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New Tolkien biopic movie in the works with some producers from LOTR

News from Bree
spymaster@theonering.net

Nov 7 2016, 2:58pm

Post #1 of 16 (2283 views)
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New Tolkien biopic movie in the works with some producers from LOTR Can't Post

J  R  R Tolkien



It looks like audiences will get to see a film about the origins of Middle-earth in a new film called "Middle Earth." More on the name in a moment.

The Hollywood Reporter announced this morning the film will chart "the tumultuous events" that inspired J.R.R. Tolkien to write "The Hobbit," and "The Lord of the Rings," trilogy. (Actually the article said "trilogies," but there is only one trilogy, as you know.) It is to be directed by James Strong who might be most easily recognizable as the director of two episodes of "Downton Abbey," with the films "United," with episodes of "Dr. Who," as well.

The film also pairs two of the men who played a big role in Peter Jackson's LOTR trilogy with New Line Cinema Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne. They were the gentlemen who helped get those movies made when most of Hollywood wouldn't touch them. Later they had a falling out with Jackson and eventually New Line collapsed and was swallowed by Warner Bros.

Shaye and Lynee will produce the new film through their Unique Features with Rachael Horovitz. Strong is currently directing the AMC/ITV miniseries "Liar," according to the article.

Now, about that name. J.R.R. Tolkien distinctly named his created world "Middle-earth" not "Middle Earth." If you think that isn't a big deal, remember he was a professor of languages and literature who worked on the dictionary and created the whole thing in the first place because he was a linguist who was inventing languages.

So while it is easy to forgive a fan using Middle-earth as two words with capital letters, not so much in movie titles. Warner Bros., for example, while taking creative license with "The Hobbit," got it right virtually every, single, time. To Tolkien, the subject of the biography, language matters.

And, to reverse things, nobody would excuse a title about the place "San-francisco" and not find it odd.

Making a biography about Tolkien, supposedly telling the story of his life, and getting that detail wrong in the title could be a bad sign.

On the other hand, this could be just a simple oversight by The Hollywood Reporter writer, but hey, the story also included a picture of Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins instead a picture of, you know, The Professor, so a mistake sounds pretty reasonable. That and stating that Tolkien had two trilogies makes it seem as least possible as a writer's error. However, most of the info sounds like it was taken from a press release, which would prominently feature a title.

In any case, fans have more Tolkien and more about the creation of Middle-earth to look forward to.

If you haven't read "J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography," by Humpfrey Carpenter, it is essential. And, "Tolkien and the Great War," by John Garth, is also excellent and sounds like the ground the film will attempt to cover.



Silmaril
Rohan


Nov 8 2016, 8:08am

Post #2 of 16 (2227 views)
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Hmmm...could be great... [In reply to] Can't Post

but also very bad. Let's see.


dormouse
Half-elven


Nov 8 2016, 9:08am

Post #3 of 16 (2226 views)
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I second the 'hmmm'...... [In reply to] Can't Post

Lots of cringeworthy things in that report, as you've pointed out. I wonder about 'charting the tumultuous events' - do we assume this is a film about the First World War? Or both world wars? I can't think of any other events in Tolkien's life that could be called 'tumultuous' - the early losses of his parents were quiet, personal tragedies and the life of an academic is also a rather quiet affair. And I hope all those years of interviews and archival research will have told the scriptwriter at least that Tolkien wasn't married in 1914.

Of course, the mistakes may be down to the article rather than the script - and the script and attitude of the writer will be vital to this. I've never heard of Angus Fletcher, but looking him up he's an academic who has written about American poetry - that sounds quite hopeful to me. I also take some heart from the director, hoping that some of Downton Abbey's attention to accurate period detail will have rubbed off on him!

For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood and every spring
there is a different green. . .


OldestDaughter
Rohan


Nov 8 2016, 4:07pm

Post #4 of 16 (2203 views)
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Very much looking forward to it. [In reply to] Can't Post

 




"Keen, heart-piercing was her song as the song of the lark that rises from the gates of night and pours its voice among the dying stars, seeing the sun behind the walls of the world; and the song of Lúthien released the bonds of winter, and the frozen waters spoke, and flowers sprang from the cold earth where her feet had passed."


Ingwion
Lorien


Nov 8 2016, 5:08pm

Post #5 of 16 (2198 views)
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I third it................ [In reply to] Can't Post

If it's fairly accurate, it could turn out well. If not, nope.


It was a foggy day in London, and the fog was heavy and dark. Animate London, with smarting eyes and irritated lungs, was blinking, wheezing, and choking; inanimate London was a sooty spectre, divided in purpose between being visible and invisible, and so being wholly neither. - Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens.

It is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance that is in this Earth; and many of the Children of Ilúvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen. - The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien


geordie
Tol Eressea

Nov 8 2016, 7:00pm

Post #6 of 16 (2187 views)
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It says here - [In reply to] Can't Post

- "when war broke out in 1914, disrupting his Oxford life with his wife Edith Bratt, Tolkien embarked on four years of battle, hardship, and new friendships, which served to shape his imagination and start him on the path to Middle Earth."

nope - Ronald and Edith weren't married in 1914. Seems someone doesn't know Tolkien's biography. This does not bode well.


wizzardly
Rohan


Nov 8 2016, 10:39pm

Post #7 of 16 (2164 views)
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hmm... [In reply to] Can't Post

If it has the blessing of the Tolkien estate, Christopher Tolkien's in particular, it could be decent, otherwise it will likely be another pile of garbage from Hollywood.


dormouse
Half-elven


Nov 8 2016, 10:54pm

Post #8 of 16 (2167 views)
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Doesn't, does it.... [In reply to] Can't Post

..that one sentence is wrong on so many counts. Not only the date of the marriage, as we've both pointed out, but pretty much everything else in it. The outbreak of war in 1914 didn't disrupt his Oxford life - he carried on with his degree before enlisting. And he can hardly have been said to have embarked on four years of battle when he didn't go to France until 1916, became ill before the year's end and afterwards served the rest of the war at home. I don't remember reading about any significant friendships from that period either - I thought the war for him was more about his TCBS friends and their loss. I'm not saying this to minimase his experience in any way, or the effect it had on him, but if this is a faithful reflection of the film it doesn't sound like his war at all.

We can but hope that this is just the person who wrote the article and the screen writer knows better.

For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood and every spring
there is a different green. . .


wizzardly
Rohan


Nov 8 2016, 11:03pm

Post #9 of 16 (2161 views)
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yes... [In reply to] Can't Post

Significant problems in just the "press release" stage...this is not looking good. Hollywood should really just stick to super heroes and transformers. Tolkien deserves better.


moreorless
Gondor

Nov 9 2016, 1:27am

Post #10 of 16 (2150 views)
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There does seem like potential for this to be rather cliched... [In reply to] Can't Post


In Reply To
..that one sentence is wrong on so many counts. Not only the date of the marriage, as we've both pointed out, but pretty much everything else in it. The outbreak of war in 1914 didn't disrupt his Oxford life - he carried on with his degree before enlisting. And he can hardly have been said to have embarked on four years of battle when he didn't go to France until 1916, became ill before the year's end and afterwards served the rest of the war at home. I don't remember reading about any significant friendships from that period either - I thought the war for him was more about his TCBS friends and their loss. I'm not saying this to minimase his experience in any way, or the effect it had on him, but if this is a faithful reflection of the film it doesn't sound like his war at all.

We can but hope that this is just the person who wrote the article and the screen writer knows better.


There does seem to be to be the potential for this to be rather clichéd in terms of romance broken up by WW1 that does little to shed specific light on Tolkien specifically, especially having a director known for English costume drama like Downton Abbey attached. That kind of film generally as well generally seems to be very focused on the upper classes when you could argue its really the mixing of the classes on the front that had one of the most significant impacts on Tolkien.

Its of course highly unlikely due to rights issues but I'v often thought that an interesting film to make would actually be a Tolkien biopic mixed in with parts of the Silmarillion that he was writing/imagining, That would I think have the duel advantage of getting around the books rather more impersonal nature and meaning there would be less need to shift the biographical sections towards more over the top action/romance. You could I spose substitute the Silmarillion for ancient texts he had interest in such a Beowulf and the Kalevala that influenced him that would get around the rights issue.


(This post was edited by moreorless on Nov 9 2016, 1:40am)


dormouse
Half-elven


Nov 9 2016, 9:03am

Post #11 of 16 (2119 views)
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That's a very interesting idea.... [In reply to] Can't Post

...combining Tolkien's outer life with the things that were coming alive in his imagination. It would be a way round the fact that the story they're trying to tell isn't really about 'tumultuous events' in the outer world at all - outwardly his life was not so very different from any of his contemporaries. The closest parallel I can think of in film terms, where the writer's life blends with the writer's imagined world, would be Miss Potter - though of course Tolkien's imagined world would be altogether different. Finding Neverland is another.

It can be done but it's a much more subtle and small-scale drama.

Far as English costume drama goes, I've seen that comment about a focus on upper classes made several times recently and I have to say I don't agree. I've seen a lot of costume drama - BBC especially - focussed on the urban or rural poor and aspects of working class life, both dramatisations of the classics and based on new writing. Downton was more of an exception, I'd say, and it was such a success as a piece of escapism. I can't see how class would be an issue in a Tolkien film because neither he nor Edith was upper class. The one thing I think might be hopeful in having a director involved with Downton is that they paid such close attention to period detail and getting it right - and I think that's worthwhile in any period drama.

For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood and every spring
there is a different green. . .


moreorless
Gondor

Nov 9 2016, 9:13am

Post #12 of 16 (2115 views)
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He wasnt upper class but he was well edcuated middle class... [In reply to] Can't Post


In Reply To
...combining Tolkien's outer life with the things that were coming alive in his imagination. It would be a way round the fact that the story they're trying to tell isn't really about 'tumultuous events' in the outer world at all - outwardly his life was not so very different from any of his contemporaries. The closest parallel I can think of in film terms, where the writer's life blends with the writer's imagined world, would be Miss Potter - though of course Tolkien's imagined world would be altogether different. Finding Neverland is another.

It can be done but it's a much more subtle and small-scale drama.

Far as English costume drama goes, I've seen that comment about a focus on upper classes made several times recently and I have to say I don't agree. I've seen a lot of costume drama - BBC especially - focussed on the urban or rural poor and aspects of working class life, both dramatisations of the classics and based on new writing. Downton was more of an exception, I'd say, and it was such a success as a piece of escapism. I can't see how class would be an issue in a Tolkien film because neither he nor Edith was upper class. The one thing I think might be hopeful in having a director involved with Downton is that they paid such close attention to period detail and getting it right - and I think that's worthwhile in any period drama.


Tolkien wasn't upper class but he was well educated middle class and he stated that WW1 opened his eyes much more to the working classes than they had been previously due to the social mix that took place.

The description of the film as a sort of epic romance for me doesn't seem like something that obviously informed his writing with LOTR. Surely the obvious influence is Sam Gamgee as Frodo;s WW1 batman and a general focus on the positives of the simple life unencumbered by ambition.


dormouse
Half-elven


Nov 9 2016, 11:11am

Post #13 of 16 (2110 views)
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Yes.... [In reply to] Can't Post

That was a common experience for the junior officers in the First World War, who were mostly middle/upper middle class boys like Tolkien, educated in public schools, good grammar schools & university. They had platoons of men from completely different backgrounds and it was their duty to look after them - really look after them, even down to inspecting their feet and making sure their billets were OK. That's why they had servants - like Sam. They didn't always have time to attend to their own things. It did teach them a lot about how other people lived and helped build good relationships between classes.

For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood and every spring
there is a different green. . .


squire
Half-elven


Nov 9 2016, 1:10pm

Post #14 of 16 (2110 views)
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Another direction the film should explore is his Catholicism [In reply to] Can't Post

Tolkien was educated and middle-class, of course, but as a devout Catholic he was a religious minority in a country with a long history of marginalizing, if not persecuting, religious minorities. Even the educated settings (Leeds and Oxford) where he worked offered constant reminders, we see from his letters, that he felt a bit 'cut out' of the world he lived and worked in. The religiosity, and uses of an angel class of gods, seen in his preludes to the Silmarillion cycle from the very beginning, would be something a good biopic would really go to town with - not to mention his deliberate aversion to making Middle-earth a replay of the Christian story (as C S Lewis did, when his turn to write fantasy rolled around several decades later).

I admit I doubt the film will dwell too heavily on this, but I think it's a lot more important to understanding his early work than the presence of the lower class Sam Gamgee in a book he wrote very much later, in the 1940s. There is no real exploration of class in The Silmarillion, unless you count the way the various tribes and races interact.



squire online:
RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'.
Archive: All the TORn Reading Room Book Discussions (including the 1st BotR Discussion!) and Footerama: "Tolkien would have LOVED it!"
Dr. Squire introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary


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dormouse
Half-elven


Nov 9 2016, 1:57pm

Post #15 of 16 (2104 views)
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Agreed.... [In reply to] Can't Post

The question of classes only came up in the context of the war, which they seem to be emphasising for the film. His Catholicism is much more important: how far they'll explore it in the film is another matter, but without it the film won't be his story.

For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood and every spring
there is a different green. . .


Belegdir
Lorien


Nov 9 2016, 8:18pm

Post #16 of 16 (2074 views)
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I fear [In reply to] Can't Post

Hollywood focusing on his time during in the war by putting a Webley in his hand and making it more action oriented. That would be dreadful.

 
 

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