Octopus Overlords

Next month we're going to get an announcement video for the date of the making of the announcement video. Stay tuned.

People are talking about it, so the announcement video has done it's job quite well.

McNutt wrote: ↑Wed Jan 19, 2022 4:30 pm Next month we're going to get an announcement video for the date of the making of the announcement video. Stay tuned.

I have seen announcement videos for teasers, and I have seen teasers for trailers.

We live in that world. And, as Maximum Pectoral said, we're talking about it. That's a success.

Wait, did you guys NOT see the same trailer I did? FIRE. ACTUAL FIRE. On LETTERS!!! I think it was some crazy Helvetica!!! And they were THREE DEE!!!!! AND THEN THE WATER CAME?!?! ON. THE. LETTERS!!!
COME ON!!! WOOOOOOOOO

They also had music vaguely similar to Peter Jackson's music and they said some of the quote of the rings.

... The music does almost make me want to go back and rewatch the three movies. It's been a half decade or longer. I used to give 9+ hours of my time every Christmas holiday. Right up until GoTs took over my XMas break movie watching time and then I started watching Anime and now I don't have time for movies or traditional TV shows. One could watch One Piece for a year and need no other TV.

I've been loving a podcast called RINGHEADS where Bill Corbett (who was once Crow T. Robot on MST3K) and Sean Thomason started with the Silmarillion and are now finishing up a loooong watch-through of the Peter Jackson LOTR movies. What's fun is that they're knowledgeable of JRRT but treat everything casually and irreverently.

Holman wrote: ↑Wed Jan 19, 2022 7:09 pm I've been loving a podcast called RINGHEADS where Bill Corbett (who was once Crow T. Robot on MST3K) and Sean Thomason started with the Silmarillion and are now finishing up a loooong watch-through of the Peter Jackson LOTR movies. What's fun is that they're knowledgeable of JRRT but treat everything casually and irreverently.

Ringheads is great. The rifftrax of all the LOTR movies are excellent as well.

McNutt wrote: ↑Wed Jan 19, 2022 4:30 pm Next month we're going to get an announcement video for the date of the making of the announcement video. Stay tuned.

I guess you're not following the debate on the two different versions of the letter "R" in the video? Now you can't un-see it either.

I wish I was joking, but here's the video for the making of the announcement.

LOL!! OMG, are we sure that that's not a joke?! That is epic if so. I love me some deadpan humor!

Also big story at Vanity Fair with lots of photographs:

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/20 ... type=owned

I know it was just a scene compilation, but I thought that it looked soooo bad, and sooo cheap.

I don't think it looks bad. It might look cheap in the sense that Wheel of Time looked "cheap". But even then it's obvious much more has been spent here.

Mostly I'm troubled by the "one foot in" comparison to Peter Jackson's art design, but that was clearly going to be a challenge from the outset.

I think it looks terrific. I don’t know if the story is going to be any good, but they clearly spent a lot of money on the show and IMO it shows. The scenery looks terrific. The only thing that’s bizarre is those moose people that show up right near the start. I have no idea what they are supposed to be, but they look really dumb.

Looks fine to me.

A teaser for the real teaser

The Journey Begins. Main Teaser arrives July 14.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Jul 08, 2022 1:58 pm A teaser for the real teaser

The Journey Begins. Main Teaser arrives July 14.

As much as I enjoy the LotR books and films (not you, Hobbit trilogy), absolutely nothing I've seen about this series interests me. Like, at all. In fact, it all looks rather dull and boring.

I've been trying to figure out why and have come to the conclusion that telling new stories in this universe isn't nearly as interesting to me as watching the epic story and characters I read a hundred times growing up put to film. It's kind of the same problem I've had with all the post-OT Star Wars stuff, if I'm honest.

Maybe I'll be wrong and the final product will be fantastic, but I have found the glimpses they've released to be remarkably uninteresting.

Here, since Twitter seems to think that 16:9 is the ideal pixel count rather than a ratio:

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Fri Jul 08, 2022 3:17 pm As much as I enjoy the LotR books and films (not you, Hobbit trilogy), absolutely nothing I've seen about this series interests me. Like, at all. In fact, it all looks rather dull and boring.

I've been trying to figure out why and have come to the conclusion that telling new stories in this universe isn't nearly as interesting to me as watching the epic story and characters I read a hundred times growing up put to film. It's kind of the same problem I've had with all the post-OT Star Wars stuff, if I'm honest.

Maybe I'll be wrong and the final product will be fantastic, but I have found the glimpses they've released to be remarkably uninteresting.

FWIW, it's not quite new stories in this universe. As I understand it, this series is being adapted from material in The Silmarillion and the posthumous Tolkien books. It's deep-cut Tolkien Nerd stuff.

Looks like a play to me.

Wtf. Is it too much to ask to spoiler the teasers for the trailer of the ‘sneak peek’ video? Some of us like surprises!!

Here is the full teaser that was promised last week by the teaser teaser

Nope, still meh.

Elves and wargs and trolls, oh my.

Now tease me some Morgoth or Ungoliant.

It looks fine to me. The production value look high so I reserve judgement until I get a sense how it's being executed. Which is the big mystery. Amazon handed the reins to two people with no experience running anything like this. It's in a way a fascinating experiment.

malchior wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 10:39 am It looks fine to me. The production value look high so I reserve judgement until I get a sense how it's being executed. Which is the big mystery. Amazon handed the reins to two people with no experience running anything like this. It's in a way a fascinating experiment.

Pretty much agree with this. I'd be much more invested if this were adapting something I've been dying to see for a long time, but since I never could get into The Silmarillion (which is, I understand, as close to true source material as there is for this), I'll just start watching it when it comes out and see if I like it. The trailers aren't making me super excited about it, but they're not turning me off of it, either.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 10:22 am Elves and wargs and trolls, oh my.

Now tease me some Morgoth or Ungoliant.

Considering that the series takes place in the Second Age, I think you'll be waiting quite some time for those teasers.

As a casual LotR fan, I'm into it. Looks like elvses and hobbitses - what's not to love?

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 10:45 am

malchior wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 10:39 am It looks fine to me. The production value look high so I reserve judgement until I get a sense how it's being executed. Which is the big mystery. Amazon handed the reins to two people with no experience running anything like this. It's in a way a fascinating experiment.

Pretty much agree with this. I'd be much more invested if this were adapting something I've been dying to see for a long time, but since I never could get into The Silmarillion (which is, I understand, as close to true source material as there is for this), I'll just start watching it when it comes out and see if I like it. The trailers aren't making me super excited about it, but they're not turning me off of it, either.

FWIW, it is based entirely on material from the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit novels, minus anything that happened in the Third Age (so anything from the era of Aaragorn, Bilbo, Frodo, etc - about 99% of the books.) Amazon doesn't have the rights to The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, etc. Everything is drawn from the mentions in the the LotR and The Hobbit, offhand comments by characters, Aaragorn's campfire stories, and - mostly - the appendices from LotR.

It's worth noting that the only books Tolkien really wrote are those four - The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. The Silmarillion isn't fully 'canon.' It's full of contradictions with LotR and with itself. It wasn't meant to be consistent - Tolkien wrote it, but only in the form of a big pile of drafts in different states of completion that his son shuffled back together and 'tidied up' before publishing it all, and it is presented as just that - a collection of manuscripts offered as-is, inconsistencies and all. Unfinished Tales is similar, the the History of Middle Earth (all 12 volumes) are even more so - a collection of notes cleaned up, organized, and published.

Short version: If someone wants to read the source materials, the appendices to LotR is all you really need. Although I'm sure that they'll draw 'inspiration' from both the films and other books - sort of the way The Witcher series drew inspiration from the video games without directly licensing them.

Max Peck wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 10:54 am

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 10:22 am Elves and wargs and trolls, oh my.

Now tease me some Morgoth or Ungoliant.

Considering that the series takes place in the Second Age, I think you'll be waiting quite some time for those teasers.

Crap, you're right. I was thrown off by a scene that seemed to show
but I'm guessing now that's a vision or a flashback.

Also, my Tolkien obsession tapered off about about 20 years ago after my gazillionth reading, and it's been probably 25 years since I've read The Silmarillion. I remember broad strokes, but the details? Not so much.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 11:08 am
Crap, you're right. I was thrown off by a scene that seemed to show

Spoiler:

The Two Trees of Valinor

/edit -

but I'm guessing now that's a vision or a flashback.

Those are definitely they. The line about a world before sunrise clinches it.

And there might be a lot of such flashbacks. I believe I've read that much of the series will focus on Sauron's corruption of the Numenoreans. If we're going to see Sauron as a beautiful humanoid figure (which he is in this period), he'll need a character backstory, and Morgoth is that backstory.

It looks like we get our first glimpse of Sauron in the SDCC trailer.

Max Peck wrote: ↑Fri Jul 22, 2022 4:39 pm It looks like we get our first glimpse of Sauron in the SDCC trailer.

I haven't watched the trailer yet, but just wanted to mention that the still photo for the trailer looks like an orc is dressed up as Grandma in "Little Red Riding Hood."

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 11:03 am As a casual LotR fan, I'm into it. Looks like elvses and hobbitses - what's not to love?

Same.

looks great after seeing that trailer

It's a very good trailer.

I'm guessing that's Sexy Sauron at 2:25.

Well it's not wrong

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I'm interested, it just feels a little generic. "Well yeah, it's from a universe that's the root of modern fantasy." But I mean, Tolkien always felt grander. More special.

Looks great, can't wait.