Before The Ring, Before The Hobbit
By Paul Grimsley
Franchises are where it is at. As far as adaptations of books go, you want a really meaty set of books that you can sink your teeth into, and which you can spin out over a number of seasons.
HBO struck gold with Game Of Thrones, and given that HBO is one of the channels on Amazon, it can’t have hurt their revenue stream either. But Game Of Thrones has one season left, so something needs to fill the vacuum. There are presumably going to be spin off series, but if the lack of source material runs into the same problems that some of the last season did, it won’t take long for them to pale in comparison to the series proper.
Amazon has announced that it is going to be producing a prequel series to Lord Of The Rings, one which is not covering the story of The Hobbit. So, the speculation has begun — what exactly are these series going to be based on?
The Hobbit trilogy frustrated a number of people because it seemed to stretch the source material to the point where it was threadbare, and Tolkien fans have been around for a lot longer than most fan bases, and they know their books. Christopher Tolkien, the author’s son, has been slowly piecing together and publishing the earlier myths, including The Silmarillion, which some have labelled as unadaptable — so will these figure into what we see?
The deal reportedly includes the company that made the films, the Tolkien Estate, and Harper-Collins, who published a lot of the other books by Tolkien. The idea of seeing life breathed into The Unfinished Tales, The Lays Of Beleriand or any of the other History Of Middle Earth books holds some attraction for me, but things newly created and merely informed by Lord Of The Rings? That I am not so sure about.
Maybe it would work in the way that Star Wars has worked, but it is a fine line to tread between inspired by and fan fiction.
I really liked Bladerunner 2049, but I couldn’t even pick up the book sequels. Something always struck me as being a little off with one author picking up another author’s story and developing it. The follow up to The Millennium Trilogy I have problems with because the original author’s estate and his wishes in regards to two final manuscripts he had and his common-law partner, from what I have read, aren’t being respected.
I read an article on restraint this weekend, that talked about not having to wait for things because of the internet, and the ease with which it delivers things; how it got rid of scarcity, and in some ways lessened the value of the things that you are able to obtain, because there is no wait for them. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
On some level I don’t need something that dilutes Lord Of The Rings further, and on some level I don’t care — I’ll disregard it if its awful, because the books will always be the books.
Art isn’t hamburger. Or art is a Campbell’s soup tin. We live in Warhol’s Factory in so many ways -such a prescient artist … he would have undoubtedly loved all this mass production. Franchises, like I said, are where it’s at.
