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The Unseen Servant forums • Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series
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Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:50 am
by dmw71
Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series In Mega Deal With Multi-Season Commitment

"In its quest to launch a hit fantasy series of the Game of Thrones caliber, Amazon has closed a massive deal — said to be close to $250 million — to acquire global TV rights to The Lord of the Rings, based on the fantasy novels by J.R.R. Tolkien. The streaming service has given a multi-season commitment to a LOTR series in the pact, which also includes a potential spinoff series."

"Set in Middle Earth, the television adaptation will explore new storylines preceding Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring. I hear that there are some creative restrictions imposed by the rights holders on what can be done and what can’t be done in a LOTR TV series."


Wow.

Peter Jackson covered this material extremely well, so this move (at that price :shock: ) isn't without risk. I'm not sure what "new storylines" they can pursue, but I'll definitely watch.

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 9:14 am
by Zhym
New storylines?

That does not bode well.

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 11:50 am
by GreyWolfVT
restrictions as well hmm we shall see wont we? Does Amazon succeed or fail in this soon we shall find out.

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 10:08 pm
by Norjax
I'd rather see Elric of Melnibone', the Chronicles of Amber or Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2017 10:12 pm
by Zhym
The Chronicles of Amber would be interesting to see. I wonder why there's never been an adaptation (as far as I'm aware).

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 1:05 am
by Norjax
Old news (2016) that I just found:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-f ... les-912132

I remember reading about SyFy wanting to doom an Amber series by casting Vin Diesel as Corwin! :roll:

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 3:58 am
by dmw71
Norjax wrote:I remember reading about SyFy wanting to doom an Amber series by casting Vin Diesel as Corwin!
I wasn't familiar with the 'Chronicles of Amber' series, but it sounds interesting. I may have to check it out one of these days.

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:29 am
by Inferno
Norjax wrote:I'd rather see Elric of Melnibone', the Chronicles of Amber or Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
But then, you have excellent taste. :)

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 11:31 am
by rredmond
Inferno wrote:
Norjax wrote:I'd rather see Elric of Melnibone', the Chronicles of Amber or Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
But then, you have excellent taste. :)
Agreed on all of this! :D
--Ron--

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:09 pm
by Norjax
dmw71 wrote:I wasn't familiar with the 'Chronicles of Amber' series, but it sounds interesting. I may have to check it out one of these days.
Please do! It’s a first-person narrative of mystery, parallel worlds, fantastical beasts, court intrigue, titanic battles, all culminating at the Courts of Chaos.
Inferno wrote:
Norjax wrote:I'd rather see Elric of Melnibone', the Chronicles of Amber or Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
But then, you have excellent taste. :)
rredmond wrote:
Inferno wrote:
Norjax wrote:I'd rather see Elric of Melnibone', the Chronicles of Amber or Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
But then, you have excellent taste. :)
Agreed on all of this! :D
--Ron--
Much appreciated, gents! :)

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:38 pm
by Alethan
I'd imagine Amazon has explored these limitations by current rights holders before deciding to spend $250m on a venture. I'll be interested in seeing what comes out of it and shall hold out hope for something good.

My roommate my Freshman year of college got me into the Chronicles of Amber series, at least through what was out at that point (1991). I never picked it up afterwards to continue the rest of the series, though. I should maybe start them over and give it another go.

Likely it wouldn't have been done properly if they'd tried to make it into a movie more than, say, 10 years ago. Or it would have been done poorly (Scy-Fi channel esque in nature).

I would also like to see Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser brought to life in film.

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:23 pm
by rredmond
I've read, and re-read the Corwin Amber books - the first five I think. I like Corwin as the reformed-ish jerky type. I think I read past that, the Merlin books, but don't remember them, and I don't (or at least what I can find in the garage) own them. But from what I've heard in recent years, the Corwin books are the best of the series, and at some point after them the quality of the story starts going downhill. Not sure if there are any books after the Merlin ones and I'm not sure when the quality dips, during that series or after.

But I'd watch an Amber series in a hot minute. I'm also with Alethan that Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser would be my next fave, and the Elric books (while not my style, the misery and torture and stuff I normally don't like in stories) were good reads. The anti-hero is also not one of my favorite themes, but it certainly worked there.

Fritz Leiber himself once wrote a F&GM short story for one of the early Dragon Mags. Pretty cool!

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:29 pm
by OGRE MAGE
rredmond wrote:Fritz Leiber himself once wrote a F&GM short story for one of the early Dragon Mags. Pretty cool!
Do you know which issue that was in, Ron?

I would like to check that out sometime.

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:39 pm
by dmw71
OGRE MAGE wrote:
rredmond wrote:Fritz Leiber himself once wrote a F&GM short story for one of the early Dragon Mags. Pretty cool!
Do you know which issue that was in, Ron?

I would like to check that out sometime.
I did a quick search on "Leiber" at this link and apparently he was in Dragon a few times:

Dragon #1
Dragon #11
Dragon #18

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:41 pm
by Zhym
Yeah. The Merlin Amber books are worth a read if you're a fan of the series, but they don't stand up to the Corwin series. The last couple of books in particular are kind of off. I think I read that Zelazny wasn't in great health at the time and the books were mostly written by someone else.

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:43 pm
by rredmond
11 had Sea Magic. Here are the opening couple of paragraphs:
Fritz Leiber wrote:On the world of Nehwon and in the land of Simorgya, six days fast sailing south from Rime Isle, two handsome silvery personages conversed intimately yet tensely in a dimly and irregularly lit hall of pillars open overhead to the darkness. Very strange was that illumination — greenish and yellowish by turns, it seemed to come chiefly from grotesquely shaped rugs patching the Stygian floor and lapping the pillars’ bases and also from slowly moving globes and sinuosities that floated about at head height and wove amongst the pillars, softly dimming and brightening like lethargic and plague-stricken giant fireflies.

Mordroog said sharply, “Caught you that thrill, sister? — faint and far north away, yet unmistakably ours.”

Issisi replied eagerly, “The same, brother, as we felt two days agone — our mystic gold dipped deep in the sea for a space, then out again.”

“The same indeed, sister, though this time with a certain ambiguity as to the out — whether that or otherwise gone”, Mordroog assented.

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2017 1:49 pm
by Inferno
The Corwin books are my favorites too.

I always thought they'd make a great model for a D&D campaign, with a little Total Recall thrown in.

Spoilers:
The PCs are mighty heroes that wake up in a psychiatric hospital on Earth in the modern day with amnesia, reducing them to first level. Players don't see their character sheets at this point. As mysterious enemies try to kill them, they escape, learning something about their amazing abilities. On the run, their investigations slowly reveal a larger, fantastic world(s) around them. Are they really just insane and dreaming all this?

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2017 4:52 pm
by Starbeard
Inferno wrote:The Corwin books are my favorites too.

I always thought they'd make a great model for a D&D campaign, with a little Total Recall thrown in.

Spoilers:
The PCs are mighty heroes that wake up in a psychiatric hospital on Earth in the modern day with amnesia, reducing them to first level. Players don't see their character sheets at this point. As mysterious enemies try to kill them, they escape, learning something about their amazing abilities. On the run, their investigations slowly reveal a larger, fantastic world(s) around them. Are they really just insane and dreaming all this?
I do like that campaign premise.
It would be a bit of work, but you could add to the ambiguity of whether the PCs are sane by having two types of character sheets, one D&D and one more mundane like CoC or GURPS.

The PCs start with their mundane modern sheets, and largely interact with the world through those rules; but occasionally a D&D stat or rule pops out, in a way that makes it difficult to tell if it's real or delusional. Maybe by tying the incursion of D&D rules directly to SAN loss? The less sanity your PC has, the more you're affected by the D&D half of the game.

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2017 4:55 pm
by Zhym
Do we really need spoilers for this? ;)
Starbeard wrote:It would be a bit of work, but you could add to the ambiguity of whether the PCs are sane by having two types of character sheets: the PCs have CoC or GURPS style sheets, and largely interact with the world through those rules, but occasionally a D&D stat or rule pops out, but in a way that makes it difficult to tell if it's real or delusional. Maybe by tying the incursion of D&D rules directly to SAN loss? The less sanity your PC has, the more you're affected by the D&D half of the game.
I like that. Or you could have players start with basic character sheets with stats and basic equipment. Then as things happen, they discover that they have skills and powers they didn't know about.

Re: Amazon Sets ‘The Lord of the Rings’ TV Series

Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2017 7:07 pm
by Starbeard
Zhym wrote:Do we really need spoilers for this? ;)
No, but
It's more fun this way.

Originally I was going to write something very specific to the Amber stories, ended up not, and forget about the spoiler. :D