Comments on: And You Thought The Lord of the Rings Movies Were Long

By: Fred Kiesche

Fred Kiesche — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:39:34 +0000

I was wondering what Ian was talking about, so I searched Donaldson’s site and found…

“The producers who optioned “Lord Foul’s Bane” have tried everything they could think of, without success. Now their option has expired, and they have declined to renew it. Bury it now, folks, ’cause it’s dead.” (01/29/07)

A web search doesn’t turn up anything for the company mentioned in some of his postings, “Revelstone Development”. As he points out, they had the ideas, etc., but did not have money, a studio, etc. Looks like Lord of the Rings may have killed Lord Foul’s Bane!

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 09:39:52 +0000

I was only wishing for a Lord Foul’s Bane movie to display the Unbeliever’s supremecy in comparison to Lord of the Rings.

The fact that Lord Foul’s Bane has “challenging subject matter,” would of course force Hollywood to make it a “thinker.” Which, as far as I’m concerned, would make it much better than the “THERE’S THE ORCS! GET THEM!” we saw in all three LOTR movies.

I was very disappointed to read the latest news on the Lord Foul movie on Donaldson’s site.

By: demigod.bran

demigod.bran — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 10:58:11 +0000

ha, Saturn…… any chance it can be edited please cos now im worried. im happy with the idea of film adaptian but as what has been said…. ITS GOING TO BE A LONG FILM… still confused as what they are going to be doing. is it an adaptian of the first chronicles or all three? hmmmm.

By: Angel

Angel — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 02:16:53 +0000

Although I am a tad bit afriad of what might happen if the books are adapted to the screen, I also can’t wait to see the movies (should ther appear). I have been a huge fan of this series ever since my father shoved it under my nose to read and even if the movie tanks (which I pray it won’t) I would go to the theatre to see it and then later go to the store to buy it. Thomas Covenant is amazing and my personal favorite antihero.

By: FredKiesche

FredKiesche — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 02:27:59 +0000

I’m gonna wait until Doom: Thomas Covenant comes out. Too many words in those paper things.:-P

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 02:16:36 +0000

lord was there a sentence in there? What was ‘too long and as far as [you] understand too boring’? The Covenant series? I think you should form your own opinion rather than relying on the views of others either way – read one then decide if its boring or not.

By: lord

lord — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 23:49:45 +0000

I’ll defenetly won’t handle that. Too long and as far as i understand too boring.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 17:45:22 +0000

The convent Books where really great (I waited 6 months for my local libray to inport them from Kent as they where out of print) but I feel I have to agree with JP, I don’t see how they will make them into a film as the issues and depth is too hard for a film to capture. Maybe I just lack faith in the medium of film? :-$

Good luck to them, and if they pull it off I’ll go and see it.

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 19:59:39 +0000

Hmm…guess you missed the fish called wanda reference…(as in “You’re the vulgarian you f%$^. Now apologize.” see? otherwise, it doesn’t bother me at all (of course you know how hard it is to offend me verbally (evil grin)… I sometimes you a#$-clown, that or a@#-hat or nice words to use in a pinch…at any rate, my point in my original post was that you could just get a roomful of drunken monkeys to write a script that would be just as good as any film adaptation of the covenant (ur-lord) books.. it just aint gonna be any good..n’est pa?

Doug (the vulgarian)

By: JP

JP — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 19:32:31 +0000

Sorry Fred, I meant each book is roughly the same size, page-wise, as LotR. Each book is also more challenging to read.

What’s wrong with @$$-clown? I censored myself didn’t I?

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 16:48:29 +0000

Ass clown?? my, aren’t we the vulgarian this morning (or last night…whichever..I digress) however I have to agree with your point. It’s going to be really tough to get hollywood to make a hero character that rapes a young girl, abandons his wife, and is filled with enough self loathing (leper, unclean) to make Roseanna Barr (whatever her last name is…) go “dude, seek some help”. And if you take that out, you miss the point of the eventual conversion of him to a for real good guy. Add in Donaldson’s metaphysical mental wandering about the nature of good/evil god/satan the universe and it’s right up there as a movie with battlefield earth… And we all know how well THAT did…

doug

By: Fred Kiesche

Fred Kiesche — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 16:21:07 +0000

“Each of which is as big as The Lord of the Rings is in its entirety.”

Each of what? The trilogies? Or the individual books?

By: jp

jp — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 15:20:39 +0000

For an interesting 'review' of I, Robot, see today's Bleat by James Lileks. Says it all really. Shows why you can't trust Hollywood to make a decent adaptation, LotR being an exception where, from what I gather, the studio kept a hands-off approach to the film. Oh, skip past the first half about the bloody nose...

By: Ronaldo

Ronaldo — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 14:04:49 +0000

Well, I’m dismissing the movie because I’m interested in seeing something that actually reflects what I like in the books. The Lord of the Rings movies, despite all their differences from the books, did just that. So I agree with JP, that, unless the movies are filmed in parts, they won’t work at all and alienate fans and non-fans alike.

Donaldson said he talked with the people writing the script and that they favorably impressed him. Apparently, they are trying to find good funding and all that to make a nice movie. But everybody knows how Hollywood works…

I, for one, hated “I, Robot”. It detracted from everything the old man held dear about the robots and failed to impress in any level. But I see you point. I just don’t believe it will happen that way with the Chronicles.

By: jp

jp — Mon, 20 Dec 2004 04:43:50 +0000

Much like the His Dark Materials film, I don't believe you can just change the themes, etc. and have it still be the same film. In this case, why not just make the movie you want to make and call it something else, because it won't be the Covenant Chronicles. Much like I, Robot, it'll be something only tangentially related to the source material. To which I say: Meh.