Silmarilion on TV?

[SienaJackson]

If they talk about the Undying Lands, would Frodo be there? And of Course there only one person to play him...EW! But I will read the book, or rather I will listen to it.

[Andúnië]

Yes I hear what you are saying.  But as I said, there are narratives even within the "epic form" that are definitely movie worthy (which read like novels) pretty much as they are (see above comments).  When you refer to "poetic license and imagination" as to what it would take to make The Silmarillion into several movies, is what I refer to as "stretching them out too much."  Obviously we differ in opinin here.  What you are saying is not impossible, but I believe wouldn't be an easy task for anyone, except Tolkien himself or maybe Christopher Tolkien.  The amount of poetic license and imagination that it would take to do what BBC might do - make it into 10 movies/series would be taking some liberties that I would not be comfortable seeing taken. 

I quite agree with this. The Simarillion covers an immense stretch of time, and films are not made to follow stories with such great spans. There would have to be a great many modifications and adaptations made to the story before it would be presentable in this medium, and I personally would not like to see such deviation from the original work.

[Gil Galad]

I would, the LotR films were about as big a deviation as any dont you think?

[Andúnië]

But the entire plot of LotR occured within several years. A lot of content would have to be invented to fill the time in the Simarillion (which was not needed for LotR), and I don't like that idea.

[Beren One-Hand]

The upcoming release of "The Children of Hurin" will provide a movie worthy work taken from the time of the Silmarilion (which will expand upon the stories mentioned within the Silmarilion and the Unfinished Tales regarding Turin, etc.).

[Andúnië]

Is The Children of Hurin a complete book? I enjoyed the story when I read it in the other two books. That is also another idea for those that would like to produce movies with the Simarillion: focusing on individual stories instead of attempting to collect an entire book's worth of narrative.

[Beren One-Hand]

Yes, The Children of Hurin will be a complete book, scheduled for release this year, April 17th.  I agree with what you said - I believe I mentioned this earlier as well.  Movies could be made from the Silmarilion, but they would consist of individual epics, like "Beren and Luthien" - my personal favorite.  Trying to do what was done with LOTR's wouldn't be possible, and as I said, too much poetic license would have to be taken in order to make a 10-part series out of them. 

Most of the Silmarilion is not ready for the movies - only a few of the stories might be.  So far the Hobbit would make a great movie, and maybe The Children of Hurin.

[Camlost]

The tale of Beren and Luthien would make a fantastic film, I agree. It has everything an epic should have. Including the happy ending!

And the love interest that Hollywood has to have is at least genuine in this tale. Arwen was a shadowy figure in LOTR. Luthien is central to the story.

And overcoming Sauron and resuing her chap would be one for the feminist audience!

[felagund]

The time-span of the Silmarilion is over 1000s of years. Way too big. Already when i try to talk about LOTR with people i always have to say, " you know, the guy with the beard" instead of names. The silmarion is way more complicated with all the characters than LOTR. People don't even understand the lifespan of elves and would'nt get what was going on.