# Why Hollywood would Love Beren and Luthien



## Aglarband (May 26, 2004)

Reason 1: It's a love story.

Reason 2: It has animals, everyone loves animals.

Reason 3: The one animal talks, and hes a hound. Everyone loves talking dogs.

Reason 4: People die.

Reason 5: The theme song of the movie can be sung by the characters (like Moulin Rouge)

Reason 6: Stuff dies, alot of stuff.

Reason 7: A good actor gets to have a good death scene.

Reason 8: Lots of extras get crapy death scenes.

Reason 9: Peter Jackson will not direct it.

Reason 10: There is a character who is dealing with death.

Reason 11: Some "hot" actor could play Beren and they would probably have some scenes with him running around w/o a shirt, and Luthien could also be placed in this scenario also.

Reason 12: Luthien will be hot.,

Reason 13: It's a good story.

Reason 14: It could easily be a long movie.

Reason 15: Elves

Reason 16: A man who is better than elves.


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## Snaga (May 27, 2004)

Is 9 official, or just your hope?

Anyway, you missed:

17: Sauron transmutes into a werewolf to battle aforementioned talking dog.

18. Badass bad elves: Celegorm and co.

19. Hot elf-chick gets to rebel against her dad in 'clash of the generations' cliche.

20. It has a happy ending (or will do when Hollywood get their way!)

21. Sparkly sparkly silmarils.

22. Many many CGI opportunities

23. Luthien sings down a tower... SFX heaven!

24. WETA can build a big model of Angband.

25. Luthien and Beren's vampire disguise... MORE SFX!!

26. Hobbits. (They can find room somewhere, I'm sure...)


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## cniht (Jun 7, 2004)

27. an immortal princess falls in love with a mortal man, suggesting supremacy of human race, also the cliche of free marriage regardless of gap between classes
28. cross-racial bedscenes (has hollywood done that before?)


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## HLGStrider (Jun 8, 2004)

answer for the question in 28, at least once that I can think of and I don't usually watch movies with a lot of "bedscenes." James Bond and Jinx in _Die Another Day._


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## Aulë (Jun 8, 2004)

lol

"Reason 11: Some "hot" actor could play Beren and they would probably have some scenes with him running around w/o a shirt, and Luthien could also be placed in this scenario also."

Luthien running around the place shirtless???
Hahahaha! The crowds would flock to see that!


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## Gil-Galad (Jun 8, 2004)

I truly hope that there WILL NOT BE Luthien & Beren movie.I cannot survive another movie based on any of Tolkien's works.

I don't believe that a movie about Luthien & Beren would be a good idea.They will put their story of the the context and thus it will loose lots of its beauty.What is more I don't see how they will manage to show all the things which happen before the time of Luthien &Beren.Most of them are really important for their story.

How will they explain:

The Valar,The Noldor,Morgoth,Thingol,The Flight of The Noldor and The Coming of the Secondborn????It is not that easy.

It is impossible and I hope it will never happen.


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## Aglarband (Jun 8, 2004)

They tried to do it for LOTR.

You could skip the Valar part, cuz they don't apear, and the second born part dosn't need explaining. The flight of the Noldor could be put into its own movie. 

Hell why no do the Silmarillion? They are gonna run out of good ideas eventualy. It may not happen while we are alive, but it will happen.


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## Gil-Galad (Jun 9, 2004)

A long time ago Grond post a perfect post which explained why it cannot be make The Silmarillion movie.According to it The Silmarillion should be divided into 40 different parts,becaus the story is really to big and there are several plots.
You'd better find him.


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## HLGStrider (Jun 12, 2004)

The Sil movie would be more than impossible. For one thing it would have to be movies. . .probably twenty.



However, I have always seen Beren and Luthien as an option for a KIDS movie. I'm serious. A seriously dumbed down, child's version of it would actually be very attractive to me. It would be animated, obviously dumbed down enough that no one is expecting it to be great or pay full tribute, just a jist of it, like a play is a jist of a novel.

No one goes to a high school play of a book expecting to get what they got out of the book, and sometimes it is ok to undershoot a mark. Beren and Luthien is enough of a fairy tale to be able to achieve this.


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## Gil-Galad (Jun 12, 2004)

In the post Master Grond posted about year and a half ago he divided the book in 40 ! different movies!!


I really cannot find this thread.Will any of the Mods do it?


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## elessarGObonzo (Dec 7, 2011)

forget if Hollywood would love it. They obviously aren't looking for quality stories, actors, or direction anymore. Just teenybopper BS and miserable middle-aged woman stories.
this would be for the true lovers of art and storytelling. let Bakshi get another go at it with some new improved "cel shading" techniques or something. how long since a serious adult-themed animation worth acclaim?
backstory doesn't have to be much of an issue. maybe a short epic explanation of how the fight began: start out in the void, Eru creates/births the "angels" and conducts their great song which leads to Melkor's downfall and could also explain necessary early pieces of the puzzle such as Feanor's role, the journey of the Elves back to Middle-Earth, and up to Beren as an outcast. then the main story goes on from there (tastefully if possible these days).
let's write this **** ourselves!
Who's with me?


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## Curufinwë (Dec 30, 2011)

Hello everyone. I'm new here. I've been a Tolkien fan for only a couple of years, so bear with me if there's something I miss/am wrong about. Pluss, English is not my native language, so bear with me again if I misspell something or formulate my sentences badly.

The thought of The story of Beren and Luthien as a movie has crossed my mind as well. However, why a movie? Why not a series of episodes? Like 6-12 parts or something. I believe this would be a lot better, because 1: They could include much, if not all parts of the story. The Valar, Thingol and Melian, etc. 2: I believe it could cause more dramatic turns of events, which in my opinion, would enhance the story's ending. Movies to me are often too straight-forward and ends far too early/quickly.

The Story of Beren and Luthien is magnificent in every sense of the word... Hollywood would only ruin it. I would have a very good director direct the story as a series rather than a movie by Hollywood.


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## Starbrow (Dec 31, 2011)

I like the idea of a series better than a movie. You would have to leave too many things out to make a movie.


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## elessarGObonzo (Jan 5, 2012)

that was my original idea with letting Bakshi get another go at Middle-Earth.
when I was young I first saw how some Japanese animated series are a long story, not just random episodes like in the US. ever since I've dreamed of them having a Silmarillion or just an Of Beren & Luthien series.
if done right, it would be the best video production ever.


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## Halasían (Aug 12, 2014)

cniht said:


> 28. cross-racial bedscenes (has hollywood done that before?)



Probably more 'open-air tall grass' scenes...

And maybe an HBO Children of Hurin mini-series???


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## Erestor Arcamen (Aug 13, 2014)

Halasían said:


> Probably more 'open-air tall grass' scenes...
> 
> And maybe an HBO Children of Hurin mini-series???



HBO did such a good job so far on Game of Thrones, I would trust them with a Silmarillion or Children of Hurin series.


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## Maiden_of Harad (Aug 13, 2014)

I don't know about HBO, but I'd love it if the Silmarillion was made into a TV series. 
Unfortunately, I'm afraid that the actress for Luthien would be a disappointment-she'd have a high bar to leap over. 
And explicit sex scenes would ruin the delicate, poignant beauty of Tolkien's romances...


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## Halasían (Aug 14, 2014)

What would they show? A Turin/Nienor incest scene? Nah, won't need the graphic sex ala Game of Thrones.
But I could see it work as long as Peter Jackson has nothing to do with it and they get someone other than Liv Tyler for Luthien.


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## Maiden_of Harad (Aug 14, 2014)

Though I don't think Peter Jackson's that horrible, he does have a tendency to trivialise/sensationalise material that can stand well enough on its own. He did get the general look of Middle Earth right, in my opinion.
But Live Tyler cannot, must not be Luthien at all costs....but they'll probably get another actress-I hope.


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## Durandir (Apr 1, 2017)

Maiden_of Harad said:


> But Live Tyler cannot, must not be Luthien at all costs....but they'll probably get another actress-I hope.



Oh hey. Another opportunity to infuse my agenda. And post picture URLs.

http://kingofwallpapers.com/morena-baccarin/morena-baccarin-005.jpg

...for the too dark / not elf discussion see here


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## Halasían (Apr 1, 2017)

Ok... I'm going to say it here.... I think Morena Baccarin wold be a lovely Maiden of Harad


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## Durandir (Apr 2, 2017)

Yes. Lovely is the right word. And Haradrim are HAWT too, of course.

...

I don't know about dwarves and orcs, though. Probably hard to tell. Well, I guess it's the eye of the beholder thing again. Although I suspect that even an intelligent tree octopus of Epsilon Eridani would think "wow, what a nice specimen".


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## Rilien (Apr 11, 2017)

I truly hope there is never a Silmarillion movie, of any kind. If there is, someday, I won't watch it. I read these stories at an impressionable age, and they helped shape my imagination. I don't want the images in my head forever ruined. 

Typical Hollywood movies always have some form of comic relief--usually a character who is kind of stupid or goofy. For the Hobbit movies, apparently Bilbo and the dwarves didn't provide enough comic relief for Peter Jackson and he had to create additional characters to fill that role (the reprehensible Alfred). 

There is NO comic relief in the Silmarillion. None. It is a cycle of stories recounting the creation and existence of beauty beyond comprehension and its inevitable slide downward to decay and oblivion. Adding Alfred or someone/something like him to any of these stories would just make them irreparably trashy.

Further, part of the appeal and mystery of the Silmarillion is its relative brevity in terms of dialogue, action and description. This does a couple of things: 

1. The archaic writing style elevates the story and the characters. They are hard to relate to on a personal level (not a bad thing in this case). They are distant, heroic and legendary. This book really isn't a novel, or at least it doesn't come across that way. This "remoteness" enhances the "myth" element, and the dramatic is expressed by the stories themselves rather more than the intense personal struggles we typically delve into in modern novels. The struggles of individuals in the Silmarillion are due to being caught up in vast forces largely beyond their control. A movie, to be popular and make money, will want to find a way to make the characters into people we can relate to in some way, make them more human.

2. The lack of descriptive detail of setting/character/dialogue also leave so much more room in the reader's head to imagine those details. Sometimes a character never fully seen can actually be enhanced this way. For example, in LOTR, we never REALLY see Sauron. We never see him to the extent Jackson elects to show him in the movies. In the book, there's this undefinable but terrifying presence, with who knows how much power, always lurking. In the movies, we have a weird eye on top of a tower. Sometimes movies show too much, and the effect is, unfortunately, reductive.

No Silmarillion movie, please!


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