So, after I posted my thoughts about why THE SILMARILLION would be much, much more difficult to film than THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS, I got a request from a Brazilian Tolkien group to let them post a translation of my post on their website. I was glad to agree, and the piece is now up. For those of you who read Brazilian Portuguese, or for those of you interested to see yet another example of the vibrant Tolkien fandom and scholarship going on all around the world, here's the link to my piece (and hence to their website as a whole). Enjoy!
http://tolkienbrasil.com/artigos/academicos/o-proximo-filme-sobre-tolkien-por-john-d-rateliff/
P.S.: As per Leandro's comment after the main post, he's certainly right that I'm not a film-maker and am approaching the question of making Tolkien films from the viewpoint of a purist and a Tolkien scholar: someone who knows Tolkien v. well and has paid close attention to those adaptations of his work that have already been made. A film-maker of genius can overcome the difficulties I foresee, but that doesn't mean they're not real. The worst will be generating dialogue: there's precious little of it in the Silmarillion stories (far less than in H or LotR), and creating Tolkienesque dialogue that rings true to the story being told has proven the major sticking point in previous adaptations (with the nadir being the Rankin-Bass RETURN OF THE KING). So I stand by my concerns here, while I look forward to seeing how future film-makers (of genius, I hope) tackle and resolve the problems I foresee.
--John R.
current reading: GREEN SUNS AND FAERIE by Verlyn Flieger, BRIDE OF THE RAT-GOD by Barbara Hambly
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