The rights to the work are owned by the Tolkien estate, which includes members of the Tolkien family on its board, including Christopher Tolkien’s wife and son.
1 Like
let me guess?
is it Bezos’s solds man, so that he doesn’t throw any tantrums and modify the series to his liking for a few cents?
but it will not do anything for what I see, how much Amazon had paid to shut their mouths for anything?
Amazon didn’t wanted this series to be made with Tolkiens vision
They wanted this series based on their vision and this is… a tragedy
2 Likes
Unfortunately 
Actually “The Silmarillion” is the First, Second, and Third Age, since it includes “Akallabeth” and “Of The Rings Of Power And The Third Age”. It also includes material from before the First Age since it includes “Ainulindale” as well.
Now “Quenta Silmarillion” is indeed concerned only with The First Age, including the Years of The Lamps and the Trees.
Yours for clarity.
3 Likes
Weird choice since I always thought she was a prophet/magician.
I don’t really care what they do, I was just clarifying that the intellectual property is, in fact, owned, and that the Tolkien family is still involved.
I would argue The Hobbit movies are bad in and of themselves. They border on cartoons, especially the action sequences, and the CGI is already aging badly. The comedy mostly failed. Most of the Dwarves were forgettable, particularly if you didn’t read the books. Even Jackson has said the final product suffered because the studios rushed his process.
The soundtrack, Martin Freeman, and Radaghast were the only highlights of that trilogy.
3 Likes
I really couldn’t have said that better. I’ve been let down by so many games / shows lately that it has drained all the reason to get hyped anymore for me
1 Like
Also butchered Loial too… literally
1 Like
The show looks like it should be about Elder Scrolls. Not a single thing about the trailer or characters look like its from LOTR. None of the actors even look like the characters they are supposed to be playing. Elrond with short hair? Galadriel in human armor with a sword? etc
Good point, though the bulk of the Silmarillion does focus on the First Age.
That said, Amazon doesn’t have the rights to the Silmarillion or any stories mentioned only in the Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales. They only have the rights to The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the Appendices. They can, however, include First and Second Age events that are referenced in any of those three works.
Galadriel isn’t in human armor - that’s pretty clearly elvish styled armor. Both Galadriel and Elrond are also several thousands of years younger in Rings of Power than they are in Lord of the Rings - thus looking different.
Young Elrond’s short hair did bug me for a bit, though it’s starting to grow on me over time, once I joked that it’s Elrond going through his late teen/early 20s emo/rebellious phase. XD
I’m pretty sure the rights to make new long-form TV shows and films based on The Hobbit and LOTR rest with the Saul Zaentz Company, due to JRR selling off his rights to them in the 1970s. There is some noise that SZC might be moving to sell off those rights this year, and I’m sure Bezos would love to have them.
From a recent Vanity Fair article: http s://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/02/10-burning-questions-about-amazons-the-rings-of-power
“We have the rights solely to The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, the appendices, and The Hobbit,” Payne says. “And that is it. We do not have the rights to The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth, or any of those other books.”
IIRC, the Tolkien estate also stipulated that the series must be set in the Second Age (outside of flashbacks and such).
[edit] To add, the article I linked is a really good interview and helped assuage some of my concerns about the series. I’m still cautious in my optimism, but I’m not willing to write off the show before we even get the first full trailer.
J.R.Tolkien - the Lore there it’s really impressive.
The trailer reveals strange things.
I thought it’s something about Narniaa
Where are the Balrogs , the Orcs …
Galadriel …Golden hair ? Instead a princess warrior
The second to last shot is a glimpse of Finrod in what may be the Dagor Bragollach. He’s standing in front of a number of other elven soldiers shouting at someone off camera (possibly getting hurt) and surrounded by orcs. The flames in the upper right of the shot have been speculated to be a Balrog, which were present at the Dagor Bragollach.
Her hair looks pretty blonde to me. She was also not always the lofty queen of Lothlorien (she is a princess, though). Tolkien repeatedly compares Galadriel to an Amazon warrior in letters. Her name means “maiden crowned with a radiant garland”, and Tolkien has written that this is in reference to her braiding her hair about her head to keep it out of the way in combat.
Speaking of combat, she is recorded to have participated in several battles, including the Kinslaying at Alqualondë. She also crossed the Helcaraxë with Fingolfin and many others, was part of (and possibly lead, though references are extremely sparse and unclear) the attack on Dol Guldor with the White Council, very likely was involved in the battles when Dol Guldur assaulted Lorien 3 times, and that’s only the stuff I can remember and confirmed with Google searches. I’m fairly sure there are likely others.
Sooooo… it sounds like your complaints are based on not knowing the source material?
1 Like
woke crap, /10 char
1 Like
Real talk, the casting is just 100% because it’s a convenient shield against legitimate criticisms. They know that there’ll be people on “both sides” of the political spectrum who’ll argue and make it all about race and casting so they can handwave away ANY criticisms about the show and dismiss it as “racism”. All of those in this thread arguing on either side of that particular issue are already running interference for Amazon and this project.
As I stated early, the bigger issue is going to be trying to make it into some “shades of gray” type show where they lay the Moral Relativism on thicker than chunky peanut butter, and constantly bombarding us with modern day Allegory, despite, again, Tolkien’s very vocal disdain for both.
1 Like
I’m skeptical. Amazon hasn’t shown that they could do must see TV yet. They have a few good shows but nothing that’s a must watch.
1 Like
Reacher is good… just saying
but you’re pretty much right
1 Like