Modernized FotR

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Ok, so, my friends and I have to make our own film adaptation of a piece of literature for a final project in our film and lit class. We're pretty much allowed to do whatever we want. Naturally, we wanted to do a fantasy piece.

Basically we're gonna take the Fellowship of the Ring (not the whole series for budget and time concerns) and make a modern adaptation of it.

We've decided that instead of a ring to contain the essence of Sauron (a powerful crime lord) we're going to use a briefcase. Opening the briefcase is kinda like putting on the ring, whatever.

The different kingdoms will be crime organizations, but their relationships will remain essentially the same. Gandalf is going to be an undercover cop, and Saruman his crooked superior in Sauran's payroll. The Balrog will likely be combined with the rest of the enemies in Moria, which will be cops/security guards. Gollum will be some poor fool who posessed or was posessed by the soul of Sauron and now he's really messed up and wants it back.

That's more or less what we have so far. We're not sure what to do with Tom Bombadil, though.

What I am looking for is suggestions, comments, anything. Much as we enjoy the creative process, feedback is very important to make this project work. And, of course, we're looking to outdo our classmates

Thanks in advance!

 

If it's going to be a modernisation, why not use the modern day equivalent of the the Rings, Nuclear Warfare, and the One Ring, Tactical Nuclear Dominance.

A nuke (ring) promises to give its wielder absolute power over their enemies, but in truth it can only be used for evil (despite the good intentions of those who weild it).

Those who weild a nuke (ring) become obsessed by it, and its presence controls their actions more and more until one day they no longer weild it, it weilds them.

Up steps President Frodo Baggins, and under the guidance of Gandalf the Green, undertakes the quest to decommision all Nuclear Warheads (Rings) by destroying Tactical Nuclear Dominance forever by...

 

Well, one issue with simply making it a weapon is that anyone can use one. A nuke is powerful to whoever has it, whereas the ring can only be weilded by Sauron.

Also, we're trying to stick with the whole crime thing, because we feel that that fits best with what we have available to us.

 

Tom Bombadil - Maybe a hippy?

 

Geez, why didn't i think of that before? I'm also in the group, btw. Writer, music director, actor, part of director etc.

 

@KalTorak
Welcome to the boards.

@TBW
Sauron was not the only one who could weild the ring. That was why Gandalf and Galadriel refused to handle it. It is also why Saruman had studied Ring Lore, and had sent orcs in search of the hobbits, he wanted to use the ring to become more powerful than Sauron.

Using a briefcase and a crime lord makes it sound like Pulp Fiction (the movie, not the genre). Was that originally a book?

 

(Thanks Troll!)

We got the idea for the briefcase from Pulp Fiction (I think one of the theories bouncing around is that the briefcase contains Marcellus Wallace's soul), but we wanted to have it in the same sort of crime setting (actually more in a Reservoir Dogs direction) from the beginning, mostly because it's the most financially friendly genre that we all enjoy working with. A few different things will be adapted from pulp fiction and other movies; as amateur film makers we like to imitate what we admire until we come up with a style of our own. Hopefully it will come off as more of a "tribute" than "stealing."

(To my knowledge, Pulp Fiction wasn't a book before it was a movie.)

 

@Troll: I'm not certain that a nuke actually IS more powerful than a briefcase in the hands of the right attorney.

Tom Bombadil as a hippy is too cliche. Maybe a pop-music icon, like Bono or Snoop Dogg?

 

Or a prancing nancy? That's the way he seems in the books

Almighty prancing nancy though You could make him the mayor that can't be tempted, but who also doesn't get himself involved in the matter, because he simply doesn't care. So make that an apathic almighty prancing nancy...

Dunno how that would work

 

When the president of the USA is on walkabout anywhere in the world the transmitter to initiate a nuclear strike is carried by one of his aides in a briefcase.


Hence this scenario:

America is engaged in civil war. To date only conventional weapons have been used, as the combatants are greedy not stupid. The Republicans have formed a bridgehead in Florida and are slowly pushing North, their numbers swelled by Mexican mercenaries. (Scene set using a news reader, very cheap).

The President (Isildur, nominally Democrat) is being driven to Central Command through a bombed out Californian city. An RPG-attack by a team of Republican assassins completely destroys the Presidential convoy. (Toy cars and fireworks).

A drug addict (Gollum, but think Ralph Fiennes) slips out of the shadows and grabs the briefcase from the street and then runs away.

He tries to sell it to a crime boss (Frodo), who takes it off him without payment and throws the addict out on the street.

Frodo's aging, bent ex-cop friend (Gandalf) tells him to assemble the heads of all the other Families to work out what to do with the case.

The Boss from Florida wants to use it to hit back at Republicans with a nuclear strike. (Boromir)

The short Boss from Alaska wants to hide the case. (Gloin)

A scruffy freelance killer wants to maintain the Status Quo by shooting the missiles out into space so that the Republicans won't get their hands on them and and to ensure that no one else in the USA can use them. (Aragorn, son of Clinton). He suggests the only way to do this is to get a tech-head he knows in Republican occupied Miami to crack the transmission codes.

The son of a Canadian Boss (Legolas) says that he will take the case to Florida. In response the Alaskan Boss's son (Gimli) says that he will go as well to make sure that there is no double dealing. Frodo, not trusting them says that he will carry the case, then he gives it to his ***** Samantha (kidding).

All the bosses can see that it is in their best interests that the power of the case is destroyed so the paranoid Fellowship is formed.


This is too easy and too terrible. I'd better stop before I make fans of Tolkien cry.

Please post your screen play in the Creativity Surge Forum when it is done.

[ January 13, 2004, 22:07: Message edited by: Troll ]