LOTR Take Two

Here’s a nifty little article at Tech Central Station arguing that we’ll inevitably see a cinematic remake of The Lord of the Rings:

 

Star Wars could be remade, but the story could only be retold — not re-imagined. Cinematically, there is nothing more to the Star Wars world beyond what George Lucas has chosen to show us. Star Wars offers no themes to balance, no nuances to explore, and no room for a director to craft a new vision. A remake could only imitate the original. It could not create, but only re-create.

 

By contrast, a remake of LOTR could be art. Tolkien’s novels teem over with themes, motifs, and plot notes that a thoughtful director could explore in ways that Peter Jackson didn’t. For example: my favorite aspect of the LOTR novels is the pervasive and melancholy sense of loss that permeates every page. All the wise characters realize that the world they knew is slipping away, and even victory cannot prevent the great ships from sailing into the West. The heroes fight less for their own dying world than for a world yet to come; strength and vitality ebb from all things great and marvelous, and the stain of evil is not easily erased, if indeed it is erased at all. Jackson touches only lightly upon this dolorous theme; a different director could make that theme the center of the movie, thus changing the trilogy completely. Then again, one could imagine a lighter, more childlike LOTR told from the point-of-view of the Hobbits — or a LOTR that focuses more explicitly upon the religious overtones of the novels — or a LOTR told from the perspective of the One Ring itself. One LOTR trilogy cannot come close to telling the story in every way that it can and should be told.

 

Hey, I can certainly get behind a new LOTR trilogy every ten years or so…