Amazon announced three months ago that they were going to make a TV series set in Middle-earth. I have now decided what I think about that. (Idiosophy is an exact science, but not a swift one.) Good.
In my dreams, Middle-earth becomes the setting for a hundred stories by different teams, with different points of view. King Arthur became immortal that way. I do have one request, though. Can we not have all the stories be about gigantic battles? That’s really not what the Legendarium is about.
According to the press release, “The series will be set before The Lord of the Rings“. Fine. Here are some examples of things I’d like to see:
- Elrond and Celebrian. There’s a tragedy there, with elements of love story, hostage rescue, valiant sons, medical drama, and a cameo appearance by Baby Arwen. You can save on production costs by re-using the Caradhras set from Fellowship of the Ring.
- Thorongil and Denethor. A buddy movie about the two young captains in the armies of Gondor. Lots of small-unit military engagements, with undercurrents of the tensions that would ultimately be the pivot of Book V.
- Raiders of the Barrow-downs. A horror movie about some Indiana-Jones-style treasure hunters from Bree who didn’t realize how far out of their depth they were going to get. Heroic rescue by Rangers at the end.
- The Adventures of Bullroarer Took. Comedy, bearing the same relationship to LotR that Rustler’s Rhapsody bears to Westerns. Use lots of tropes for cowboy movies.
Can I have one from the Fourth Age, too?
- Faramir and Eowyn in Morgul Vale. Post-apocalyptic science fiction. This can be the movie that Dune so totally failed to be. Cleaning up that toxic waste dump will involve fighting monsters, razing buildings, building gardens and forests. It ends with a stream of clean water flowing out of the valley to the Anduin.
Shawn M
The Adventures of Bullroarer Took is on my short list too. Every episode should have him fighting some menace threatening the Northfarthing, and in every episode his exploits would inspire the invention of a new sport. I’m working on a pitch for an episode: “Bandobras and the Battle of the Bill-yards”.