The LOTR and Hobbit movie franchise spin off thread. Share your ideas about new ones here!

[Feanaro Curufinwe]

Nice going gents, keep it up!

I came up with a "serious" suggestion, a TV series about the Hunt for Gollum. This would be a tale of the Quest taken by Aragorn and Gandalf to capture Gollum. There would be room for action and a visit to places and characters we had not seen (much off) before.
I was surprised to learn (some of you probably knew) that a movie by this title already exists. It's by no means big budget and can be found here:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Another more light hearted one would be a Mastermind kind of program where contestants could compete against each other on the subject of LOTR and the Hobbit lore.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A random list of possible contestants:

And of course the Foreman? of the jury:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Shouldn't Tolkien be judge?

[Veteraan]

I was thinking about the destruction of Arnor by the Witch king.
Could be made into a TV series or a Film. What you guys think?

That could be a great show to watch. I'd vote for a one season TV series for this one.

The Children of Húrin might be a possibility.

It certainly would, but it does fall outside the scope I outlined in the First post.

Shouldn't Tolkien be judge?

I considered that at first, but even the great man himself would have a hard time beating the Ferritmaster at this game. Besides that, his appearance relies on the services of someone like this:


and the judge must be available for every show.

[Incredible Bulk]

Cops: Shire Edition- Cops is an shire documentary/reality legal series that follows Hobbit bounty hunters, and Shirriffs deputies during patrols and other Shirriff sactivities. This it asked time frame of the show covers well before the hobbit and LOTR down till fourth age

Episode 1. Plot is about a Murder investigation of a man named Déagol

[Tankbustaz]

A show about a half dozen hobbits with feathers in their caps marching around? Yeah that could work.

[Þiudreiks]

Well seeing as they have just made up a whole history that has nothing to do with Tolkien, how about, The Hunt for the Witchking, portraying the imprisonment of the Witchking that is mentioned in the Hobe-it movies (can't being myself to call it the Hobbit).

At least with this they wouldn't be butchering any more of Tolkien's work. It would be just a fantasy setting recycling names of places and people from Tolkien.

[ElvenKind]

Please, post in READABLE english.

[Tankbustaz]

Damn it Elvenkind, I was parodying the average moviegoer who believes that the Hobbit Film is more awesome and better than the Hobbit.

[Ngugi]

LOLZ ^^

[Chieftain Khuzaymah]

Cops: Shire Edition- Cops is an shire documentary/reality legal series that follows Hobbit bounty hunters, and Shirriffs deputies during patrols and other Shirriff sactivities. This it asked time frame of the show covers well before the hobbit and LOTR down till fourth age

Episode 1. Plot is about a Murder investigation of a man named Déagol

You inspired me. How about:

Paul Blart: Mall Cop Peregrim Took: White City Cop.

CSI: Eriador

Iron man 4: Saruman

College Road Trip: Samwise Gamgee and Frodo Baggings

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Captain Boromir: The Winter Soldier.

I guess that's enough for now

[Tankbustaz]

can I have my poorly typed reply please? I promise to type it correctly.

[ElvenKind]

can I have my poorly typed reply please? I promise to type it correctly.

NO. I had to delete it. Especially cause of "STFU reference".

EDIT: Unless, you do as you say, and, leave out some comments.

[menawati]

Since there seems to be loads of cooking programmes on TV these days (probably because it's cheap to make) why not let the denizens of Middle-Earth in on the deal....
- 'Creative Cooking for Students' with Gorbag, how to rustle up a nourishing 3 course meal using a tin of baked beans, some twigs and a dead rat
- 'Masterchef Middle-Earth' hosted by 3 fat hobbits
- 'No Way Bread !' - self-professed waybread hater Glorfindel takes his fellow elves on a culinary journey through all the many alternatives to chewing on dry crackers when you are out for the day

[Ngugi]

Iron man 4: Saruman

I'd argue there would be someone else ^^

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

(from my graphich series van Gondor)

[Flinn]

rotfl, nice idea and I had some hard laughs while reading the thread

now seriuosly, it all depends on the final outcome of the Hobbit Trilogy; as someone (many? ) properly pointed out, PJ looks mainly for business, so once the hot trail of the two novels will be cold, I doubt he would invest money on the same again; that could be a good chance for him to work on a full ME mithology series, if he will finally decide to stop harassing the lore, now that he is a King Midas, but I'm not optimistic on this regard.

for marketing point of view, the best would be to create spin-offs (which are already well accepted by purists too, at least as a general rule), provided they are inspired on original lore; in this regard there will be MUCH to tell and finally they could be freed from our righteous rage, so if I were PJ (oh, the horror) I would go this way; spin-offs are easily written (each of us can write a story about Huma son of Bama from Aldburg and make it at least credible, if not enjoyable), easily received by the audience and easily transferred into games, which is the real step they should take (ok ok there is plenty of LOTR games, but its mainly crap, even those based on spin-offs are not credible at all, my good Lord, the wraith ranger .. it's sad to see how people pretends to emprove JRRT job... )

do they have the skill to create interesting and credible spin-offs? that's another story, till now they only showed they are good at ruining good plots.. sooo what they are going to do, if they will do anything ever again, is to take "inspiration" by some of the most interesting stories and cruelly butcher them.
using my crystal ball I can tell you, the next one will surely be the story of the last part of the first age and the defeat of Morgot (Sauron will be really introduced and largely used), they will make 3 or 5 movies out of it (the first one will probably be a summary of the period between the Music and the awekening of the Elves), but not now, nor in short time (not just the year after the last chapter of the Hobbit)

[Veteraan]

rotfl, nice idea and I had some hard laughs while reading the thread

Well thank you very much, kind sir.

easily transferred into games, which is the real step they should take (ok ok there is plenty of LOTR games, but its mainly crap, even those based on spin-offs are not credible at all, my good Lord, the wraith ranger .. it's sad to see how people pretends to emprove JRRT job... )

There is of course that one game which has been modded to an incredible diversity of different gameplay options. Not much money to be made from that though.

using my crystal ball I can tell you, the next one will surely be the story of the last part of the first age and the defeat of Morgot (Sauron will be really introduced and largely used), they will make 3 or 5 movies out of it (the first one will probably be a summary of the period between the Music and the awekening of the Elves), but not now, nor in short time (not just the year after the last chapter of the Hobbit)

As I stated in the first post, the rights to these stories are safe (for the time being, one doesn't know what a new generation of Tolkien heirs would decide).

[Flinn]

There is of course that one game which has been modded to an incredible diversity of different gameplay options. Not much money to be made from that though.

TATW is another story mate ..

As I stated in the first post, the rights to these stories are safe (for the time being, one doesn't know what a new generation of Tolkien heirs would decide).

there is nothing safe under this sun, when business is involved

[Þiudreiks]

there is nothing safe under this sun, when business is involved

Thanks to groups like Disney copyright and Trademarks are heavily enforced and often times stupidly. As such The Tolkien Trust is well protected until, 1) the family releases the rights to others or 2) It goes into the public domain. In this case the big companies screwed themselves over on stealing anymore of Tolkien's work with their own greed.

[Flinn]

I'm not very much into such a matter, but if I know something for sure is that money makes the things change quite quickly

In this case the big companies screwed themselves over on stealing anymore of Tolkien's work with their own greed.

as I said ..

anyway, IIRC rights on written works expire after 75 years

[Þiudreiks]

For the UK and US it is life+70 years (edit: look like this is the same for most of Europe and Scandinavia as well, Japan is life of author + 50 years). Now here is a question though: Unfinished Tales and Silmarillion are both works that are basically written by J.R.R., but were edited and published by Christopher, so wouldn't that mean it would be the death of Christopher + 70 years not J.R.R. Tolkien? Then we have Children of Hurin, which was finished by Christopher making it partly his work, I would say that definitely that one is safe until his death + 70 years before it goes into the public domain.

Sorry for the derail...

[Veteraan]

For the UK and US it is life+70 years (edit: look like this is the same for most of Europe and Scandinavia as well, Japan is life of author + 50 years). Now here is a question though: Unfinished Tales and Silmarillion are both works that are basically written by J.R.R., but were edited and published by Christopher, so wouldn't that mean it would be the death of Christopher + 70 years not J.R.R. Tolkien? Then we have Children of Hurin, which was finished by Christopher making it partly his work, I would say that definitely that one is safe until his death + 70 years before it goes into the public domain.

Sorry for the derail...

Well it's interesting, but I would say the punishment for derailing should be an on topic post. So think of something worthwhile that can be a spin off based on LOTR/the Hobbit and post it!

If somebody knows the answer to Þiudreiks question, please post it. It actually is a bit on topic, because I stated in the first post that the Silmarillion and everything else published after LOTR is off limits due to copyright reasons (meaning they are safe for now). I think a lot of us would like to know for how long these works are "safe".
Of course it would be best if you could add a spin off idea also.
However, I won't hold it against you if you don't.