What would LotR be like as a small budget movie?

[Nurvingiel]

I don't mean low budget or B-rate, I mean if LotR was simple, with no CGI's or elaborate special effects. Would it still be good? (And I'm not talking about that unpopular cartoon from the 70s either here.) Think foreign or film society movies.

What differences do you think there would be in a small budget LotR?

[Aranwe]

Wouldn't be possible... how do you make a low buget version of Helms Deep, without it falling down when an actor runs along the battlements?

And the Balrog... how crap would that look? It'd have to be a man in a costume unless by low budget you include making life-size models.

Although PJ admitted that some of the effects they used were very low-budget style. Like making the hobbits taller than Gandalf, he was often just stood on a box to make him higher, and most of the far-off views were kids dressed up as Frodo/Sam/Merry/Pippin.

[Nurvingiel]

(I had a great post going, and then I accidentally deleted it trying to get a food crumb out from under my alt key. No more multitasking!)

Helm's deep: This could be filmed in two locations. The first would be a castle in England, like maybe Goodrich Castle. It's very well maintained and has a Norman keep. It would be used for the courtyard shots, and ones where they enter the gate. (It has a great gate.)

The second castle would be any castle or fort in a narrow valley. It would be used for the wall fighting and long distance shots. A wooden wall could be built with a walkway on top where the actors could stand. Then it could be covered with fake stone styrofoam.

The Balrog: He would be really hard, but a man in costume could work. They could use the same Gandalf-hobbit trick to make him seem huge. A man in a nifty black costume (for the shadow part) could be filmed in front of an actual fire, which would be tall. They could use tricks of lighting to make it look as though the fire was actually part of it. Wings and horns aren't necessary, since this aspect of the Balrog is always up for debate anyway. Armed with a cat-o'nine-tails, he'd be really scary.

[Big_G]

If it stayed truer to the book, especially the Dialogue then I for one would love to see it happen.

[Nurvingiel]

Yeah totally! If the dialogue was spot on, and the costumes were dont just right so as not to be obviously hokey, then it would be a success!

[cassiopeia]

I agree, I think it would be great if they stayed true to the book (fairly close anyway) and used a lot of the dialogue from the book. As long as the special effects wern't too bad. I saw a play of the Hobbit, and there were not big special effects, but it was a wonderful play because of its closeness to the book.

[Shadowfax]

Um, it would suck. No offense.

[gimli7410]

it would suck i could never imagine the special effects they would use to make things like the troll,rivendell,or the balrog

[Black Breathalizer]

I honestly believe if anyone in the movie-making business had thought that a low-budget version would have sold, they would have jumped on it a long time ago.

The reality is that the conventional hollywood wisdom was that EVEN WITH CGI Jackson's version was doomed to failure.

[Elvellyn]

Have you ever seen a play put on by first graders? I imagine it would be something like that. Cardboard buildings in Rivendell. The same guy would wear the same costume for Treebeard and the Balrog. Wooden sticks with paper leaves would be mallorn trees.

[Black Breathalizer]

The key to the LOTR movie's amazing success is that Jackson took a page from Tolkien's book and knew where he needed to focus his attention: making it seem REAL.

Any adaption that couldn't deliver on Tolkien's sense of realism would have been doomed to failure.

[Nurvingiel]

Yes, I think this is why no one made a movie before Jackson (except for Ralph Bakshi, but that movie didn't go over too well.) Everyone besides him felt that they didn't have the means to do justice.

Wondering what a differently made Lord of the Rings movie would be like is fun, but the idea isn't that plausible. Some parts could totally work, but overall, it needs the modern touches.

Try this link for a low budget LotR! Hilarity!

LotR

[samwise of the shire]

Treebeard would be a problem...as would Shelob, and Mt. Doom would be a royal pain...and what about the winged steeds of the Nazgul? Small chickens painted black with a black robed Ken doll duct taped onto it's back? Actually that might be kind of fun. Paint 9 of my chickens black then go out, get some ken dolls, make some costumes, chuck the newely decorated chickens into the air, film them next to a cardboard box castle and voila...winged beasts with nazgul next to Minas Tirith.
Yeah that's a REALLY low budget film. I might actually considered making an LOTR movie here at my house and the surrounding country side. That would be fun. *chuckles evilly as she goes out and buys black spray paint*
Cheers,
Sam

[Nurvingiel]

There's low budget and then there's low budget. I like your home video idea, that's so cool! You could also do it with stop-motion animation and little lego people or dolls.

Ralph Bakshi's LotR cost 8 million dollars to make, that's low enough budget for a Hollywood type movie.

I think you can do a lot with 8 million bucks!

[Elf.Freak]

it would be...
'Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of action figures!'
'Lord of the Rings: The Two Cardboard-cutout Towers!'
'Lord of the Rings: The Return of the String-Held Characters!'

[FrodoFriend]

It would be a parody no matter how seriously it was meant. You just could not get the beauty of Middle Earth through without big budget effects. On the other hand, if you did excerpts from LotR or really, really downplayed the battles and focused on the characters and such, it would turn out OK, I think. But you'd probably have to do even more changing than PJ did.

[Coney]

You ever seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

There's ya answer

[Nurvingiel]

Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail was supposed to be a parody. A low budget movie doesn't necessarily have to fall into this category.

Ralph Bakshi's LotR wasn't regarded as a parody, and I think it could be done better - the animation was terrible.

And being a low budget movie, we'd have to draw on unaltered dialogue etc. to have a quality movie, because we wouldn't have special effects to fall back on.

[Elf.Freak]

lol! Peter Jackson and the un-holy Ring!