These writers' only experience is working on a 4th film in JJ Abrams' Star Trek reboot universe which ended up getting cancelled too.
I also don't think that the Tolkien universe is somehow sacrosanct. If the show sucks, then it sucks - it doesn't take away from the original writing. There's plenty of bad media based on the Tolkien books as well as endless merchandise and other cash grabs. There's even a Gandalf Funko POP[1], for goodness sakes.
It would be great if the show was good though. We'll see. As others have mentioned, Amazon studios seems to have pretty poor taste and produce a lot of crap. Though Patriot is quite excellent.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Funko-Movies-Gandalf-Action-Figure/dp...
After seeing the fruits of the investors being involved I think I'm ok with that.
I disagree. Tolkien's work is not just a story; it is a fictional world. Merchandise exists outside that world, but new stories in that world become an inherent part of that world. Good stories elevate the value of that world. Bad stories damage the value of that world.
Keeping with your first example, imagine if a cheap, ugly, concrete, brutalist structure was added onto the Roman Colosseum. The original structure may still be a work of art, but the addition would detract from it. Imagine putting cheap steak sauce on an expertly prepared, high-quality steak. The steak may still be delicious, but its value would be lessened by the added sauce. The same is true for fictional worlds like Tolkien's.
All that said, most of my favorite fictional worlds from my childhood have been tarnished by cheap cash grabs, so I have learned to scrape the sauce off the steak and enjoy the original for as much as I can. It's still a great steak, after all. If Amazon's show bombs - which seems likely - I'll do the same for Tolkien's works.
I don't know what their break even number is but prime is fucking expensive. If this pushes 1% of people who are on the edge of buying prime and not buying prime into making that decision its a massive win for them.
I don't think it will be any good. But 95% of film and tv is terrible and it keeps getting made.
what is the most objective judge of quality if not what people are willing to watch
As the amount of things being made seemingly have increased tenfold, while the amount of watchable stuff seems at best to stay level, I say the figure is probably closer to 99% as we speak.
And the overzealous eagerness to retell already successful stories, but with the message[0] forcefully attached, is causing noticeable political fatigue in increasing portions of what could have been the mainstream demographic.
But the fact that they keep doing on it, implies they think it makes financially sense? Anyone got any more background on what’s going on behind the scenes here?
As a white 20-40 year old guy 50 years ago nearly 100% of the mainstream content was targeted at me or my family. Now that number is lower. I don't think its drastically lower but lets say its 80%. That means at least 20% of the content that is being created in 2022 I'll pop on and go, "Eh. Not for me." Which is great. Because for someone else who has been watching content not targeted at them their entire life they turn on and go, "Holy shit this is exactly what I want."
Easy way to make that content? Just retell the same stories and change things around a bit so other demographics can relate to it.
Yep.
And unlike Netflix, Amazon has deep pockets, to take such a huge gamble.
Personally, based on everything I've heard I've set my expectations to be very low.
I could take it or leave it.
I'll wait for people to watch it and if they tell me it's not good I won't even bother.
I love this series so much to not sully my memories of it by even watching this to find out just how bad it is.
I don't need the currency of being able to bitch about it or complain or to say that I knew it was gonna suck.
That's how much I like the original Peter Jackson movies.
Prime is similar to or cheaper than Netflix (depending on your Netflix plan), and yet also includes "free shipping", a selection of free movies, a selection of free books, all the "Prime Gaming" goodies, and a bunch of other stuff.
Netflix, meanwhile, charges you extra for 4k (and by some perspectives, HD).
I dunno, Prime doesn't feel that expensive, even if it is more than Disney+ or HBO.
I'd probably view prime differently if they allowed me to pay monthly like netflix or other services.
The issue is, execs have no idea at all of what is quality. In fact, they more often than not lower the quality of the films and series with their changes.
I'm not trying to be provocative, but how do you explain superhero movies then? They all seem to be the same and are a huge cash cow.
IMHO, if you throw hundreds of millions of dollars at something and the same in marketing, they will come because the majority of people will just watch what's on.
Meanwhile with the halo series you just don't have that. No one has heard of the actors or directors. It's been widely panned by critics and fans. It probably will be cancelled before long once paramount can no longer ride off the success of the first episode which if it doesn't continue means people were baited into watching it with the Halo IP more than anything.
They are well filmed. The action tends to be good. They have stars in them. They have characters in them people care about. Those are all things that will draw a lot of people towards them.
Halo has 1-2 characters people give a shit about and zero stars. The LOTR show seems to be the same...
I'm not saying you HAVE to have those things for something to be quality but to keep people coming back those things help a lot.