Curious if I'm the only one here who thinks that LotR is overrated. Let them spend the money on a better story.
The moral fiber of Tolkien shines through in passages like this:
Frodo: 'What a pity that Bilbo did not stab that vile creature when he had a chance!'
'Pity? It was Pity that stayed his hand. Pity, and Mercy: not to strike without need. And he has been well rewarded, Frodo. Be sure that he took so little hurt from the evil, and escaped in the end, because he began his ownership of the Ring so. With Pity.'
'I am sorry,' said Frodo. 'But I am frightened; and I do not feel any pity for Gollum.'
'You have not seen him,' Gandalf broke in.
'No, and I don't want to,' said Frodo. 'I can't understand you. Do you mean to say that you, and the Elves, have let him live on after all those horrible deeds? Now at any rate he is as bad as an Orc, and just an enemy. He deserves death.'
'Deserves it? I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.'
I can compare it to Jurassic Park - whereby the CGI looks great even today, but due to the high cost at the time was used conservatively.
The Mandalarian used physical models for a lot of the space sequences, so I think at least some people in the business are realising that CGI has to be used appropriately.
Anyway rant over :)
But without spoiling anything- by the end it had clearly gone the way of the Battlestar Galactica remake. They had no idea where to take the story and by the end it was painfully obvious. At least Moore admitted that by the end he was as lost as we were.
Same with GRRM, or even Stephen Kimg and the Gunslinger series. I absolutely adore a good story but much prefer ones with a general outline finished before writing a series. Disjointed stories with years between each never seem as good to me by their conclusions.
Castlevania started out great but meandered to 'WTAF how could you make me hate a Castlevania adult cartoon?!' in typical Netflix fashion.
Take the opposite example of Cowboy Bebop, had a pretty clear arc as well as an ending, and was perfect for it.
But I guess everyone just wants to be The Simpsons and drag things on forever.
But if any producers read HN and are looking for other well-developed fantasy or science fiction universes with plenty of existing written stories that could be turned into excellent TV series, miniseries, or movies, here are some that I'd definitely want to watch, and I don't think I'd be alone in this.
1. Fritz Leiber's "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" series [1].
2. Richard and Wendy Pini's "Elfquest" series [2].
3. Larry Niven's Known Space series [3].
4. Anne McCaffrey's Pern series [4].
As far as I know, no one has even ever started development on #1.
Warner Brothers announced they were going to do an "Elfquest" movie in 2008, but cancelled it because they thought it would compete with another fantasy movie they were doing, "The Hobbit".
One story from #3, "The Soft Weapon" got adapted to the Star Trek universe and became the episode "The Slaver Weapon" of the Star Trek animated series.
#4 almost got to the point of shooting a pilot for a TV series at Warner Broters. They had cast it and sets were being built. But WB requested so many changes in the final script that it was no longer really Pern (I've seen it described as a cross between Xena and Buffy). The showrunner, Ronald D. Moore [5], was a fan of the books and quit rather than going along with the changes, and the project died.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fafhrd_and_the_Gray_Mouser
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfquest
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Known_Space
Yet here we are, still stuck with orcs, vampires, zombies and wizards (don't mean to demean it, I love all of it). Just wish they would use some new kind of universe with its own unique mechanics. They do drip out once in a while, but they're mostly rare.