Friday 26th of April 2024
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intimacy coordinator for hobbits...

bezosbezos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is 20 years since the premiere of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I’d argue that it is one of the most masterful, respectful and meticulous literary adaptions ever made.

Fast forward to 2021, and Amazon is producing The Lord of the Rings as a big-budget series, akin to HBO’s Game of Thrones. As requested by billionaire thumb-impersonator Jeff Bezos. 

In their grand reveal of their creative team, they listed two names that would gives fans of both the films and books hope. Tom Shippey, Tolkien scholar was hired as a “lore consultant” and John Howe, renowned Tolkien illustator and concept artist on the films, as a +conceptualiser and… well, that’s it. They were the only names that meant anything to me. 

Oh, and what’s that? Tom Shippey has left the project? And John Howe was only invited in to draw the initial map of Númenor. As far as I can see, that is all. 

Amazon has alluded to changes and tweaks, such as saying they are creating it for a ‘global audience’. I would argue that LotR has a global audience. It is the second most purchased novel series in the world. The books have been translated into 38 languages, with the films grossing $3 billion worldwide. 

What is that if it’s not a global audience? 

They have also hired an ‘intimacy coordinator’ – which is exactly what a pornographer would put on their CV if they were looking to branch out. And when you realise how much Tolkien references Sauron ‘seducing’ the powers that be, and combine that with the obvious lack of understanding or imagination at the helm of this project (which will become clear)…I dread to think what an ‘intimacy coordinator’ will do with it.”

Laying the groundwork is The Tolkien Society – having now abandoned reason for madness in the wake of Christopher Tolkien’s death – announcing their ‘Tolkien and Diversity Conference’, taking place this weekend. The lineup they published last month was incredibly revealing. I took a screenshot. At first I believed it to be a brilliant piece of satire. But, alas, it is not.

 

Read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2021/07/04/the-woking-of-tolkien-dont-let-identity-politics-infect-middle-earth/

 

 

hungarian law...

Hungary's anti-LGBTQ law comes into effect


Hungary has banned information about LGBTQ issues for minors. Critics say the widely controversial law conflates homosexuality with pedophilia.

 

A new Hungarian law that prohibits "promoting" LGBTQ content to young people comes into effect on Thursday.

The controversial legislation has sparked a chorus of criticism, with European Union institutions threatening to take action against Hungary.

What is Hungary's anti-LGBTQ law?

The restriction on young people's access to information about LGBTQ is part of a broader "Anti-Pedophilia Act," which originally focused on tougher penalties against child abuse. 

But the Hungarian parliament last month passed the bill with further amendments, including a ban on sex education and media content.

The law prohibits the "display or promotion" of homosexuality or gender reassignment in educational material or TV shows for people under 18.

 

Read more:

https://www.dw.com/en/hungarys-anti-lgbtq-law-comes-into-effect/a-58198511

 

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the pom hobbits...

Production of the new Lord of the Rings television series will move to the UK from New Zealand, Amazon Studios has confirmed.

The as-yet-untitled fantasy epic is set thousands of years before the events in JRR Tolkien's books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

It is a major blow for New Zealand's entertainment industry where the award-winning movies were also filmed. 

UK culture secretary Oliver Dowden welcomed the decision.

He said: "Thousands of high quality jobs all across the UK will be created and supported by The Lord of the Rings television series so this is very exciting news."

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Treasury have been approached for comment on whether Amazon Studios has been offered financial subsidies to move production to the UK.

 

Amazon Studios, the film and TV arm of the technology giant, has already spent $465m (£336.5m) on the first season of the show.

It said the shift in locations was part of a plan to expand its production space and consolidate its footprint in the UK.

The first season of the show will finish filming in New Zealand and will be shown on Amazon Prime in September 2022.

Production will then move to the UK and four more seasons of the show are expected to be made.

New Zealand's economic development minister Stuart Nash said the government was "disappointed" by the decision. 

In April, the New Zealand government had granted Amazon Studios extra subsidies on its production.

 

Amazon was already receiving a 20% rebate on its expenses for filming The Lord of the Ring series in New Zealand before the government added an extra 5%.

At the time, Mr Nash said the agreement with Amazon generated "local jobs and creates work for local businesses" and would "enable a new wave of international tourism branding and promotion for this country".

Commenting on the decision to move production from New Zealand, Mr Nash said the country's film industry was "incredibly competitive and highly mobile".

"We have no regrets about giving this production our best shot with government support," he said.

Amazon said it would not "actively pursue" the additional 5% subsidy it had been granted.

 

Read more:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58196473

 

Read from top.

 

freefree

kiss my ring...

Amazon’s upcoming ‘Lord of the Rings’ series has drawn criticism for “preachy multiculturalism” after it emerged that the show will feature a diverse cast with a “tribe” of multi-racial hobbits and a “very strong female presence”.  

Earlier in the week, British actor Lenny Henry revealed that he would be playing a “black hobbit” from an “indigenous” tribe called the Harfoots – a variety of hobbit described by Lord of the Rings (LOTR) author J.R.R. Tolkien as having darker skin.

 

Describing the series as a “prequel to the age” seen in the LOTR books and films, Henry told the BBC that the show was about the “early days of the Shire and of Tolkien’s environment”. In Tolkien’s fantasy world of Middle-Earth, the Shire is the green grassland home country of the hobbit people.

“So we’re an indigenous population of Harfoots. We’re hobbits, but we’re called Harfoots. And we’re multicultural. We’re a tribe. We’re not a race,” said Henry, who added that the Harfoots were made up of a number of different ethnicities.

So there are black and Asian and brown and even Maori-types within it. It’s a whole brand-new set of adventures that seeds some of the origins of different characters.

Noting that it would take “at least 10 years to tell the story”, the 63-year-old actor said the series would be based on The Silmarillion – a collection of Tolkien’s works on Middle-Earth history and mythology that Henry described as “almost like a cheat sheet for what happens next in this world.”

Adding that the show’s writers had a “lot of fun in extrapolating it all out”, Henry also revealed that the series will feature a “very strong female presence” with “female heroes in this evocation of the story”.

Amazon had paid $250 million to secure the television rights to the franchise four years ago after founder Jeff Bezos demanded a ‘Game of Thrones’-style program to boost his company’s streaming service. The retail giant is reportedly spending $465 million for the first season of the show, which is scheduled to premiere next September.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/537446-amazon-lotr-diversity-cast-reveal/

 

Are they redoing the entire Simpson series with Bart as a gay boy and Homer as a transgender? Is Maggie a Hobbit?

 

saving assange from the psychos in washington...