No, Amazon hired him. My point is that whatever infrastructure is in place for the Estate/HC to have input/control over "fidelity" is still there either way.

The rumour a few weeks back when Shippey left was that the entire writers room was fired, not on hiatus (just a rumour, though). I assume whatever happens, the whole thing will be years late, as it appears to be an (entirely unsurprising) mess and NZ will be very difficult as a remote work location for a long period. What you get when you get a team of TV hacks writing fan fiction, I suspect.

As always I am cautiously optimistic - but in all honestly much more cautious and rather less optimistic.

This honestly gets a resounding "meh" from me. To me, Peter Jackson's extended edition trilogy is the definitive on-screen adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. I'm too invested in Tolkien's writings to bother with "another version" of something. Things that are being adapted, where I'm not as attached to the source material (Netflix's Narnia and Witcher and Amazon's Wheel of Time, for example) peak my interest more. That way if there's changes etc, I'd less likely to be bothered by them.

Though, there are some things I'm curious about :

- Will we get Gil-galad, unlike that flash we see of him in the prologue to The Fellowship of the Ring?
- Would we get Anarion? Remember, in the film the Argonath is of Elendil and Isildur, whereas in the novel it's of Isildur and Anarion
- Who will do the music? Regardless of how the show turns out, here's hoping it'll have excellent music (my personal choice is Trevor Morris: check out some of his stuff)

I have never invested heavily in adaptation and am more interested in my own interpretation. This is why I generally don't bother with illustrated editions unless the artist really pulls me in.

Ted Nasmith for instance interests me enough to notice his work. And likewise Jemima Catlin, her illustrations of The Hobbit are simply adorable in my opinion but then take someone like John Howe who everybody hero worships, I wouldn't line my nuclear war bunker with his art. I would rather leave the walls plain as he bores me silly.

Adaptation and other peoples ideas are great and all and I hope this series is a huge success and those who want to enjoy it are satisfied but for me it'll just be a dip and out thing.

And to be clear, I know John Howe is an exceptional artist and he clearly gets Tolkien. I just get him.

insurrbution wrote:
This honestly gets a resounding "meh" from me. To me, Peter Jackson's extended edition trilogy is the definitive on-screen adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. I'm too invested in Tolkien's writings to bother with "another version" of something.

The Amazon series is not adapting The Lord of the Rings the books. It is set in the Second Age and, based on what they have published (not much) is focused on Sauron (the “lord” of the rings).

I know that but it’s still another version of Tolkien’s writings - whether on screen before or not