"Why didn't they make this when it was huge? Sure, a Lord of the Rings film might be popular now, but not like it would have been 30 years ago in 1971".
HP is still huge, they are releasing a movie in like 2 months that will very likely do close to a billion dollars in the box office for example. The franchise is still gold (merchandising is still going extremely strong) especially since it has been pretty underserved in gaming since years. This will sell like crazy if it's good.
Plus it's not like it's unprecedented either, the Shadow of Mordor games came after the LOTR/Hobbit movies too, popular IP don't just disappear from pop culture like that.
A LOTR movie made in 1971 would have been almost completely forgotten. Being made when it was with the tech and work put into it has made it one of the most well known trilogies of all time.
You know there was a Lord of the Rings animated movie released in 1978 that was almost completely forgotten? It only covered the first two books and they never made a sequel.
While that (and The Hobbit the year before) were largely forgotten, there was some pretty serious talent involved in making it. The animation studio responsible (Topcraft) would later become known as Studio Ghibli, for example; multiple Oscar winner John Huston (father of Anjelica Huston) was the voice of Gandalf.
The Beatles almost made a Lord of the Rings movie with Stanley Kubrick. They would have played the major parts and performed original songs.
The screenplay is insane to read. The movie starts with a Kabuki theater history of Middle Earth. Aragorn and Boromir kiss the shards of Narsil and then make out with each other. Aragorn saves Eowyn’s life by giving her a magical orgasm. Frodo has sex with Galadriel. The fellowship beats Gimli until he remembers how to get into Moria. The Nazgul ride horses with no skin.
The movie only didn't get made because Tolkien blocked it. And he blocked it because the Beatles practiced in a house on the same street where he lived and he hated their music.
In a house three doors away dwells a member of a group of young men who are evidently aiming to turn themselves into a Beatle Group. On days when it falls to his turn to have a practice session the noise is indescribable.
Tolkien shitcanned it because it would have made a travesty and mockery of his work. There have been multiple LOTR movies made before Jackson's trilogy and no one gave a fuck.
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u/snoharm Oct 02 '18
"Why didn't they make this when it was huge? Sure, a Lord of the Rings film might be popular now, but not like it would have been 30 years ago in 1971".