70s cast for Lord of The Rings

Don't see an unknown 20 year old Jeff Goldblum being cast as Golum if you're having filming start in 1972. There's also no reason to cast Mark Hamill.

I also don't see that kind of box office for a 1970's sword and fantasy movie in the 1970's. It wouldn't be unique enough to bring out enough to generate a billion and a half dollars in the 70's.

Peter Jackson's success was helped by state of the art CGI special effects that didn't exist in this time period.

Also there are too many Americans in the cast. Kubrick is in Britain and would be surrounded by top quality British actors. He may hire an American as lead for the benefit of the US audience but the rest would be British to keep costs down and delivery more believable Middle Earth characters.

Again, I said there were definitely things I would improve should I rework the concept. However, one of the things I'd probably keep is Jack Nicholson as Aragorn, seeing as Kubrick was anxious to work with the actor by the 1970's (he reportedly wanted to cast him as Napoleon).

Regarding the special effects, I believe Kubrick could use practical effects effectively, especially given the budget. Remember, many of the city-scapes in the OTL trilogy were rendered using miniature models, not CGI.

But you're right, even if the whole trilogy was extremely successful, it probably wouldn't make as I originally envisioned. Maybe altogether around $750 million.
 

Glen

Moderator
I love it! Really my only nagging concern is Heston as Gandalf -- I just can't quite bite into an American playing the wizard (though the rest of the Yanks -- particularly the Hobbits and Nicholson -- don't bother me at all).

John Huston works, though, even though he is American.

I definitely do not see Heston playing Gandalf.
I don't see Nicholson either - he's a good actory, but this isn't the right role for him.
 
I wonder, though, how a 1970s LOTR trilogy would handle the orcs?

By 1977 make-up and puppeteering had advanced sufficiently so that Star Wars could have the fabulous cantina scene with the myriad alien species. However, it was easy to do that since it was just that one particular scene.

For a LOTR trilogy you'd need to have a hell of a lot of orcs, and they would have to look fearsome and believable enough so that they don't look like rejects from Planet of the Apes and TV Star Trek, or a massive army of Muppets.:eek::D

For that matter, how would the hobbits and dwarves be handled? Granted, you would only need one to play Gimli, but the hobbits would be a different matter. Some kind of trick photography?
 
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