The Reason Potter Films Will Never Be as Respectfully Done as LOTR

[Pernille]

You make good point Sherry. 

I don't think the Harry Potter films will ever be done as good as 
Peter Jackson did with LOTR, unless WB wises up a bit and things are 
done differently. Like some People pointed out PJ, Fran and Philippa 
where and are real fans of the book and are devoted to it. 
Another thing that I think was genius of them was to bring in the two 
illustrators of the books to the project, that way people who had 
read the illustrated versions could find a bit that in the films. 

The problem with the HP movies as many has pointed out is the 
directors not only doesn't have any personal connection to the 
stories, but also that they have changed directors. IMO that ruins 
the whole thing, because different directors have different ways of 
looking at things and you lose the feeling that they belong together.

Like I have said before I think they should make extended versions of 
these films as the books become longer as PJ did with LOTR. The 
extended versions make so much more sense then the cinema versions 
plus that they are truer to the book. Like I pointed out before my 
version of OotP is about 840 pages and my version of LOTR is 1064. 
The difference is not that big and even as PJ divided if into three 
movies he still made the extended versions that where truer to the 
book and made more sense. If WB with cast and crew are going to stay 
remotely true to the story, IMO they either have to make them longer, 
divide them or make extended versions. 

My opinion
Pernille

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, "Sherry Gomes" <sherriola at e...> 
wrote:
> LOTR went through several not so great movie adaptation, before 
Peter
> Jackson came along.  There was a cartoon called the hobbit that 
wasn't bad,
> if you were a kid.  There was a sequel to that, that picked up 
somewhere in
> the middle of LOTR, so it wouldn't have made a bit of sense to 
anyone.  In
> between those, there was a live action movie that covered the story 
in one
> and a half books, left you hanging and never came back to finish 
the story.
> By all accounts, it was not very well done, and nobody really liked 
it much.
> I can't remember now, it's been so long since I've seen it.  By the 
time
> Jackson decided to do the LOTR movies, he and all the crew were 
committed to
> the idea of making it as true to the books and the spirit of 
Tolkien's
> vision as possible, while still doing a job that was more practical 
for a
> movie.  There were things I didn't like in the LOTR movies, because 
i've
> read the books dozens of times, but they make sense from point of 
view of a
> film.  Ok, not all of them make sense, but most do.  There wasn't 
the sense
> that Jackson and the rest didn't know or care about the characters 
or story.
> If you watch the DVD with the commentaries, you gain an incredible 
respect
> for how hard they worked to bring middle earth to life and to stay 
true to
> Tolkien.
> 
> Maybe, the HP movies started out as a way to cash in on the 
popularity of
> the books, and all we who love the books wanted the movies, too.  
it might
> need to wait a decade or two to have some new director come up, 
someone who
> loves the stories and who will make a series true to books and 
their world.
> One thing is that we don't know the end yet, so I think, having an 
overall
> picture might make a series of films better.
> 
> Sherry
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cgahnstrm [mailto:christin.gahnstrom at t...] 
> Sent: Monday, August 09, 2004 2:44 AM
> To: HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [HPFGU-Movie] Re: The Reason Potter Films Will Never Be as
> Respectfully Done as LOTR
> 
> 
> >  Hey,
> > 
> >  I know no one's really comparing the two, but since they are 
both a
> > series of films based on popular fantasy novels, let's shall we?
> > 
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 
> >  LOTR
> > 
> >  --- an obsessed filmmaker, writer, and producer who was an uber-
fan
> > of the books.
> >  ---a tight-knit crew and actors who were also committed and
> > respectful to the source material, like Christopher Lee, who was
> > something of a scholar of Tolkien
> >  --- source material that has beeen around long enough to have
> > achieved legendary reknown.
> >  ---Tolkien is now long gone and unable to have input on how the 
> films
> > were done (though I heard his family was none too happy).
> > 
> > End result: 
> > Academy awards
> > cross-over acceptance
> > critcal acclaim
> > and very few fandom quips except those nit-picking idiots who 
miss 
> Tom
> > Bombadill...
> > 
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
> > 
> >  Harry Potter
> > 
> >  --- a scriptwriter, while a friend of the author, writes in an
> > extremely stilted manner
> >  --- a succession of directors, of varying abilties and visions
> >  --- books at the height of their popularity being rushed to
> > production for that all-mighty dollar.
> >  --- J.K.'s still alive and well, to give input and approval 
(this 
> is
> > both a good and bad thing to me) 
> >  --- the books haven't even all been written yet 
> > 
> > End Result:
> > the jury's still out since the films haven't been completed, but 
so 
> far? 
> > oodles of money has been made
> > reviews have been mixed but getting successively better with each 
> film
> > the acting has been nowhere near the quality of that in LOTR
> > but they are just kids...
> > 
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
> >  
> >  I'm sure more could be added...Have at it if you will. :-)
> 
> 
> 
> lotr:
> A dedicated cast that are very happy and proud to be a part of the 
> films.
> 
> hp:
> A cast that seems to either be in it for the money (Oldman) or for 
> their children/grandchildren/nephew/neigbur's cat, pretty much for 
> anyone but themselves. (The rest. Well, maybe not Thewlis.)
> 
> 
> 
> 
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