Bored of the Rings: the Tolkien industry has gone far enough

M. Robert Gibson

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"We don't need more films based on his books"
 
I just loved Bored of The Rings, especially the unexpected side effect of wearing the thing - it made you constipated! :ROFLMAO:


I'm surprised that we haven't had a film version tbh. There's also another book called 'The Boggit' (although I've not read that). And two 8 bit video games as well. Why not a movie?

Calling Mel Brooks!
 
Bored of the Rings would make a terrible film. A lot of its charm is how accurately it pokes affectionate fun at particular lines of Tolkien's prose. Also the names, many of which would be difficult to get in there without forcing.

Here's one example:

LOTR: To the last battle at Fornost with the Witch-lord of Angmar they sent some bowmen to the aid of the king, or so they maintained, though no tales of men record it.

BOTR: To the last battle at Ribroast with the Slumlord of Borax they sent some snipers, though who they sided with is unclear.

Genius. But untranslatable to a visual medium.
 
Bored of the Rings would make a terrible film. A lot of its charm is how accurately it pokes affectionate fun at particular lines of Tolkien's prose. Also the names, many of which would be difficult to get in there without forcing.

Here's one example:

LOTR: To the last battle at Fornost with the Witch-lord of Angmar they sent some bowmen to the aid of the king, or so they maintained, though no tales of men record it.

BOTR: To the last battle at Ribroast with the Slumlord of Borax they sent some snipers, though who they sided with is unclear.

Genius. But untranslatable to a visual medium.

Id like to see what Terry Gilliam could do with Bored of the Rings . :)
 
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Bored of the Rings would make a terrible film. A lot of its charm is how accurately it pokes affectionate fun at particular lines of Tolkien's prose. Also the names, many of which would be difficult to get in there without forcing.

Here's one example:

LOTR: To the last battle at Fornost with the Witch-lord of Angmar they sent some bowmen to the aid of the king, or so they maintained, though no tales of men record it.

BOTR: To the last battle at Ribroast with the Slumlord of Borax they sent some snipers, though who they sided with is unclear.

Genius. But untranslatable to a visual medium.

Well done for anyone spotting that pretty obscure reference to the original text; tbh I didn't realise that the parody was so refined.

Yes a direct translation of the book would be very dificult, but I guess that the same could be said of most written stories. I think a cinematic version would simply borrow the (pretty cool) name and then parody the events of the movies. Perhaps even reference the differences between the movies/book with stuff like Tom Bombadil popping up and moaning about where his bit is!
 
Yes, parodying the movies would make more sense and could work.

Absolutely agree. However you just know it would be awful. I think you need, as Baylor pointed out, someone of the caliber of Terry Gilliam to do it. Otherwise you will end up with something like that parody of The 300 etc
 
I think you need, as Baylor pointed out, someone of the caliber of Terry Gilliam to do it.
Yes, something which is to the Jackson movies what Monty Python and the Holy Grail was to the Arthurian legends. But I don't think Gilliam alone is a strong enough comedic writer. I don't know offhand of any good parodists working in movies. (TV, yes: French and Saunders did some brilliant parodies of Harry Potter etc.)
 
The issue a film-length parody would have is keeping the audience emotionally engaged in the characters' story, which would still be necessary. Jabberwocky manages this, but the Bored of the Rings book doesn't; it's just a succession of gags, and the characters are there to be laughed at because they do nothing but stupid things. I thought it immensely entertaining and clever when I first read it at 18, but though I still recognise the cleverness of its humour, I can't read it all through because now I know all the jokes, there's no real value in the experience as a story.

Jabberwocky's MC isn't a parody of anyone in particular. The knights and Arthur in Holy Grail are, but it's more a sequence of sketches, so I'm not sure it has the same needs. To create parodies of Frodo and Sam etc which are targets for the humour but also relatable enough to carry a film would be very difficult.
 
I think there could be a lot of mileage left in the Tolkien world as long as they don't stick to the books.
Use the unwritten space between the books.
And make it less epic.
There could be 7 Samurai style adventures based on the Dúnedain/Rangers protecting villagers from raiding Orcs and Goblins.
Piratical stories on the high seas between Elves and Humans.
Dwarves exploring the mountains and discovering something dark and deep.
You could probably make a John Grisham style legal story if you set it in the heyday of Gondor...
 
I'm not convinced you can make a 90 minute parody of a specific story (as opposed to a style) without either becoming tiresome or writing something else. A funny fantasy story is perfectly feasible but I'm not sure that just spoofing LOTR (which would require a lot of background knowledge) would be hard to sustain.
 
Mel Brooks would be my choice. His Robin Hood: Men In Tights was a good parody of Prince of Thieves, Spaceballs I enjoyed immensely as a parody of Star Wars (and several other science fiction movies) and Young Frankenstein one of his finest parodying the Universal 'creature features' (I believe that he used some of the same sets).

Having said that, most of those movies were 30+ years ago now but even so I'm not sure that he's been surpassed.
 
There have already been parodies of The Hobbit filmed I think. Made by some chap called Jackson.
I hate the idea of more Tolkien films personally.


They're more like mockeries than parodies!
 

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