so I'm gonna need several hundred million dollars to make a trilogy of movies. And I'm gonna make all 3 before we even see if the first is well received
yeah it's based on some incredibly nerdy books most people would pick on you for liking
my credentials? Ah made a few tacky looking low budget flops, would honestly rather you didn't check, they're fairly embarassing
Fucking how?
based on some incredibly nerdy books most people would pick on you for liking.
False. You mean the most popular and beloved fantasy book ever written that pretty much single handedly created the modern genre? I agree with your other points, it was a hard sell. But the studio knew LOTR had the potential to print money.
he musta sucked the bone marrow out of harvey
I wonder if the modern view of Elves as beautiful and elevated dudes was Tolkien's idea? It's just that even in the Ralph Bakshi cartoon it's more or less like that.
This.
Big Harv knew where the gold was. He made Ben Affleck's career after all.
Remember that the elves in Jackson's films are quite different from those in Tolkien's books. The ones in the films act more like Vulcans than they do Tolkien elves.
it was a different time
I agree that LOTR informed a lot of the modern genre, and is almost like a biblical canon in the way it informs high fantasy, but in terms of being "beloved" in the time pre-Jackson it's pretty debatable.
imo it was in a similar category to a lot of other sci-fi series that could have been blockbustered the same way, and the fact that it was British probably hurt it more than stuff like Dune and Ursula K Le Guin stuff
He had dirt on an exec, probably femboy related
Hollywood was already scrambling to make LOTR into a movie in the late 90's and he had already done a fuck ton of work, built an entire studio, had scripts, props, and sets built before the idea of making the movies was even proposed to New Line Cinema
Real answer is Big Bad Harv and some other executives could see Fantasy was about to come back in a big way what with the return of Star Wars and the success of book series like Harry Potter. New Line took a big gamble on this and the Dungeons and Dragons movie, hoping at least one of them would turn out well. It helped that the bulk of both productions were handled by overseas studios, meaning they really only had to worry about marketing and distribution costs. Peter Jackson already had good standing in New Zealand with the unexpected international success of films like Heavenly Creatures.
definitely part of the tax deal they got in exchange for filming here in NZ.
We want a Kiwi director, Jackson wants to do it, he's hard into LOTR and likes the script, seems to make a lot of sense if he's in
ok, so no taxes on box office or residuals, no employment contract for cast or crew, and a general exemption on everything else, we can work with that, let us talk with Pete and see where it goes
pretty sure that's more or less how it went. our government sucks Hollywood's dick (just ask Kim Dotcom). also there is a perma tourist attractrion where they filmed it with the hobbit houses and shit, I've lived here all my life and never been, only seen one of the movies and wasn't even paying attention.
but in terms of being "beloved" in the time pre-Jackson it's pretty debatable.
Holy FUCK I hate zoomers
in terms of being "beloved" in the time pre-Jackson it's pretty debatable
no...not really. it was one of the best selling and most influential books of all time.
Yeah when it was released over fifty years ago
I'm not denying the influence it had, just its popularity before the hackson trilogy
You have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about zoomer. Don’t EVER talk about time periods you didn’t experience.
nice argument fuckhead
Are you telling me you were already at an age to read when Lord of the Rings was published in the fifties?
Get off Anon Babble gramps
Yeah when it was released over fifty years ago
actually it's success didn't come at first. didn't really start to become super popular until the 60s, and grew until it reached a peak popularity in the 70s and 80s. so like, 20 years prior to the movies getting made. which isn't really that long in terms of pop culture, I mean half of the movies released today are based on IPs from the 90s and 2000s, or even earlier. not everything just disappears from the public consciousness right away, especially not something of the calibre of LOTR.
basically, you don't know what you're talking about.
Seething zoomer with tears in his eyes because people who were actually around in the 90s are curbstomping his retarded posts
The LotR books didn't achieve their peak popularity at the time of publication, that came a few decades later, around the 70s. You also had the Silmarillion in 1977, and the animated adaptations in 1978 and 1980. But regardless, the books were continuously popular for decades, never stopped selling. It sounds like you're suggesting they made a huge splash but were then mostly forgotten by the time Jackson decided to pitch the movies. It wasn't really like that.
Somewhat. If you read Broken Sword by Poul Anderson you get a better idea of how elves appear in fiction before Tolks. Or you could just go back and read the Edda.
I said in the original post I'm not disputing their influence and the way they've come to almost completely define high fantasy, it's more that there are tonnes of other big sci-fi franchises in a similar vein as well.
He was talking about public knowledge of the works prior to the Jackson movies you illiterate fucking idiot
Yeah i.e. changing the goalposts of the discussion
That’s what you’re trying to do you illiterate downey
Dune got an adaptation in the 80s, it just flopped. I'm not sure what you're saying. Why was LOTR considered to be so special? Maybe the books weren't the second coming, but they were big enough to be recognized as a potential hit, and then the movies happened to turn out awesome.
nah man, it was for nerds. Society changed a lot, star wars, trek, lotr, video games, comics, all that kind of shit was for socially rejected people, nerds geeks and dweebs.
Unironically this. The trilogy was made in a perfect window that can't be duplicated.
Hollywood still had very talented people in charge of practical effects, costumes and sets because CGI wasn't used to completely replace all of that stuff yet
the CGI they did have was advanced enough that it holds up
made before diversity quotas in casting and the writers room, pandering to the Chinese audience and ebin Marvel one liners
people still went to the movies instead of just waiting a month for new movies to stream, instead of everyone having their own little algorithm-driven cultural bubble popular movies like LotR would be watched by everyone
no smartphones so people actually watched the fucking movie and could take away more than the most shallow, surface level observations
director cared about the source material
but in terms of being "beloved" in the time pre-Jackson it's pretty debatable.
It wasn't at all debatable. If you went to any book store in the 80s or 90s and asked for a introductory book to fantasy, they would all recommend Hobbit or LOTR (usually one lead to the other being suggested). LOTR at one point was known to be the second most sold book (the other one being the bible).
lmao
Lotr failed when it was released. It was only years later after some people started to make bootleg copies of LOTR that it spread and only then became famous.
Shits all over Amazon billion dollar production. No wonder they get board with the circular tuned motions of themselves in a group and allow individuals with enlarge time streams.
How do the Tolkien elves act?
I mean he has point. The other anon saying "it was only popular when it came out" and "the popularity died out before the movies" is complete lie. It was not popular when it came out and there were only a few thousand copies made of the books (because it was after WW2 and there were still shortages of paper). It was only years later when someone decided to make bootleg copies of the books, that it became popular (in the 70s and 80s). LoTR books were at its peak in the 80s and 90s. That's why modern day authors today like Brandon Shiterson and GRR Martin say they grew on Tolkien, because that was popular at the time. Imagine fantasy authors in 20 years saying they were brought up with the shitty like of Sanderson.
You can look up the history of the creation of LOTR. You can look up its reception when it first released and how few copies they made (initially). You can also look up the fact that it was only after it was bootlegged and more copies were made (years after) that is when it became popular.
I was born in the 70s so I lived through the time when LOTR was the number one book that was been recommended in bookshops and libraries where I spent most of my time. You have games like D&D (which I don't care for but can recognise it's popularity) taking big inspiration from LOTR and becoming popular during a time when the popularity of LOTR books were at its peak.
Lol you're just retarded. The current movie industry tries and fails everytime to replicate the hype from the LOTR movies, but can't. I was 13 when the movies came out. The line outside the theaters were longer than the street. EVERY kid at school, even the black ones, were fans of these movies. The promotions alone...you zoomies will never know.
They have more varied personalities (like humans) but they also have more control over their emotions.
There are some Elves (like Gildor) who joke around, have dry humour and Troll people just for laughs. There are other Elves who are crazy maniacs (Feanor), there are other Elves who show that Elves actually get drunk, there are Elves who are petty (Saeros) who bullied Hurin purely because he was jealous, Elrond is said to be as "kind as summer" yet in the movies he's always frowning.
So yeah, as you can see their personalities are quite varied. They're not all walking around like they have a stick shoved up their ass.
Vulcans are literally Tolkien elves in space, that was Rodenberry's intention
Then you're fucking retarded, it was literally voted book of the century in 2000 before the films even came out
Absolute fucking nonsense, it was an immediate hit and the bootlegs were made because it's popularity outstripped the publisher's ability to release with the demand, you absolute fucking imbecile
Wrong again shithead, it was immediately popular and maintained that popularity for it's entire history
Thinking that Tolkien would have approved of Hackson's slop for babies is delusional, it was barely less shit than the amazon shows, it just had better production values
lotr was obscure before the live action movies
Zoomers are so historically ignorant they should be punished for it
It was not popular when it came out and there were only a few thousand copies made of the books
Wrong, wrong, wrong. You are wrong about literally everything you said you cretin. That it wasn't immediately released in america does not mean it was not popular it just means that an audience of illiterate mullatoes wasn't it's initial target audience
It was well received but not popular. The popularity came after the bootlegs.
random seething about america
Most initial criticism for lotr came from the uk. That said the books sold well wherever it was published.
This. LOTR was huge. Faggot zoomer doesn't know what he's talking about, as usual
First release was a limited run of 3000 copies. I guess the population of the world is 3000 people. Hmm.
Like I said, the books were well received when they released but wasnt widespread popular at the time because of how few copies were made. Its only after the bootlegs that lotr went worldwiide famous.
Lotr had 11 print runs by 1965
nah LOTR was a decently well liked series of books but from the outside it was not discernably different from many other fantasy series
book elves are massive assholes, not only the Noldor but plenty of ones that Frodo encounters as well. This isn't well reflected in the movies
Having his own special effects house was a major incentive for the studios to trust him. The effects in The Frighteners were actually pretty revolutionary at the time.
It’s true. Lotr was well received but there were less than 20,000 copies of the rotk between the uk and usa. In the 60s there was a bootleg print run of 150,000 copies making it widely available to the public.
He was already a known entity thanks to his previous Oscar nod from Heavenly Creatures, which also proved he had style and sensibilities to pull something like LOTR off.
Weinstein had a sixth sense about actors, directors and projects. He readily admitted he didn’t know anything about LotR and didn’t understand fantasy. Yet he sunk in millions into blindly making a trilogy. It wasn’t the first time he made a big gamble like that.
They seem to have the same superhuman bullshit in the books too. Legolas is the only one not exhausted in the mountain climb
Fucking how?
Becuase literally all he did was trim up the important plot points of the books into a single coherent story. Reading the books is like reading an encyclopedia, it meanders for the sake of world building. All the best scenes in the movies dont happen the same way in the books. The council of elrond for example is purely an exposition dump in the book.
Elves behave differently is the point. They don't all act like they have a stick up their ass, all robot-like.
It sucks that Jackson made Frodo into a bitch. Now the 'modern-day fan' believes that's how Frodo is. Jackson basically did what Snyder did: turn an iconic character and ruined the public perception of said character.
before Tolks
Tollers for his friends during his life
Anyonelse reading the books purely to become more articulate. I already notice my speech patterns are changing.
elves are depicted as the fairest, wisest and most beautiful cool immortal humanoid beings in western media & literature
japs took "inspiration" from it and just turned them into another shitty generic anime girl goon material for adult virgin men who watch cartoons
Why the fuck are they like this?
Why can't they make anything decent even from the things they're ripping off?
Frieren doesn't count, really.
Emotionless to the point of being autistic.
Absolutely ruthless to her enemies.
Sees humans as passing shadows. The entire point of the manga is how the love of one man pushed her towards unlearning that.
Completely asexual, lacking in charm, or charisma.
If anything, she's a critique of the generic Japanese elf.
To be fair, that's like saying Tolkien ripped off elves from European folklore. Tolkien even said that his Elvea are not supposed to resemble European folklore elves
my credentials? Ah made a few tacky looking low budget flops, would honestly rather you didn't check, they're fairly embarassing
He made Heavenly Creatures and got Oscar nominated for it. He then made The Frighteners. He founded Weta Workshop which worked on both of them. The actress whose career he launched was in the highest grossing film ever. He had all the cards and connections.
Fucking how?
You are straw manning his credentials, you retard. The pre-production under Miramax resulted in a 30 minute tape where they showcased scale of the work done already. Which is what made the pitch to New Line that much easy and convincing.