Alternate Pop Culture: Fritz Lang's "The Lord of the Rings"

[oshron]

yes

this thought just occurred to me. accounting for other butterflies ITTL (which are gonna go unstated since it's not the focus of this thread), what if, in the late 50s or anytime in the 60s, legendary German filmmaker Fritz Lang (of Metropolis and M fame) either signs on as director for an early live-action Lord of the Rings film or gets the idea himself. unlike every other film adaptation of Tolkien's legendarium, Tolkien would be alive to see this and could even give his own input on production ITTL

so, yeah, it's another insane pop cultural worldbuilding idea of mine. this film would be made during Lang's time as a Hollywood director (or TTL's closest version of that--for the purposes of discussion, let's just say it's Hollywood) and i could see it being filmed on Universal Studios' backlot (for some context as to working an entire large setting on it, the entirety of To Kill a Mockingbird was filmed on the backlot and was apparently a damn-near perfect replica of what you'd find in the Deep South where the film is set). does anyone have any ideas as to how Tolkien would react to the proposal of a LOTR film in his time and who some of the actors could be?

 

[Miss Teri]

The main problem is that Lord of the Rings was not that popular in the United States in the late 50's. It was released in the US roughly around when it was released in the UK. However, it really became more popular when the paperback edition came out in the late 60's. So, I don't see much demand for a film based off a somewhat obscure British fantasy trilogy in that time period.

 

[oshron]

i can work around that with Lang having gone to Britain instead--teh question is more or less the same

 

[Mad Bad Rabbit]

The other problem is that Fritz Lang was the dark master of /film noir/, but there is vanishingly little noir in Tolkien's works.
Everyone in Middle Earth is Good or Bad; the closest thing to moral ambiguity is Gollum (Peter Lorre?). No sex or graphic violence.

I (and no doubt Tolkien himself) would've had serious concerns that Lang might find too many tempting opportunities to add some.

 

[oshron]

i'd kinda been thinking of Die Nibelungen as the standard for which Lang's LOTR would be compared to

 

[Bakenellan]

There in fact was an interest to do a movie from some American company in 1957-58. The attitude of Tolkien and his publishers was basically "Art or Cash" - either a faithful adaptation or a lot of money - both variants considered acceptable. Tolkien went pretty livid after reading the script: "I feel very unhappy about the extreme silliness and incompetence of Z and his complete lack of respect for the original..." and then wrote an extended unflattering commentary on it to the film agent. He did not put a veto though, the movie did not happen mostly for other reasons, I believe.

So, I'd guess, Tolkien would be extremely critical to the whole process of adaptation, but if the money was good, would not object publicly... much. On the other hand if Lang's ideas are not completely alien, Tolkien may even go along willingly - he appreciated art a lot, though I don't think he was a big fun of movies, he was a man of words and letters.