Industry Spotlight - The mighty franchise, part the second
While sequels and additions to a film series create a certain level of pressure on a writer, there is another facet to this world of franchise that's even more intimidating. The remake.
Disney's been making a habit of the live-action remake in recent years with the HUGE success of Beauty and the Beast most recently, not to mention a whole catalogue of titles in the pipeline, including a controversially non-musical remake of Mulan, Guy Ritchie's Aladdin, and The Lion King, starring Beyoncé. And with the rise of so-called 'cinematic TV' in recent years (Steven Soderbergh talked about how cinema is a specificity of vision separate to actual form at the San Fran International Film Festival a few years ago), the cinema isn't the only place to receive the remake treatment: films that didn't get the best reception when released are 'downsizing' to the small screen, with the likes of Catch-22 and Watchmen listed for impending TV show reboots.
The biggest of these announcements came back in November, when Amazon Studios told the world that it had bought the rights to a Lord of the Rings TV adaptation, *screams can be heard in the distance* and naturally this news was met with mixed responses from fans, but the reported $1 billion deal is the biggest in TV history. And with the buyers being an online subscription service, I'm led back to ideas about creating binge-worthy TV.
In fact, the money-holders at Amazon have been very busy getting their paws on rights for big fantasy productions, with titles like The Dark Tower and Ringworld also added to their list. So it's looking likely that this is all with the aim of filling a soon-to-be Game of Thrones shaped hole in the audiences' lives.
But let me keep this central and come back to the screenwriting perspective. Can you imagine the pressure on whoever takes up the challenge to write this Goliath of a series? All we know at present is that the series will take place before the Lord of the Rings trilogy begins. But with thousands of years worth of Middle Earth history to work with, this doesn't really narrow things down.
Suggestions have been made that the series could be an 'Origins of Aragorn' story, and The Silmarillion and other Tolkien novels been tossed around too, even popular video game stories. There's so much to work with in this universe that the writers are in a glorious position where they can use an abundance of Tolkien's own creations, that are still new to the screen. They're not having to create original characters at the risk of displeasing the dedicated Tolkienites - there's a whole community of fans who bonded over their hatred of Tauriel from The Hobbit trilogy. Amazon have already invested too much in this show to risk a move like that spoiling it all, haven't they?
The prospective writers have got a mammoth task on their hands here. They firstly have to make the billion dollar purchase worthwhile in the eyes of the studio execs, but they also have a colossal pool of fans they need to please to get their audience numbers. I for one, would be pretty nervous about touching this world, so strongly loved by so many, and so soon after it was gifted to us by Peter Jackson so magnificently.
Love it or loathe it, Middle Earth will be gracing our screens all over again in no time at all. For now though, I'll be keeping my ear to the ground about who's on board to put this thing on paper before the cameras start rolling.
Disney's been making a habit of the live-action remake in recent years with the HUGE success of Beauty and the Beast most recently, not to mention a whole catalogue of titles in the pipeline, including a controversially non-musical remake of Mulan, Guy Ritchie's Aladdin, and The Lion King, starring Beyoncé. And with the rise of so-called 'cinematic TV' in recent years (Steven Soderbergh talked about how cinema is a specificity of vision separate to actual form at the San Fran International Film Festival a few years ago), the cinema isn't the only place to receive the remake treatment: films that didn't get the best reception when released are 'downsizing' to the small screen, with the likes of Catch-22 and Watchmen listed for impending TV show reboots.
The biggest of these announcements came back in November, when Amazon Studios told the world that it had bought the rights to a Lord of the Rings TV adaptation, *screams can be heard in the distance* and naturally this news was met with mixed responses from fans, but the reported $1 billion deal is the biggest in TV history. And with the buyers being an online subscription service, I'm led back to ideas about creating binge-worthy TV.
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| The Fellowship |
In fact, the money-holders at Amazon have been very busy getting their paws on rights for big fantasy productions, with titles like The Dark Tower and Ringworld also added to their list. So it's looking likely that this is all with the aim of filling a soon-to-be Game of Thrones shaped hole in the audiences' lives.
But let me keep this central and come back to the screenwriting perspective. Can you imagine the pressure on whoever takes up the challenge to write this Goliath of a series? All we know at present is that the series will take place before the Lord of the Rings trilogy begins. But with thousands of years worth of Middle Earth history to work with, this doesn't really narrow things down.
 |
| Aragorn, already 87 years old in the original trilogy |
Suggestions have been made that the series could be an 'Origins of Aragorn' story, and The Silmarillion and other Tolkien novels been tossed around too, even popular video game stories. There's so much to work with in this universe that the writers are in a glorious position where they can use an abundance of Tolkien's own creations, that are still new to the screen. They're not having to create original characters at the risk of displeasing the dedicated Tolkienites - there's a whole community of fans who bonded over their hatred of Tauriel from The Hobbit trilogy. Amazon have already invested too much in this show to risk a move like that spoiling it all, haven't they?
The prospective writers have got a mammoth task on their hands here. They firstly have to make the billion dollar purchase worthwhile in the eyes of the studio execs, but they also have a colossal pool of fans they need to please to get their audience numbers. I for one, would be pretty nervous about touching this world, so strongly loved by so many, and so soon after it was gifted to us by Peter Jackson so magnificently.
Love it or loathe it, Middle Earth will be gracing our screens all over again in no time at all. For now though, I'll be keeping my ear to the ground about who's on board to put this thing on paper before the cameras start rolling.
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