Chris Gore, Founder/Owner of FilmThreat/Author/Filmmaker: You are going
to alienate the audience that has lived with these stories for decades.
Film Courage: We have this quote, we actually have two quotes. If you want to
turn around [Chris Gore looks at chalkboard]. I know we said you weren't allowed to look at
it at first and now we have the big reveal. I’m assuming you probably know these quotes?
Maybe you don't. Do you want to read them for our audience?
Chris: I would like to. "We made a promise to ourselves at the beginning of the process
that we weren't going to put any of our own politics, our own messages or our own themes
into these movies. In a way we were trying to make these films for him [the author]
not for ourselves.” Well that's Peter Jackson and he's talking about J.R.R. Tolkien and this was
his idea when they began to work on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and arguably the Lord of the
Rings trilogy of movies is the most successful (one of the most successful) trilogies in all
of movie history and I say this for a couple reasons. One, we don't talk about it very often
and I mean that in a good way meaning we're not trying to wrestle with its failure, we're
not saying well the third movie didn't land. You could say that for Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight
trilogy. You could even say that for the original trilogy. For some
the Return of the Jedi did not completely work. so many trilogies or film franchises
this is I think where the term "stick the landing" came from and Peter Jackson was able to do that
and I think it was because he stuck with this philosophy from the beginning
he trusted in the story he trusted in the source material he had the utmost respect for it and yes
he made changes to make it to make it translatable to the screen in a way that would appeal to people
who are not fans of the source material of the original books of which I am one I've never
read the books not to say that I wouldn't be a fan if I would read them but sword and sandal
wizardry that kind of it's not my personal favorite thing I'm more of a science fiction buff
when it comes to genre material that I like so the fact that I'm a fan of the Lord of the Rings films
because of how successfully it was pulled off I think that's saying something and I think it comes
from the it really comes from that first trailer the first trailer for the first Lord of the Rings
film when you go back and watch the preceding trailers really got you engaged in Frodo's story
and gave you a glimpse into what this journey would be like and what the stakes were and also
the music music's amazing but if you watch that the original trailers for
the original the very first Lord of the Rings film the fellowship of the ring
it's I mean it gives me chills just even thinking about it conversely with the amazon series which
is being made for money which you could argue all movies are all movies are made for money
but I think when when also it's coming from a a need to creatively express something I think that
that's much more powerful and and when you compare the original trailer for the first Lord of the
Rings movie with this current upcoming Lord of the Rings series the rings of power it just seems like
no comparison to me that trailer looks like dollar store game of thrones it looks fairly generic
there are other criticisms about the the look of it not being
faithful to the source material I can't speak to that because I've never read those books
I just love a great story I it's not present yes it's a teaser trailer so let's cut it some slack
I am hoping that even though this quote is from Peter Jackson that the makers of the new Lord of
the Rings series would keep some philosophy like that in mind in fact that's actually a
very good guide for any person who is embarking on the journey of making a franchise project
for which they did not create that franchise that's a good that's a good mission statement
we have a second quote no let's read the sentence let's okay it felt only natural
to us that an adaptation of the author's work would reflect what the world actually looks like
I believe I don't know who said that but I believe that
is from the makers of the new Lord of the Rings the rings of power and my concern about that is
that it's they're already giving themselves an out to stray from the original source material
Tolkien made a world that looked like well the world he created I don't understand
why you would stray from that I can get what their corporate reasons are but I think more
a more compelling reason would be the creative reasons for that it it to me that statement
that that quote is an excuse to to turn it into something that
I mean what are they going to do the concerns of what are they doing they're going to put
hip-hop music in there because hip-hop is very popular is that what they're going to be doing
at the at the it's whenever they do that I mean I've noticed it in previous franchise well
this is especially in particular music is the thing like well this is the popular music now so
let's have somebody sing a rap song in a star trek movie okay those things always they never work
and what it does is it dates it and what I what I what I think that where it tends
to work better is sort of a timelessness to the storytelling yeah so that that second quote is is
really troubling to me it's it's corporate speak for we're gonna do whatever the hell we want and
damn your allegiance or love of this franchise because we're just gonna do what we think is right
and I don't agree with that speaking of Tolkien and like old books I was watching a quick trailer
on a woman who runs an old bookstore and and about collectibles and she said basically when we get
these old books we need to take very good care of them and we need to know we're just kind of
keeping them for future generations because when we pass on someone else will be getting this book
and we're sort of like keepers of the book do you feel like in some sense it's the same thing with
the storytelling like we're really just here for future generations making sure that it's preserved
well I love that sentiment and I hope it holds but I think we're living at a time now where
everything creative is being undone and remade and not with
the interests of preserving the original author's intention whatever era that person came from
so I love that because I am someone who still goes to used bookstores so I love that sentiment
I have concerns that that the same respect is not being paid by the corporations that purchase
these franchises for the purposes of updating them and adding things that
that just don't work they just they just stand out and they just like it's like oh they're doing
an update well that's over I mean you see it in desperation there are certain sort of tropes of
things that would happen I mean they call it in television they call it jumping the shark right
in the Happy Days television show when they did like this two-parter where Fonzie
is something you would never see Fonzie's he's water-skiing and you see a shark and he literally
jumps over this this incline over the shark he jumps the shark this is now happening in
movies right it happens a lot in you always knew a franchise was over when they would bring in a cute
character in older television shows they bring in some cute younger character because some of the
child actors had already aged up it's the Cousin Oliver syndrome look that up Brady Bunch it's a
reference I'm dating myself but like and and they even made a joke about it in the Simpsons with
Itchy and Scratchy they brought in a character called Poochie which was a skateboard riding
backwards baseball cap animal character that rapped and Poochie was meant to appeal to the
kids and that is a very simplified version of exactly what we're discussing right now
it's when you're updating it to a modern audience you're you're you run the risk of one creatively
it's not gonna it's not gonna work and secondly you are going to alienate the audience that has
lived with these stories for decades and probably read it when they were younger
and have visions in their mind that are better than a movie that you could ever make so ah
that that quote is very troubling to me the latter one yes that last quote is very troubling to me.
What are your thoughts on this video?