Wednesday, January 26, 2005
The Tolkien Movie They Should Make
Is the story of Beren and Luthien from The Silmarillion.
I was pondering how PeterJackson subsumed the character of Glorfindel into Arwen in the film. Fans noted that it was the elf-lord Glorfindel who assisted in the escort of the hobbits to Rivendell, not Liv Tyler riding a horse and daring the Nazgul to cross her. Which isn't to say she couldn't do it, I guess. What was that revision about? Giving a woman a bigger role in the story? Did the producers think we guys would buy an extra ticket or two just to see the daughter of Elrond kick ringwraith butt? (Personally, I was hoping for Robin Williams to do Bombadil, but oh well.)
Beren and Luthien would be perfect for a feature-length film. Rather than take a 1200-page story and condense it into nine hours of film, take a 25-page chapter and expand it into a two to three hour movie. I wonder who has the film rights to this? Tolkien fans, what do you say?
