The LOTR Movie Site
February 26, 2001

Write the Script Like the Book
Tom K.

If your going to make this movie, try to be as close to the book as possible.I don't care if it's a big hollywood movie or not; if you can't do it right, than don't do it at all. Peter Jackson looks like he's doing the best he can so far, but i'll never understand why directors have to leave things out of scripts when adapting from books. The fact that he's leaving out Tom Bombadil is in my mind completely unexceptable.The chapters concerning him are some of the most interesting parts of the trilogy. So what then? Is Peter going to leave out the trip through the Old Forest? The encounter with Old Man Willow? The whole entire stay with Bombadil and Goldberry, and the trip through the barrow downs, where afterwards Tom rescues the hobbits? Come on man! That's a big gap to leave out. And don't give me this crap about time constraints of the film either. That has never been nor will ever be a proper excuse for leaving out important material. And what are these pictures of Arwen ridng horses and wielding swords?! My point is this. If there was ever a movie that deserves the uttermost respect to be done right, this is it. Peter should make each part two video tapes long, that way he can put everything in the movie that he needs to make it right. I'm talking straight from the book, word for word type of right. In my mind, that's the only way to adapt the greatest story ever written to film. I don't care if it's hollywood or not. "The Godfather" movies were two tapes long each, so why doesn't this one deserve the same? If the movie is being made, make it right, you know? Well i just hope Peter has enough deep insight and love for the books to do a well enough job. It will be a real shame if he doesn't.