Peter Jackson's The Silmarillion

[Forsaken Lover]

No, calm down. It isn't happening, thank Eru. But the only way for evil to conquer is for good men to do nothing. Or something like that.

Well Christopher Tolkien has already said he'll never sell the rights to it but is it legal for him to put a thing in his will where he forbids the rights from ever being sold?

Because he's not going to live forever and we must avoid a Silmarillion aaptation at all costs. It would be heinous; an insult to a modern classic.

[Shorty]

If it's his or his family member's work, I see no reason why a wish like that can't be granted. Just because someone dies doesn't mean the rights get tossed up to access for the public. I would imagine that forcing that would be much more illegal than him denying to sell the rights to anyone else.

But I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know. Good for him, in any case.

[theundeadhero]

While watching The Hobbit I idly thought once that they could probably make several movies about different things that happen in The Silmarillion. I wouldn't mind if they did, but if they don't then they don't.

[Mahad]

I read the title and I was like "NOOOOOO"
Like Shorty said the illegal thing here would be to force the rights to be up for sale after he dies. If he states in his last will that he doesn't want the rights to be sold, then it should be respected, and isn't a last will a binding legal document of some form? At least that's how many rich people chose to split up their money once they die, and their wish is honored, so it must have a good deal of legal weight.

They could still do a film about that one book, let's see if I recall the name, The Sons of Hurin? I have not read it but if they wish to keep cashing on this, that could be a next step. Since I have not read it, I don't know if it would be any good.

[Shorty]

I think it all has to do with the rights of property they hand over to the person after he dies, though. I don't see how there's any way to enforce a decision of someone saying, "I don't want this sold." It seems to me that it's up to the person it gets handed off to to respect the decision, because technically they have the rights now and can do whatever they want with them.

[Jiro]

I'd have expected it to go under copyright laws but perhaps not.

[Tavrobel]

There's no legal reason against him putting a statement in his will to forbid it; technically, no one has to actually listen to his will. It would be very unlikely for the holders of the Tolkien estate to not listen to him, unless everyone decided to not listen to him. Any selling of the Silmarillion rights would be met with some litigation in such a case.

The Children of Hurin/Narn i hin Hurin is possible adaptation bait. It has its own book, and is the longest self-contained story in the Silmarillion and has a good chunk of its information come from supplemental material in the Unfinished Tales. Unfortunately, the overall message of the story isn't exactly Hollywood friendly. It more accurately falls under the realm of Japanese eroge with

an imouto/little-sister route.

Beren, Luthien, Huan, and the hunt for the Silmaril would make for more compelling movie material. It has not one, but two talking animals, and the story is more comparable to traditional romance movies.

The Silmarillion itself could be adapted well in an episodic format. The biggest problem would be framing the structure of the work. You need to find a character within the stories that in common in each chapter. There are no common characters in the Silmarillion outright, but if we borrow some deuterocanonical information, we would know that both Ulmo and Osse can be present for every event, at will; Ulmo even goes so far as to interfere with Turgon/Gondolin. Manwe and Varda can also be observers of Beleriand. #1 marriage in Arda, bitches be jealous.

The other is in framing the structure of the work for new media. It works as a book, because it reads like a textbook. Fortunately, we have seen success in the Game of Thrones series, which has multiple and different protagonists, each telling a different story. Though I'll get flack for this, the way the plot is handled in Game of Thrones is the most similar to how the Silmarillion is presented.

[Psychotic]

You could never make movies out of the Silmarillion, other than as Tav said the Turin/Beren stories.

[escobert]

But how will Peter kill more horses an animals if he isn't allowed to make more movies for the masses?
and before everyone basically says I just makes things up

27 animals died during filming of Hollywood blockbuster The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, says report - Americas - World - The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/27-animals-died-during-filming-of-hollywood-blockbuster-the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey-says-report-8965357.html)

[Bolivar]

He can't stop anyone from ever acquiring the rights to The Silmarilion because it will inevitably enter the public domain. Nothing lasts forever, least of all copyright.

[Mirage]

Nah, we just need better CG animals and this won't be an issue


He can't stop anyone from ever acquiring the rights to The Silmarilion because it will inevitably enter the public domain. Nothing lasts forever, least of all copyright.

Yeah, just like all those other works of art and whatever from hundreds of years ago. I don't think anyone holds the copyright of any of the most known classical music, for example. Same with old fairytales, and even things by shakespeare

[blackmage_nuke]

It's possible Peter Jackson before public domaining of the Silmarillion.

I dont C Tolkien he can say no one can ever sell the rights but whoever he passes the rights onto after his death will get to choose and has been said a certain time after a creators death stuff just becomes public domain

[Niale]

I couldn't understand the book
But if people want to see, then ok :)
The hobbit is kinda cool. :up:

[theundeadhero]

To me The Silmarillion read a lot like a school history book for the most part. That's how I took it and it was still very interesting.