ROTTEN TOMATOES: New Fantasy Stories from Sam Raimi and Tolkien?

New Fantasy Stories from Sam Raimi and Tolkien?

by Scott Weinberg | April 18, 2007

Here's two news stories in one, both of which deal with the "epic adventure" genre: News on a just-published Tolkien book NOT being purchased by a movie studio -- and an all-new mega-quest production that'll be backed by Sam Raimi.

"The Children of Hurin" is the name of the book that's been 34 years in the writing. It was started by J.R.R. Tolkien many a moon ago, and has since been finished up by his son Christopher. It takes place long before "Lord of the Rings," so don't go expecting to find many familiar faces. But what's interesting about this story is that the publishers don't want to entertain any offers from Hollywood just yet. They want the property to exist as just a book for a little while -- but we all know this approach will just make the studios want the book even more. Still, what's the hurry?

In tangentially-related news, Sam Raimi will produce a big-budget adventure epic ... that doesn't have a title yet. Columbia Pictures is keeping pretty tight-lipped on the project, but we do know that Raimi is involved, that the project comes from screenwriters Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, and that the plot goes a little something like this: "It centers on a cynical guy from New York who is forced to go to a land untouched by modern civilization to save a village and a princess from fiendish fairy tale creatures." Cool. Familiar, but cool.

Sources: IGN Movies, Reuters, The Hollywood Reporter

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Movie:	The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy

(1-18 of 18 posts) | Reply

Xhrix writes:
on Apr 18 2007 01:30 AM

I love the epic fantasy genre. What we really need news on is someone with a bold enough vision to start work on Stephen King's Dark Tower series

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jeremyd4 writes:
on Apr 18 2007 03:05 AM

what's the other book written by Tolkien that's also set in middle earth, at least I think it is? ....and, has there been any mention of a movie being made about it?

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rustdog writes:
on Apr 18 2007 05:21 AM

In reply to this comment (#861999)
silmarillion, and I think some studio owns the rights to it.

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needles writes:
on Apr 18 2007 05:36 AM

So Sam Raimi says to himself "Maybe if I produce a big budget fantasy movie the LOTR's fans will embrace me and accept me as The Hobbit director." You better rethink that one Sam beause that's one web you'll never be able to weave.

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kidnova writes:
on Apr 18 2007 05:41 AM

[b]Interesting[/b]
Could this be the long talked-about adaptation of Terry Brooks' "Magic Kingdom for Sale: Sold"? The plot is generic, but definitely fits into the scope of that book.

Also, the Silmarillion is a collection of short stories, not really a novel in the LOTR sense. It would be tough to adapt the whole book, but someone could definitely expand on some of the longer tales such as Beren and Luthien.

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FluxCapacitor writes:
on Apr 18 2007 09:19 AM

[b]Beren and Luthien would be awesome[/b]
The Silmarillion could very readily provide material for a trilogy, and Beren and Luthien would be a terrific middle part.

I'd be 100% up for Liv and Viggo stepping into those roles - there wouldn't be a dry eye in the house.

The events leading up to the destruction of Numenor would be a dramatic Part Three, ending with the massive island folding up into the sea and Sauron walking on water right out of the maelstrom with not a scratch on him. How epic would that be?

Word to Xhrix - there was news on this site a few weeks ago about JJ Abrams taking on the Dark Tower, but no confirmation of whether it would be for film or TV. Abrams strikes me as a bit of an opportunist, but who knows - maybe he�s real about this.

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saiga6360 writes:
on Apr 18 2007 09:20 AM

Naked elves, naked hobbits... my fantasies run deeper.

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FireflyFan4evr writes:
on Apr 18 2007 09:44 AM

The Silmarillion was one of the most boring (and terrible) books I've ever read. I hope they never make it into a movie, and if they ever do, the writer/director team would have to be geniuses to make it interesting.

Some of the stories from Unfinished Tales could be more interesting to do, due to the broader scope and better writing of them.

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Conehead2187 writes:
on Apr 18 2007 10:53 AM

I personally think the Sil would be much better-suited as a cable miniseries. It's more of a collection of stories anyways, which would fit perfectly in an episodic format.

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LilAlex writes:
on Apr 18 2007 01:57 PM

Somebody do Elric already.

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Sarge77 writes:
on Apr 18 2007 02:11 PM

[b]Thomas Coveneant?[/b]
This project sounds very similar to the Chronicles of Thomas Covenent. The skeptical leper who is transported into a fantasy-like world called "The Land."
This would be a great movie series.

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PrecentorEpsilonXVI writes:
on Apr 18 2007 02:45 PM

In reply to this comment (#862006)
Wow. Someone who thought Unfinished Tales was more interesting than the Silmarillion? Just... wow. Haven't got my hands on the new book yet, but I've heard it expands on some of the pieces in Silmarillion, so it might very well be the adaption film writers need to make a movie with the scope of the Silmarilion. How cool would it be to have a little 5-10 min opener explaining the creation story of Middle Earth, in the vien of that done in FotR?

On a side note, the plot of Sam's movie sounds very "Army of Darkness" to me...

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Mr. Kong writes:
on Apr 18 2007 06:59 PM

In reply to this comment (#861998)
Cough, JJ Abrams, cough.

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wolstencroft writes:
on Apr 19 2007 01:16 AM

In reply to this comment (#862011)
Is this the new Bruce Campbell project, 'My Name is Bruce'?

"The plot revolves around Campbell, playing himself, who, after being harassed and mistaken by fans to be his infamous character Ash from Evil Dead series of horror films, is abducted from the set of a film to fight against real monsters."

My Name is Bruce is suppose to be in post-production, but maybe, just maybe, Sam Raimi is doing a big budget version of it, as appose to the B-Grade version it currently is.
Sam is the producer for it and his brother Ted stars in it along with Bruce.

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Alexaion writes:
on Apr 19 2007 01:44 AM

Note, however, that the Silmarillion is not placed in Middle-Earth, but rather to the west of Middle-Earth in Beleriand, a region under water by the time of Lord of the Rings. It must be said that it is not short stories, but rather a continuous mythical narrative which is, like some have mentioned, unfilmable, or rather would be a mistaken endeavour to film. This would be like trying to film the entire Heroic Age of Greek myth, from Perseus down to the Heraklidai. Just can't be done right, because it's simply not meant to be filmed. It must be noted that such a story was never meant to be told in most any coehsive form anyway, not in a play nor in epic, both of which have too tight a focus to 'tell everything.' (And of epic I'm speaking technically here, of the old sort... I've read a fair share of it, more than most anybody else.)

That said, people are right to say that certain episodes have enough narrative quality on their own to be filmable, notable Beren and Luthien and, as this article was alluding to somewhat, the tales of the Children of Hurin (ie. Turin Turambar and Nienor.) From what I recall of the Silmarillion, something of this nature would have its start at the Battle of Unnumbered Tears in which the forces of the Noldorin Elves and their human allies are massacred by Angband's armies (a battle which, by most accounts, outmatches anything seen in the Sauron-era Lord of the Rings... and, indeed, features many, many Balrogs as commanders in this era. For those not familiar with Tolkien's other works, this 'Children of Hurin' era is the 'ancient world' spoken of by Gandalf when he first sees the Balrog in LOTR), and essentially see all their power scattered. It would encompass probably the most seeming hopeless era in all of Tolkien's writings, far more upon the brink of ruin than even the War of the Ring.

That said, I wonder if there is any director daring enough to follow Tolkien's vision of the Elves. For all PJ's majesty and beauty, his Elves were too etherial for Tolkien's concept. Such lithe and graceful beings would especially have no place in this yet more ancient era. They are tall and strong and very real and solid, as it were. The majority, they that are the focus of his works, are not forest-dwellers, but builders of stone fortresses, friends to Dwarves and Men alike. Now which director could give us a true vision of Feanor? Or perhaps rather Maedhros, more pertinent to the era of the 'Children of Hurin'? We have a very whimsical view of Elves, for the most part, and dare I say it, Tolkien is about the only one who has ever attempted to make of them a more grand and brilliant depiction, of a sort perhaps more human than human.

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saiga6360 writes:
on Apr 19 2007 05:07 PM

Is it actually possible that there are even bigger geeks among the LOTR geeks? I guess that question has been answered here.

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Alexaion writes:
on Apr 20 2007 12:03 AM

In reply to this comment (#862014)
Heh. Perhaps. Though it was a valid literary comment, and I could make similar ones regarding other works of literature as well, most particular the great tragedies of antiquity.

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thethunder writes:
on Aug 21 2007 10:14 AM

Hmm, I know Raimi is working on a TV miniseries rendition of Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule, though it has nothing to do with a guy from NY.

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