George R.R. Martin announced today that he and Amazon have come to an agreement with Middle-Earth Enterprises (the holder of media rights to Tolkein’s major works) for production of a Lord of the Rings television series, which will run a minimum of eight seasons.
This series will give Tolkein-lovers to fully explore the world of the Middle Earth, not just the journeys and battle scenes. Martin plans to fill in important gaps left by the rather terse and thin original trilogy.
In particular, Martin cited the abrupt and lazy ending of the original LOTR book version, which tossed off phrases like saying Aragorn “ruled wisely and well,” without any real explanation of what that meant. Martin speculated that after twelve years messing around with the trilogy, Tolkein was probably ready to chuck it and move on to a more trendy genre like Regency Romances, instead of sinking even more effort into stories of strange creatures that nobody would ever be interested in.
With the longer timeline available in the series format, Martin plans to answer questions like how Aragorn set Gondor’s tax policy, and whether he will pursue a policy of genocide toward the orcs after the Dark Lord is defeated.
Sources close to the project say that Martin had not previously considered working with Tolkein’s books, until he came upon this promising research excerpt:
Tolkien started work on a 4th era, an era of Man, and soon abandoned it, as it had devolved into petty squabbles, backstabbing and behavior more along the lines Tolkien saw out of the kings and nobles of England’s past. It was drab and dismal and nothing like his prior work.
Martin instantly saw the potential for the story of the Middle Earth to attain its full realization. He discarded his incomplete work in progress (which had accrued so many characters that he had resorted to killing off most of them so he could keep track of the survivors) and pivoted to work on the new series.
Exclusively for Daily Kos readers (you read it here first!), we have obtained a synopsis of the first seven seasons of the new Lord of the Rings series to be produced by Martin:
Season I opener: Nazgul hiss “Bagginsssss, Shire” and gallop north.
Season II: Sackville Bagginses scheme to take over East Farthing of the Shire, and especially to take possession of all the silver spoons. Nazgul visit some old friends in Moria.
Season III: The Tooks refuse to be dominated by the Sackville Bagginses, get out their golf clubs and organize resistance.
Season IV: Sackville Bagginses lay waste to wide swaths of the Shire, civil war breaks out. Nazgul delayed due to unexpectedly long poker game in Bree.
Season V: Tooks gain advantage by introducing military use of footwear for the first time among Hobbits. Nazgul reach the Brandywine River, stymied due to fear of water. Remaining hobbits on the Took side become aware of approaching Nazgul, issue impassioned pleas for a truce to face the common enemy.
Season VI: Nazgul hear rumors of bridge over river, start search for it. Lobelia Sackville Baggins, still three silver spoons short of the full set, says she agrees to the truce but secretly schemes otherwise, not believing the Nazgul actually exist.
Season VII: Nazgul cross bridge over the Brandwine into the Shire.
Bagginsssss!!!!!!!!!!
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Note to everyone (after reading a few despairing comments), nothing in the diary above is true! Except the Amazon part. Vanity Fair has even come out with this article today: Why Amazon’s Lord of the Rings Show Won’t Be the New Game of Thrones.
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Tolkein Fest at The Language of the Night: DRLori is inviting Tolkein-themed contributions for The Language of the Night series, please comment or PM DrLori directly if you’re interested
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For realz: A Lord of The Rings TV series is being shopped around to the likes of Amazon and NetFlix, a great deal for anyone who has a 200 to 250 million dollars to ante up, or twice that if GRRM is involved. [Ok, that last part about GRRM is not for realz.]
UPDATE based on comment by Besame below: Amazon found the cash in the bottom of their mattress and ponied up, announced today.
The “promising research note” above is actually a comment by kossack MorrellWI1983 in Brecht’s excellent diary last week about Lord of the Rings.
When I was 8 years old, my Aunt Katy read me the first 30 pages of The Hobbit , then handed the book to me and said I had to read the rest if I wanted to find out how it ended. She and her husband (my Uncle John) both knew professor Tolkein, because Oxford University was not such a big place, but I didn’t understand the significance of that fact and so did not get to meet him during that or later visits while he was still alive. I read The Lord of the Rings a minimum of once a year from age 13 to 20-something.
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James R. Wells is the author of The Great Symmetry, a science fiction adventure celebrating the freedom of ideas. The story is set 300 years in the future, but that future world appears to be arriving about 299 years sooner than expected.