There’s a “Bob” in Stranger Things 2. It was probably time for a Bob. Bob works at Radio Shack, which is its own kind of awesome. I don’t know yet where it’s going. It could be he is a Russian agent, or an alien, or he could be the Pennywise of Stranger Things as hinted at below in the clip. Or he might die, or be dismembered, or go insane, or be the secret hero to save everything. He may carry Eleven up the long path to the mouth of Mt. Doom, because he’ll always be Samwise Gamgee to me. Or Mikey from the Goonies. Or Twoflower from The Colour of Magic. Or Rudy from, well, Rudy. If there’s a curly-haired, feel-good, overly-affective, long-drive loser to the hard win role, I want Sean Astin there.
So, Samwise 2.0? The march to Mt. Doom in tones of fire and ice? The Fellowship on Amazon TV? CNN is reporting that Warner Bros is in talks with Amazon for a TV series remake, and there is some interest in Sean Astin reprising his role. Fans are no doubt in various degrees of terror and delight. It’s a spectrum from fear to hope. There’s a lot that can go wrong when the Shire goes digital, as you may have noticed. Of course, if this TV film was made, it might be the only thing ever watched on Amazon TV.
Oh well, we’ll have to see how LOTR Amazon goes. It would be helpful if they just delivered Sam and Frodo to Mt. Doom by drone. Meanwhile, hoping to binge-watch Stranger Things 2 this weekend with the family. Go Bob.
A Pilgrim in Narnia 
1) That Stranger Things motiff of your name is wicked awesome!
2) LotR tv would be an abomination. Probably right up there with the Abomination of Desolation.
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Ah well, who knows. I quite loved the original Jackson films. Someone once called me immoral because of it!
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I’m on episode 8. I quite love the new season, even though I’m a little annoyed by the five million storylines. :-). I’d try to watch LotR on TV!
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As a media studies buff, I’m also curious about how the narrative form would change!!
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More announcements today, but no news.
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Just catching up – please keep us posted (the occasional round-up?), if you hear more! What is it all about? – you note “there is some interest in Sean Astin reprising his role” while, following on from your CNN link, I find Devan Coggan of Entertainment Weekly saying, “It’s unclear whether the Amazon series would retell Tolkien’s original Lord of the Rings trilogy or focus on some other aspect of Middle-earth. In the meantime, Astin has his own ideas for what the series might look like — and which parts of Tolkien’s legendarium the show could explore.” (There’s a radio interview there, I have not yet listened to…) The only other little clip I saw so far (also CNN?) had someone saying something about ‘a sort of pre-quel’. Dipping into the Appendices? I’m not enough of a (shall we say) ‘Gamgeeologist’, but I don’t recall a lot of Earlier Adventures of Master S.G., or bits skipped over in Peter Jackson’s condensing the LotR beginning.
There is of course Tom Bombadil! (Not so long ago, I enjoyed catching up on the BBC radio filling in of this bit.) But, might we also be talking, Bits of the Silmarillion? (!)
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Well since I posted this, there was a lot of buzz that came out. I don’t know that we are any further ahead except that it will be a TV series (which we knew).
Of course, most of us want to see a couple of things:
1. Greater fidelity
2. More like LOTR than Hobbit (see #1)
3. A more overt (legal) and generous conversation with the histories and other legendaria.
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I’ll ‘be-amen’* those things! Something faithful to the style of Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales post-LotR ‘novelistic’ workings up of Silmarillion stories would be great!
Television can give scope – I like the BBC War and Peace dramatization even more than the gorgeous seven-hour 1966 Russian version not least because it can take its time for lots more detail (though I’m glad I’ve arrived at a professional audiobook, for all the detail).
*As the Dutch say: I wonder if we had a one-word ‘I’ll say, “Amen” to that!’ verb in the Middle Ages?
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I mean the 1973 BBC one – haven’t seen any of the 2016 one (or of the 2007 multi-national co-production one, for that matter).
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I think now it’s official, right?!
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Pretty much. Now they just have to do it.
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Jarrett Stepman led me to Jacob Hall who led me to:
http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2017/11/15/104426-in-historic-move-christopher-tolkien-resigns-as-director-of-tolkien-estate/
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Yeah, I just saw. That’s quite a thing. I feel very fortunate he put his hand to this plough!
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