A plan... a play!
Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2010 9:23 am
I think I have a few ideas that might get TCTC on the cinematic map once more.
First off, the issues that keep the movie from being made. First concern is portraying the rape of Lena, and yet keeping Covenant a sympathetic character. Second is the idea of a ring series being perceived by the movie going public as derivative of Tolkien (we know better!).
Both issues dismissed in one fell swoop! How? Take a clue from George Lucas and start it in the middle!
By the middle I don't mean the literal middle, I mean start it from "the Runes of the Earth." This is where Donaldson himself, as a writer, knew he would be getting new readers and old readers. He had to create something that satisfied both people willing to read the whole series and impatient people who wanted to know what the buzz was all about.
I think he succeeded with "the Runes of the Earth."
By this time, Covenant is already a sympathetic figure, and furthermore, is dead and therefore is far less culpable for his atrocity in the viewer's mind.
By this time, the ring itself is less important than the Staff of Law and other plot devices that will distract the naysayers from calling this a Tolkien rip off (again, we know better!).
Now comes the best part...
Are you ready?
Film makers may be hesitant to act-- hell, I even thought of using my $50 digital camera and doing it up Ed Wood style, but then it hit me...
Like a bolt of lightening it hit me!
A play!
Costume, drama, soliloquy, lighting, could all be used to distill the entire TC universe into a single play!
It would be lacking in detail, but the crucial elements could be enacted on stage, cheaply enough that fans could do this, and with a good camera and film crew (who I have access to) could be videotaped and displayed.
Donaldson himself, wanting to promote this body of work, may grant the use of this play as a promotional device and...
(please let it be before Hough Laurie, Brian Blessed, and Grace Jones are dead or too old to portray their characters: see my other posts)
A movie could follow very shortly.
To be frank, I'm thinking of halting all other endevours to do this myself.
Let the brainstorming begin!
First off, the issues that keep the movie from being made. First concern is portraying the rape of Lena, and yet keeping Covenant a sympathetic character. Second is the idea of a ring series being perceived by the movie going public as derivative of Tolkien (we know better!).
Both issues dismissed in one fell swoop! How? Take a clue from George Lucas and start it in the middle!
By the middle I don't mean the literal middle, I mean start it from "the Runes of the Earth." This is where Donaldson himself, as a writer, knew he would be getting new readers and old readers. He had to create something that satisfied both people willing to read the whole series and impatient people who wanted to know what the buzz was all about.
I think he succeeded with "the Runes of the Earth."
By this time, Covenant is already a sympathetic figure, and furthermore, is dead and therefore is far less culpable for his atrocity in the viewer's mind.
By this time, the ring itself is less important than the Staff of Law and other plot devices that will distract the naysayers from calling this a Tolkien rip off (again, we know better!).
Now comes the best part...
Are you ready?
Film makers may be hesitant to act-- hell, I even thought of using my $50 digital camera and doing it up Ed Wood style, but then it hit me...
Like a bolt of lightening it hit me!
A play!
Costume, drama, soliloquy, lighting, could all be used to distill the entire TC universe into a single play!
It would be lacking in detail, but the crucial elements could be enacted on stage, cheaply enough that fans could do this, and with a good camera and film crew (who I have access to) could be videotaped and displayed.
Donaldson himself, wanting to promote this body of work, may grant the use of this play as a promotional device and...
(please let it be before Hough Laurie, Brian Blessed, and Grace Jones are dead or too old to portray their characters: see my other posts)
A movie could follow very shortly.
To be frank, I'm thinking of halting all other endevours to do this myself.
Let the brainstorming begin!
