December 6, 2003

Re: Silmarilion Film
Danny

I agree that the Silmarilion would not make a good film. Don't get me wrong, I love the Silmarilion. In some ways I like it more than LOTR, but it doesn't make for a good film. At least not the whole book in one showing. I have two reasons for not wanting it to be made film yet ('yet' is explained in reason # 2.)

1st is that it would not make a good film. Films need a character for the audience to focus on and relate too. There are essentially no individual main characters in Silmarilion. Imagine a movie where every three or four scenes you have to introduce and explain a new main character and let the old one fade out of the story. It wouldn't work. The complexity of the story is another issue. The entire trilogy of LOTR is packed into the last 10-20 pages of Silmarilion. The only way Silmarilion could see the big screen and be done justice would be to do a series of multiple films. What I think would be cool would be to see around 10-20 1hr episodes made, sort of a mini-series for television idea. That way you could take the highlights and make them into somewhat self contained episodes.

Ok reason number 2. You have to promise me you won't laugh. This reason is entirely selfish and idealistic so be warned. I just graduated from college and have started a career in the 3d industry. I have my foot in the door to eventually get where I dream of getting as a 3d artist that does 3d work for movies etc. So you can imagine that part of that dream was to work on Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit. Unfortunately I was just a few years too late to have a crack at working on LOTR, and will most likely miss the chance with the Hobbit, unless it is about five or ten years off. (I need the time to develop a portfolio and a reputation etc before I would be likely to be considered for film work.) Silmarilion however is one that is not nearly as likely to be picked up by a big studio for theatrical release. So my fallback dream would be to do the episodes I mentioned already myself. I actually think that it would be intriguing to see the episodes done entirely CG. Simlar too Final Fantasy Spirits Within, which had its moments visually speaking but suffered from a poor script. Anyway take that movie's near realistic cg and step it up a notch (mostly needing to improve facial animation and all around human animation).

Ok so that is really ambitious for one person to think of tackling, especially because I would want to be involved in every aspect of the film. I am a passable artist, and I am almost done with my second novel. Granted I am no JRR Tolkien, nor am I a John Howe or Alan Lee yet. However my art and writing skills are growing rapidly. Particularly my art is improving with every piece I do. I would love to write the screen plays, do the story boards, design the character art, costumes etc, build the 3d models and animate the scenes. I am about 2/3 done with my second novel right now and was planning on starting my rough plans for Silmarilion once I finish that novel. Doing something this massive alone would take years and years and years, and computing power and resources I don't have. However I do want to be directly involved in every part of the project (and would love be the one in charge of the whole thing) so it would have to be a pretty small group I would think.

Ok so you all think I am nuts, but that's ok. Maybe in a few years I will have an episode of Silmarilion finished and ready to be enjoyed by the smaller group of Tolkien fans that has read that book. Chances are really slim, but I am going to take a crack at it. Unless of course it is scooped up by a film studio, in which case I will be ecstatic to see it done as long as it is done well.