Can't wait to see Tauriel in action, looks gorgeous

While there's certainly an argument to be had that some elements of the films need to be altered, the idea that an epic fantasy movie could be made in any other way is problematic.

It would never be funded, for one.

The only reason we have TV shows like A Game of Thrones, or that other thing based on those awful books by that guy whose name I can't remember, or the Eragon movie, is because LOTR got made. And to get it made, it went Hollywood. (And it was still described as the world's biggest indie movie). Before LOTR? Xena. Willow. Even after LOTR? The Dungeons and Dragons films.

If you did get your brilliant fantasy story which totally does everything right funded, it would be rather low budget. And you have to make that budget stretch and make it work in movie world. I'm a script editor. I know of which you speak. You want visual cues, broad strokes ideas. You keep your characters as few as humanly possible, or you make their differences and conflicts REALLY obvious. Watch a really smart genre movie like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy. How do we keep track of everyone? Character actors that everyone knows.

Unless your backstory conflict can be explained in about two sentences or less, or better, can be visually represented somehow, it will get cut. A fully funded motion picture costs heinous amounts of money a day. Time spent shooting scenes to explain the backstory, or involved flashbacks, is time wasted.

And on and on it goes. All a long way of saying: this is a film. Expect it to act like a film, and don't stress over it too much.

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Dreaming of getting back to painting...any month now.

I cannot for the life of me remember the physical appearance of a Sindar, but Thranduil and Legolas were Sindar, not 'true' wood elves.

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"Mickey, my friend!"

Well, no, actually golden hair is quite rare among the Noldor. Noldor are, for the most part, dark-haired. The Vanyar were the original blonde Elves, and that's how the blonde strand entered the Noldor lines of Fingolfin and Finarfin -> through their mother Indis of the Vanyar (Finwe's 2nd wife). Some of their descendants (i.e. Galadriel) and Glorfindel (literally 'Golden-haired Elf' - that shows how unusual he is) are the only blonde Noldor we know of.

The Teleri (of which came the Sindar) are more ambiguous: there are members whose hair is silver-blonde (Thingol, Celeborn, Círdan) and others with dark hair (Lúthien, Eöl) - hair colour seems to have been more varied for them, so Thranduil's hair being "golden" is not inconsistent at all, especially since we don't know his precise ancestry. From the quote, we know his golden hair is canon, so assuming his son has the same hair-colour isn't that far-fetched.

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Rohan - as it should have been. A house rule project.

Actually I went back and reread some things but didn't want to further derail the thread so I was going to let it lie. But some of the Noldor had Auburn hair as well. I got confused on by the fallowing quote: "They [the Quendi] were a race high and beautiful, the older Children of the world, and among them the Eldar were as kings, who are now gone: the People of the Great Journey, the People of the Stars. They were tall, fair of skin and grey-eyed, though their locks were dark, save in the golden house of Finarfin ..." Appendix F: Part II, "On Translation,"

And yes when I went back and re-read a few thing Thranduil and his father Oropher were Sindar.

As for Legolas having Golden hair I guess my mind just had him being Dark haired because of this line: "Frodo looked up at the Elf standing tall above him, as he gazed into the night, seeking a mark to shoot at. His head was dark, crowned with sharp white stars that glittered in the black pools of the sky behind. " The Fellowship of the Ring: "The Great River"

And here I thought dark hair was rare, haha

The 2nd movie is named "the desolation of Smaug".
I think it ends before they get to Erebor.
Part 3 could be (partially) about the life after the Hobbit, dwarves visiting Bilbo, reclaiming Moria etc.

They already released a teaser image, for movie two of Bilbo inside the mountain

I don't know why you are overthinking the elf thing. Film wise elves are just elves, they are all the same, neither Thorin's elf-hatred nor hair colour are relevnat in the film universe.

Part 3 will be almost entirely stuff out of the Hobbit - no bridging or after stuff. Plus, like Harry Potter 7 Part 2 I expect the battle of the Five Armies to take up a large portion of that.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

Looking forward to seing Bard!, Beorn and the Necromancer! Wondering how big a part the Necromancer plays in the movie? Cause in the book he's only mentioned like 3 or 4 times REALLY hope that they took he whole part with the necromancer from the fellowship of the ring book, and brought in the movie!! So stoked

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“Let the unseen days be. Today is more than enough”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Children of Húrin

If nothing else they should show the white council destroying Dol Guldur.

Well, we all but know that the 2nd movie will be 3 hours long (including credits of course), so I figure the first hour will be them meeting Beorn, Gandalf leaving them, them entering Mirkwood, a bunch of White Council stuff and them getting captured by the elves after nearly being eaten by the spiders. Then in the second hour, we have the White Council driving out the Necromancer (I could see Beorn being here with his army of bears, this would allow him to kill Bolg like in the book, just at a different location), the dwarves arriving in Lake Town and making their way to the Lonely Mountain and finding the door and sending Bilbo to investigate. Then the third hour wraps up the White Council's part in the story and introduces Smaug in all his glory, both talking to Bilbo and destroying Lake Town before finally being shot down. Then the movie ends with Bilbo getting his mithril coat and finding the Arkenstone with Thorin going a little bit crazy right towards the end.

As for the 3rd movie, I would expect the BoFA to last about an hour right in the middle of the movie, with the first hour showing all the buildup to it and the last hour showing the aftermath of the battle and Bilbo's journey home. Now, at the end of the movie they could easily show Bilbo finishing his book in Rivendell and talking to Aragorn/hearing about Aragorn's adventures. That last part is wishful thinking on my part, but I would love to see it. Considering everything that PJ has a license for, I hope that he makes a movie about Aragorn's life. I find it about 99% probable that it won't ever happen, but you never know.

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"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

As for profiles, we'll definitely get Tauriel, a stag ungrade for Thranduil (maybe just standard horse, but I could see it's antlers counting as a lance or maybe Impalers like the camels), an armor upgrade for Wood Elves, some Lake Town men (probs just standard men without armor, like the Wildmen) the Master (who would probably be dirt cheap but with an annoying rule), Bard with the Great Bow and some uber ranged abilities, Smaug, Beorn and maybe some random bears, and whatever orcs they decide to introduce in Dol Guldur. We can definitely look forward to new sculpts for existing models like Thranduil, Legolas, probably the entire Company, the Necromancer, and the spiders.

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"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

Having both the destruction of Smaug and the BoFA in the same film would, IMO, weaken the impact of each. So I would imagine we would get up to Smaug's death in Film 2. Similarly, I think they are going to want something in the parallel story arc for the third movie so I can see the raid on Dol Guldur being in the first third, with Gandalf just leaving there in time to get to the BoTA before it becomes the BoFA. But it's just as likely Dol Guldur could be closed out in the second film.

I personally hope that the White Council's move on the Necromancer doesn't try to portray it as the full and total destruction of Dol Guldur. Afterall, that didn't happen until near the end of the War of the Ring. But as mentioned in films you need to pull in, compress and simplify. So we may indeed have Galadriel "cast down the walls".

It seems PJ was portraying the Necromancer as a dark, spectral humanoid form. I didn't expect it to look anything like GW's version (which I still think is cool interpretation) but I'm not yet sure if that's what we'll really see for him in the film. It didn't seem to have any more 'fear' to it than the ghostly Nazgul, maybe even less, and nothing like the impressive weight Sauron had in the Last Alliance flash back.

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Beowulf

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I am very happy with the Hobbit, but am I the only one who doesn't like the title "the desolation of smaug?" thats like naming return of the king 'sauron dies.'

That's not what desolation means, it refers in the book to the region Smaug destroyed...an area of desolation.

Besides, what would they call it? "The Unexpected Journey Continues" sounds a whole lot worse.

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"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

The Necromancer Strikes Back! Followed by The Return of The Istari

How about: Return to the foot of Erebor

Okay on a side note Tolkien hated the Last books being called Return of the King it ruined his whole set up of wondering if Aragorn died when he went though the paths of the dead. He wanted War of the Ring sense they forced him to divide the 1 volume into 3 volumes of 2 books but they went with Return of the king anyway.

Can't wait to see Tauriel in the 2nd film. Evangeline Lilly....

Lol.