Threadjacking!

[Hawkmumbler]

I must admit to knowing very little about the world of Tolkien, but isn't The Silmarillian and The History of Middle-Earth kind of poor material to adapt? Isn't it just a truncated bible of all the stuff referenced throughout The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings? All the really anal stuff that only the most deeply interested fans know about.

[TordelBack]

This is certainly the case, it's a rather dry mythology-style outline for the origins and history of Tolkien's world, but it's also the skimpiest bones of lots of stories that could be told in more detail: for example, the War of the Ring takes up about half a dozen pages in my copy IIRC.  Mind you, the whole Second Age where this series is set doesn't take up more than half a chapter! 

When you think of the liberties Jackson had to take with the text to come up with his LotR films, the sequence that is already the most readily cinematic, it's hard to imagine how you'd navigate the Second Age without changing anything, unless you kept it small in the MERP fashion: and why pay a quarter of a billion if you don't get to play with the toys everyone remembers?

[Dandontdare]

Yeah, I reckon it's going to be the Elendil vs Sauron show, with as much foreshadowing as they can possibly manage squeezed in (forging of the rings, breaking of Narsil, basically anything mentioned in the LotR)

[The Legendary Shark]

Sauron's childhood, like Gotham with elves?

[Proudhuff]

Why not Wicker baskets.

[Dandontdare]

Bloody hell, they'll give anyone a page on imdb these days....

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5867930/

[Proudhuff]

Bloody hell, they'll give anyone a page on imdb these days....

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5867930/

[Frank]

Bloody hell, they'll give anyone a page on imdb these days....

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5867930/

Back in the days of the old IMDB boards, I'd have trolled the shit out of that page.

[TordelBack]

"Smellin' of Troy". Did The Simpsons ever top that one?

[sheridan]

Sauron's childhood, like Gotham with elves?

Shireville, with the last episode featuring the smalltown country boy finally making it to the big city and assuming a new identity as Isildur!

[Frank]

Reader art from prog 550, by Gordon Klimes of Slough. The other piece of art on show that week was by Simon Fraser of Edinburgh:

[Hawkmumbler]

£10 in a third world nation like Slough goes a long way.

[Dark Jimbo]

Blimey, Tharg's a bit harsh on that poor Welsh lad! 

[JayzusB.Christ]

What exactly is Tharg the Yuppie doing with his left hand?

[Proudhuff]

What exactly is Tharg the Yuppie doing with his left hand?

what all Yuppies were