Thranduil and her emotional back ground may give that dedication its femine energy .Thranduil is already seen as antipathetic towards the needs of outsiders and dealing with the consequences of their actions. She may echo that feeling and equally resent the incoming of the Dwarves.

It may be it is Legolas, whom is in conflict with this isolationism, spending time on the boarders looking outwards, echoing other great eleven heros of the first age at the borders of Doriath that is at odds with both his father and Tauriel . PJ has been quick to deny romance between L & T they may indeed sit on opposite sides of the politics of the woodland realm.

All in all Tauriel, Thranduil and Legolas have the potential to grow beyond their non appearance or limited one, in the case of Thranduil, and echo and play out their parts in the tradition and driven by similiar emotional drivers to other Tolkiens characters.

I am well aware that UT is off limits but poetry in the LOTR is not.

I tried to save the shire , and it has been but not for me.

(This post was edited by Michelle Johnston on Mar 23 2013, 11:26am)

 
 

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