Kevin's Watch

hi im new etc/ but i am a big SRD fan.

does anyone else feel that the Covenant movies will LOTRize the series. Because the movies were great but now lotr is this massive frannchise and no one bothers with the books. most people in my class think that peter jackson wrote the movies. I dont want the covenant chronicles to turn into a big franchise complete with freaking covenant dolls and dvds and bed covers and calendars etc. I think it woul be better to remain as a great series of books and not become a movie. ok flame me away now...

Actually, sales of the books have gone UP since LOTR was made into a movie. Way up.

By the way, Peter Jackson did write the screenplay (with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyen). That's the second thing mentioned in the closing credits. The third thing is: 'Based on the book by J.R.R. Tolkien'. Evidently your classmates don't read credits, let alone books. Such people are depressingly common, but they're really not worth powder and shot.

Many authors — Stephen King, Tom Clancy, John Grisham, to name three off the top of my head — have become perennial bestsellers because Hollywood advertised their books by filming them. The publishing industry really has only two good ways to promote a book: give it a flashy cover, or talk someone into making a movie out of it. Of the two, the second method is far more powerful and less likely to fail. But less than one book in every thousand gets that treatment.

No, I'm not at all afraid of what might happen if Hollywood got its claws into the Covenant books. The books will still be there, whatever happens, and will gain some new readers because of the publicity surrounding the film(s), no matter how bad.

Back in the eighties, Isaac Asimov's short story 'Nightfall' was made into a movie. It was, by many accounts, the worst movie ever made for commercial release. This film made Plan Nine from Outer Space look like a work of genius. It looked like it had a budget of about fifty dollars; the directing was inept, the acting pathetic, and the screenplay had virtually nothing to do with Asimov's story. I rented it once out of morbid curiosity, but found it physically impossible to watch for more than 15 minutes. I could not sit still for such incredible rubbish any longer.

Yet even that movie didn't actually depress sales of the Asimov collection, 'Nightfall and Other Stories'. It didn't help, that's all.

If I'm right, the very worst Hollywood can do is to have zero effect on a book. The very best they can do is introduce it to millions of people who would never otherwise have heard of it. If I were SRD, I'd be perfectly willing to take that chance.

Variol Farseer wrote:Evidently your classmates don't read credits, let alone books. Such people are depressingly common, but they're really not worth powder and shot.

Do you have to reply in this way?

Loremaster wrote:

Variol Farseer wrote:Evidently your classmates don't read credits, let alone books. Such people are depressingly common, but they're really not worth powder and shot.

Do you have to reply in this way?

exactly. calm a bit down

anyway i do know P.J wrote the movie screenplay but the LOTR is based on the books by JRR etc.

Sorry if I came across as upset or snarky. Didn't mean to. What I do mean is that where the question of books vs. movies is concerned, the sort of people you're talking about don't really count — because they wouldn't have read the books whether the movies were there or not. By 'not worth powder and shot' I mean that they're not worth arguing with or taking trouble over.

And it is depressing, to me at least, that many people don't read anything at all if they can help it.

Please understand, Mars, that I don't include you in that assessment. I know you're a reader, you know what PJ did and what JRRT did, and so forth. But the kind of people who don't even know that the books exist really aren't that typical. You seem to have fallen in with some rather silly classmates, or else (which is always very likely) the sensible ones are keeping quiet.

BTW there is a whole section dedicated to the possibility of a movie. Maybe this thread belongs there rather?

Variol Farseer wrote:And it is depressing, to me at least, that many people don't read anything at all if they can help it.

I know the feeling.

Mars wrote:

Loremaster wrote:

Variol Farseer wrote:Evidently your classmates don't read credits, let alone books. Such people are depressingly common, but they're really not worth powder and shot.

Do you have to reply in this way?

exactly. calm a bit down

anyway i do know P.J wrote the movie screenplay but the LOTR is based on the books by JRR etc.

Loremaster, what's the problem?
Based on what Mars said about his own friends that was a valid comment.
And Mars reread what Variol wrote, he wasn't talking about you.

You picky sensitive people!
It's getting so nobody can write a negative comment anymore without someone crying about it.

Loremaster wrote:

Variol Farseer wrote:And it is depressing, to me at least, that many people don't read anything at all if they can help it.

I know the feeling.

Hey, what does it matter? They would never have read LOTR before the movie, and they would never read LOTR now. No harm, no Foul.

How many actual cases of "I would have read the book, but then I saw the movie, so I didn't bother" can there be? 3? It certainly falls far short of the number of people who have read the book and otherwise would not have. So it's a book win all around.

High Lord Tolkien wrote:Loremaster, what's the problem?
Based on what Mars said about his own friends that was a valid comment.
And Mars reread what Variol wrote, he wasn't talking about you.

You picky sensitive people!
It's getting so nobody can write a negative comment anymore without someone crying about it.

I was referring to the 'not worth the powder and shot' comment. Uh . . . I know who was being referred to, and in no way did I think it was me.

Don't overact yourself. I never 'cried' about it.

Loremaster wrote:

High Lord Tolkien wrote:Loremaster, what's the problem?
Based on what Mars said about his own friends that was a valid comment.
And Mars reread what Variol wrote, he wasn't talking about you.

You picky sensitive people!
It's getting so nobody can write a negative comment anymore without someone crying about it.

I was referring to the 'not worth the powder and shot' comment. Uh . . . I know who was being referred to, and in no way did I think it was me.

Don't overact yourself. I never 'cried' about it.

There you go being picky and sensitive again.

And yes you did cry. You had your thumb in your mouth balling like a baby as you wrote that.


And I never said it was you not know who was being referred to.
Re-read what I told Mars to re-read about re-reading.
There, are we all clear now?

*walks away slowly . . . .*

This is getting weird.

Loremaster wrote: This is getting weird.

Yeah, I agree. This whole thing was resolved between Variol, Loremaster and Mars. Why stir the pot, High Lord Tolkien? Do you have a problem with the way it was handled, or do you just have a problem with Loremaster? Either way, it was settled and then you unsettled it, so if crap happens, you have only yourself to blame.

BTW, I think they should make the movie. And Heather Carolin should be Linden.

Mr Fixit wrote:

Loremaster wrote: This is getting weird.

Yeah, I agree. This whole thing was resolved between Variol, Loremaster and Mars. Why stir the pot, High Lord Tolkien? Do you have a problem with the way it was handled, or do you just have a problem with Loremaster? Either way, it was settled and then you unsettled it, so if crap happens, you have only yourself to blame.

Something is posted and I can't make a comment on it just because others are already talking about it?
*That's* weird.

I was hoping that my use of smilies would let everyone know I was being semi-serious.
And the nonsensical last sentence was just funny, to me anyway.

But I did think that Variol was getting the shaft and I was just putting my 2 cents in.

Fair enough, but your reply to me certainly contained no emoticons. It read like an 'attack'.

Variol getting the shaft? I just got Shaft the other day; I suggest the widescreen version just in case you get a bigger tv in the future. Variol used a euphanism that Loremaster didn't understand, being from a different country. Variol explained it, and everybody was happy. Now tell me, why did you think it neccessary to stir it up again?

No one understands Shaft like his woman.


Shaft!

In communist China, we say - he who stirs the nest of hornets must stay in workers camp for many years.

Ahhh, the shame of discord.

Loremaster wrote:Fair enough, but your reply to me certainly contained no emoticons. It read like an 'attack'.

Not intended, sorry.

Now take your thumb out of your mouth!

I'M JUST KIDDING!!!!

LOL

All is forgiven.