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Anecdote that struck me: Ian McKellan didn’t bond much with the hobbit actors since he interacted more with the scale body doubles. Another: some sets built at 2 scales, one for human and elf, another for hobbits and dwarves. They picked slightly taller dwarf actors to avoid 3.
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They shot the road-to-Bree scene first where the hobbits hide from the Ringwraith, to give them a chance to bond There’s a gazillion little details like this. I’d honestly watch 8h long making-of miniseries.
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I can’t even imagine the top-level narrative architecture problem: unbundling the books into a storyboard, then screenplays (Fran Walsh described the screenwriting as laying track in front of a moving train), and then keeping the out-of-order production Gantt chart straight.
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In many ways this was a bigger achievement than MCU. MCU is 10x bigger in scale (40 films?) but is relatively much looser material, more forgiving tonally (humor > drama) and done in a far better tech era 10-20y later, with far more mature CGI. It’s also more uneven.
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Another detail: crew assembling the plastic chain mail wore out their thumbprints. The sheer grind of assembling thousands of bits of chain mail… And finer touches too…like a jeweler designing Arwen’s pendant thing. Takes a Galaxy brain to keep priorities/proportions straight.
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The contrast between LOTR and Hobbit trilogies underlines the importance of a) right-sizing the creative canvas for the material b) the difference missionary design idealism makes to architectural integrity. LOTR was Mac, Hobbit was Windows Vista era PC. Cathedral vs Junkspace.
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Similar contrast between MCU affectionate narrative ramp with time gif each character and the disaster that was DC’s Justice League superhero role-call that even Zach Snyder cut could not redeem. You have to care more about the story than the money or you get narrative Junkspace.
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I mean it’s literally 1 book of raw material vs 3. You can’t upsample with interpolation by 3x. It’s like “Computer: enhance!” bs. I don’t think the epic cinema moment has passed. You could still make good movie trilogies out of good, highly visual book trilogies
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Replying to @0xfbifemboy and @vgr
they tried to force another LOTR, but the moment passed (LOTR was the crowning jewel of the medieval epic cinema bubble) and The Hobbit book was fundamentally not The Lord of the Rings
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Replying to
i think the epics have migrated to prestige TV, with various degrees of success (GoT, Vikings, LOTR Amazon, etc) Villeneuve's Dune has the potential to inherit the legacy of Jackson's LOTR but otherwise Marvel has been sucking up all the "epic" air in the room
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