I Know I Am Wasting My Time

With the released news that Peter Jackson will once again be working on “The Hobbit”, the “OMG Jackson got Lord of the Rings ALL WRONG!!!” people have come back out of the woodwork.

Of course, in fandom, the concept “I would have liked if Jackson had done x differently” is the same as “He completely screwed it up, he ruined the books for me forever, I had to burn my copies afterwards!” This is crap. If you want to see LotR completely screwed up, Ralph Bakshi can help there. Jackson didn’t even come close.

Y’know, I would have liked it if the last “Pirates of the Carribean” movie had done some things differently. I still had a good time in the theater, and felt like my cash was not ill-spent. I’ll probably go see number four when it inevitably gets made. There’s a difference here.

I still say the same thing to these flamers: a whiny blog post doesn’t cut it. Write your script, get the budget, assemble the creative team, hire actors, film your work, get it edited and scored, and get it distributed, and gather widespread critical acclaim. Winning 13 Academy Awards is not necessary, though it won’t hurt anything. Once you’ve done that, I’ll allow that yes indeed, you might be able to make a better LotR than Peter Jackson.

And I’ll gleefully read all the posts from all the fans letting the world know that yes, you too have completely screwed up The Lord of the Rings.