[Movies] Will there ever be another epic on the scale of Lord of the Rings?

[tru]

The warcraft movie would probably be animated so it would probably suck. It would be pg-13 to sell to a bigger market. It would be sissyfied for the youths.

[Alilei32]

I'm not saying it will never happen, but it won't happen until you have a story on the same scale as the Lord of the Rings with a director, cast and crew with the talent and budget to make it happen.

Theres one sitting out there now I already mentioned. The Iliad and Odyssey. Why hasnt anyone taken those on?

[muxx]

If Lord of the Rings doesnt fit the classic definition of an Epic then nothing does.


Begins in medias res.
The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world or the universe.
Begins with an invocation to a muse (epic invocation).
Begins with a statement of the theme.
Includes the use of epithets.
Contains long lists (epic catalogue).
Features long and formal speeches.
Shows divine intervention on human affairs.
Features heroes that embody the values of the civilization.
Often features the tragic hero's descent into the Underworld or Hell

AHH I read your orignal post thinking you meant an Epic movie as in "Christ this is the best movie ever it was epic"

And my post honestly still stands, Epic stories will always be told, and Film is the Newest/best way to tell a story, and really bring forth the artistic value of a story if done correctly.

[Alilei32]

The warcraft movie would probably be animated so it would probably suck. It would be pg-13 to sell to a bigger market. It would be sissyfied for the youths.

<insert random casual joke> The movie would just have a bunch of characters QQing that their quest is too hard and loot isnt falling from the sky.

[OrcsRLame]

Maybe, maybe not. All it takes is a good IP, a huge budget, even bigger ambition, and a director that knows his/her stuff. It's very rare when those come together, but not impossible.

Of the planned movies that I'm currently aware of, the only ones that I think have this potential are The Avengers series of movies, and the new Superman trilogy.

I'm sure a lot of people are about to tell me, 1 they think I'm dead wrong, 2 they're tired of comic book movies, and 3 they hate Superman. Well just hear me out.

The Avengers films, (spoiler for the end of The Avengers) are clearly building up to the Infinity Gauntlet event. Thanos is shown at the end of the The Avengers, and that is what that character is famous for. Also, the Infinity Gauntlet makes a cameo in Thor. If you are unaware of what the Infinity Gauntlet event is, I suggest you look it up, because it will blow every other comic book movie out of the water by a factor of 10,000. Essentially, it is a war that claims the lives of the majority of the universe. It's everyone vs Thanos. And by everyone I mean fucking everyone. All heroes, all villains, gods and goddesses, the cosmic entities above those. Even the guardian of the multiverse, The Living Tribunal gets involved. I won't ruin it, but let's just say Thanos takes down a lot of big names in Marvel. Even Galactus gets crushed like he's a child.

Superman has potential, because his movies are currently planned as a trilogy that will cover his entire life, even up to his death after the sun goes supernova and he loses his powers. This will be a very very different Superman from any that anyone has ever seen before. That would make the third movie, essentially, a continuation of the DC One Million Superman Prime series. http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Kal-El_%28DC_One_Million%29 Any action movie with him as the protagonist is going to take epic to a whole new level. If they invent a villain that can even challenge him, their battle would likely rewrite DC's continuity in an absolutely insane way. It would take extreme balls to pull off a story like that though.

[oplawlz]

Well you'd have to find a Director (or more) and a crew who's willing to spend 5-8 years of their life on an Epic Film etc. :>

Pretty much this. You need screenwriters and directors that have a real passion for the original story, and a production studio with the foresight to give them their heads and not chime in with cheesy crap they want to draw in viewers. If you knew how many fantastic scripts had been ruined by suits you'd probably cry in your pillow at night. Or during the day, if you already do at night >.>

Maybe, maybe not. All it takes is a good IP, a huge budget, even bigger ambition, and a director that knows his/her stuff. It's very rare when those come together, but not impossible.

I'm gonna pipe in to say I don't really think a huge budget is necessary. It's more of a crutch than a necessity for a really good script. There is no reason to pay Will Smith 12 mil to lead your film, for instance, when there are so many talented actors just waiting to be discovered by someone who takes the time to look. (Nothing against Will, just a random example.)

[Kaynot]

There already is a tv series that has pretty much same scale as LotR its called Game of Thrones

[Alilei32]

Havent been a big Superman movie fan. Its not that I dont like comics book movies I just found them to be so damn boring I couldnt watch them longer than 10 minutes. The furthest I ever got was I assume Superman 1 because it told about the death of his home world and his journey through space to earth. I got bored and shut it off around the time he found the fortress of solitude. I tried watching the others but it just seemed like a more boring version of Spiderman. Someone in trouble somewhere, hop in a phone booth, fly off to save them, repeat same thing for 5 movies.

[Adam Jensen]

Theres one sitting out there now I already mentioned. The Iliad and Odyssey. Why hasnt anyone taken those on?

Sure, the stories you've mentioned are epics and have potential, but it still won't match LotR unless Hollywood provides a director and a cast, with the budget required to make it happen.

LotR was fortunate to have the right people, the right talent, and enough money to make the magic happen. It's rare for such a thing to occur because it is such a large investment and a great risk.

[Deleted]

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant has been compared to Lord of the Rings, and I've just finished reading all 6 books (Believe only the first trilogy was compared) and have to say I agree, they were fantastic. But I doubt even with all the money in the world thrown at them, they'd be able to beat the Lord of the Rings films, though they might come very close and I would certainly want to see them.

[Aphrel]

harry potter, batman latest triology
i heard avatar will get followups. if if they make another avengers movie it could match lotr in audience numbers aswell.

at some point, i believe that the game of thrones series will be as large as lort aswell (the audience numbers are growing in tremendious speed).

[Fuzzzie]

Said it before and I'll say it again. A warcraft movie will be bad. They wont have a $300m budget to do LOTR style effects.

[Deleted]

The Dark Tower series by King was in the works till it was canned earlier this year. That certainly had the size for an epic (though whether it could pull it off or not would be up for debate).

It was going to be 3 films with 2 television series in between but Universal got a little scared by the budget size and pulled the plug, or as King said they just wanted to make more crappy fast & furious movies

[Alilei32]

The Dark Tower series by King was in the works till it was canned earlier this year. That certainly had the size for an epic (though whether it could pull it off or not would be up for debate).

It was going to be 3 films with 2 television series in between but Universal got a little scared by the budget size and pulled the plug, or as King said they just wanted to make more crappy fast & furious movies

That was the Gunslinger right? I read the first 3 books in the 8th grade and they were awesome. I think I did a book a week I just couldnt put them down. I almost brought that up but wouldnt know how many people have also read them. Only reason I never finished the series was because my library only had the first 3. Also at a school that was K-9th grade that book seemed a little dark for some of the younger kids I was actually surprised they had it thinking back now.

[Herecius]

I could think of a few universes out there in fiction that, if given the chance, the right director, the right budget... the right actors... well, everything, they could flourish as the Middle Earth movies have.

But it's such a perfect storm of things that has to fall into place for such a thing to happen; it's not just that it was Lord of the Rings, it was Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings with Sir Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Eligah Wood, Sean Astin, Andy Serkis, all the other actors, the perfect location, a huge budget, and a studio willing to risk everything by agreeing to sign off on a massive-budget trilogy.

There are plenty of other IPs out there, sure: with nary a thought, I can think of Stephen King's Dark Tower series and Dan Simmon's Hyperion cantos as two that immediately come to mind. Both are epics in every sense of the conventional and classical definition and could see huge success... if granted a similar perfect storm of circumstances to make a movie.

A studio is taking a huge, huge risk when it signs off on such a massive, epic movie series. It's a LOT of money. A metric shit-ton of money. Several metric kilo-shits of cash, really. Movies that could ruin them if they don't turn out to be huge money-makers. We should all count ourselves so fortunate that LotR has been so successful, as perhaps it will give studios the chutzbah they need to push more epic projects off the ground.

[Drungan]

The Dark Tower series by King was in the works till it was canned earlier this year. That certainly had the size for an epic (though whether it could pull it off or not would be up for debate).

It was going to be 3 films with 2 television series in between but Universal got a little scared by the budget size and pulled the plug, or as King said they just wanted to make more crappy fast & furious movies

FFS i did not know they did pull the plug on that was soooo looking forward to it ... loving the books.

Grrrrrrrrr

[Alilei32]

FFS i did not know they did pull the plug on that was soooo looking forward to it ... loving the books.

Grrrrrrrrr

Initially, in 2007 J.J. Abrams was connected to a film adaptation[19] but later revealed he had removed himself from involvement in the project.[20] On September 8, 2010, an official announcement was made that the series would be brought to both the big and the small screens via a trilogy of feature films and two seasons of a television series to bridge gaps between the films.[21] According to a press release from Universal Pictures from October 29, 2010, the first Dark Tower film would open on May 17, 2013.[22] On July 19, 2011, Universal pulled its support from the production of the Dark Tower films and television series. According to reports, the studio was unable to come to terms with producer Ron Howard.[23] Despite this, Stephen King remains confident Howard will see the project through with another studio, and Howard confirmed the adaptation is still on track, noting that HBO will now carry the television series portion of the project. [24][25] On March 13th 2012 it was reported that Warner Bros is now interested in making at least the first film, and would be in prime position to green-light the TV element through its sister company, HBO. Javier Bardem, tipped to play Roland Deschain, is reportedly still on board. Reports indicate filming may commence as early as the first quarter of 2013. [26]

Kinda bummed on who is playing the gunslinger seeing how I have never heard of him. Just looked him up on wiki and never even heard of any films hes been in other than No country for old men

[mjolnir1122]

As many have said, believe it or not, Warcraft has the potential to be something special on the big screen. Look at the scope of the original warcraft games, look at the scope of the World of Warcraft games. Basically everything is an epic journey to defeat some big terror to Azeroth. They literally could do a movie based off of every expansion, up until they finally muster up the strength, and the arms, to take down Sargeras and the old gods.

Not only that, but they could turn it into more than just 3 movies.

I just woke up, so my thinking cap isn't on, but I really would have to say that WoW has one of the most original, expansive stories in recent years. It has the perfect framework to be turned into some epic ass movies. Let's see what happens

[normllikeme]

of course there will be (IMO lord of the rings was overrated as all hell /yawn)

[Frozenbeef]

I hated lotr so it wasn't very epic for me..i would have walked out if it wasn't for my friends birthday

Avatar 3d was actually amazing...... story wasn't that great but it was beautiful, i find it difficult for films to be very epic as you only have like an hour and a half to get to know all the characters.. : /