Anthony Hopkins - Tolkien

[Lhunithiliel]

I was watching a film last night - Anthony Hokins starring... and all of a sudden I realised that he would've been the very right and best choice for the role of J.R.R.Tolkien - the creator of the LotR ...if someone would've ventured into making a film about him.

What do you think of it?

Look at them:

[Lhunithiliel]

... in continuation ...

And if that would be the case - a film about Tolkien, what major events do you think should be included and why? :cool:

[Astaldo]

It would be great if someone would make a film like this. But it's little difficult because Prof. Tolkien's did not have a major moment for example in the 60th year of his life . All his life was a major moment so it would take at least three actors to play his character.

But I would like to see Anthony Hopkins playing Prof. Tolkien.

[Dark_Glamdring]

It would be very very interesting a film about JJJT´s life.

But they need more than one actor, he wa sin the 1 war when he was young, and his childhood has to be played by a kid.

[Lhunithiliel]

Aaah... yes, of course, there should be more than one actor needed to play Tolkien through his life, but ... let's think of what major events should've been included...

I'd like to see the movie start with little J.R.R in his African home. I think those very early years of his childhood, even though few in number, still influenced him greatly. That is why I think of them as an important event. :cool:

[HLGStrider]

What immediately comes to mind is, 'Didn't he already play C. S. Lewis?'

However, I adore him as an actor and he certainly does look the part.

[Eledhwen]

Yes, he played CS Lewis in Shadowlands; but that was obviously because he pulls off the part of the ageing Oxford Don so beautifully.

But is he tall enough?

For a bio film on Tolkien, for the title role we would need:

1. A baby
2. The gangly youth in Sarehole village
3. A tall young man, to play the TCBS and WWI parts
4. Anthony Hopkins

Any suggestions?
Any improvements on Anthony Hopkins?

[Barliman Butterbur]

... in continuation ...

And if that would be the case - a film about Tolkien, what major events do you think should be included and why? :cool:

His marriage; life at Oxford; WW I; C.S. Lewis; the writing of the ME saga.

Barley

[HLGStrider]

I am having a hard time coming up with a movie storyline for Tolkien's life. There are definitely a lot of parts that would look good on film, but there isn't a real "moment of triumph" which I think a good biographical film needs. There needs to be a conclusion where the guy gets the girl or gets elected or gets something. I just don't see a climax.

[Eledhwen]

It's a very British thing, I think. I wonder if the rest of the world would understand the derision Tolkien must have endured as an Oxford Don, for publishing not a book on the study of faerie stories, but a faerie story itself (The Hobbit). His letters reveal his struggle to find the money to raise his boys and the time to write his beloved Silmarillion, and his utter astonishment at the success of The Hobbit and the clamour for a sequel. I am entranced by the knowledge that it was Edith, dancing in a hemlock-decked glade in woodland near Roos that inspired the beginning of the story of Beren and Luthien; there's some great imagery there. I would also overlay scenes from The Silmarillion throughout the life story as Tolkien sits and muses, or cutting between the horror of the first world war battlefields and the Dagorlad. I would add the Hobbit talk that he so loved, distracting his thoughts in later life (some Ian Holm, perhaps, talking directly with the prof.). Nah! If they can make a story out of CS Lewis' rather dull life, they can make a much better one with Tolkien's - with CS among the dramatis personae, of course.

[Lhunithiliel]

I am entranced by the knowledge that it was Edith, dancing in a hemlock-decked glade in woodland near Roos that inspired the beginning of the story of Beren and Luthien; there's some great imagery there. I would also overlay scenes from The Silmarillion throughout the life story as Tolkien sits and muses, or cutting between the horror of the first world war battlefields and the Dagorlad. I would add the Hobbit talk that he so loved, distracting his thoughts in later life (some Ian Holm, perhaps, talking directly with the prof.). Nah! If they can make a story out of CS Lewis' rather dull life, they can make a much better one with Tolkien's - with CS among the dramatis personae, of course.
El, dear, I literally saw (even though in my mind only!) what you're saying up there. And it was so..... wonderful...!

Just imagine that episode ....
1917, Humber Garrison at Roos in Yorkshire ... in an early evening hour Ronald and Edith having a stroll in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks ... and then she starts dancing among the trees - "her hair raven, her skin clear, her eyes brighter than you have seen them" ... and then (through the 'magic' of contemporary movies) we see Lúthien dancing and it is no longer young Tolkien standing there but Beren - enthralled by the beauty of the moment ....
Ah! :rolleyes: :)

Or ... could you "see" how planes in the warry skies turn into flying dragons in the skies over Gondolin?....

Or ... Tolkien sitting over his writings and all of a sudden there appears Bilbo -
fussing around ... making tea and ...all ... and talking to Tolkien about the Hobbits and about the 'affairs of the world' ...

El, this is an excellent , excellent, marvellous idea! :)
His marriage; life at Oxford; WW I; C.S. Lewis; the writing of the ME saga.
Hehehe :)... But, Inkeeper, then we should have a whole serial movie and ... it may end up with more episodes than "The bold and the beautiful" ;) :D


BTW, I didn't know that there was a film about C.S.Lewis, less than A.Hopkins played that role there.

[Barliman Butterbur]

Inkeeper, then we should have a whole serial movie and ... it may end up with more episodes than "The bold and the beautiful" ;) :D

Then good, we have a TV series that will run for years!:)

Barley

[Saucy]

i think somebody should definaltly make a move about JR. and yes ur right Anthony hopkins would do a gd job. :)

[HLGStrider]

I can see some possibilities in what Eld describes.

However, I don't know why heighth would be a problem. How tall is Hopkins? Tolkien was described as under average height, wasn't he?

[Eledhwen]

I think Tolkien was quite tall, but light/skinny as a young man. But then again, Elijah Wood isn't 3'6".

[HLGStrider]

I can see "slim" but not "tall." Still, either way it would have to be a different actor for a young Tolkien because I don't think they could credibly make Hopkins look twenty again.

[Finduilas]

Everything I read here is marvellous...and while doing it an actor sprung up in my mind ...for the young Tolkien...Haley Joel Osment ? He just seems perfect to me... :)

[Eledhwen]

He certainly looks something like young Ronald. How is his English accent (probably with a slight brummy twang at that age, for safety reasons)

[Belegmacar]

A striking resemblance!

[Eledhwen]

A striking resemblance!Sure, he even has the eyes and that cute freckly Englishness about his face; but he is from Los Angeles. Can he carry off a British English accent well enough to not make that particular audience go "yuk!"? Even the adult actors in LotR barely managed it.

[Finduilas]

Sure, he even has the eyes and that cute freckly Englishness about his face; but he is from Los Angeles. Can he carry off a British English accent well enough to not make that particular audience go "yuk!"? Even the adult actors in LotR barely managed it.

As far as I have watched his films...I believe yes...:)
I mean he's great in his performances and I feel he'll be able to 'practise' at least...and surely manage to succeed...:)
If a youngster is to be chosen...my choice would fall on him...dunno...just my opinion...:)

[Eledhwen]

just read a short biography of Tolkien (about 120 pages). The brevity brought to light that the man had led a really interesting life. Recalling from mind only (the book's back in the library), there are the following:

1. Mother and father had to wait to marry because of mother's young age, then she left all she loved to join him in South Africa.
2. Ronald born in South Africa. Bitten by a tarantula; life saved by quick thinking servant who sucked the poison out.
3. Ronald ill, and not recovering in hot climate, so mother took long seavoyage back to UK with her sons. Make home in Sarehole. Sarehole v much like the Shire, complete with flour mill, bad tempered miller and his son.
4. Father afraid to holiday back to UK as younger men after his job. Died of lung infection without ever seeing his family again.
5. Mother joined Catholic church and is disowned by family. Priest becomes father figure to the boys.
6. Mother dies. Priest takes guardianship of the boys.
7. Ronald wins scholarship back to the school he had to leave because it was too expensive. Forms discussion group.
8. Ronald meets Edith Bratt, another orphan in the lodgings he is staying at, and falls in love. Affects school work, and priest puts 3 year ban on the relationship.
9. Ronald obeys, and gets good BA degree. Contacts Edith to find she is engaged to someone else. Travels to her home and wins her back. Edith's family have sense of humour failure.
10. WWI. Marries Edith. Tolkien encounters 'hobbit talk' among the enlisted men of the Lancashire Fusiliers. He is invalided out with trench fever and feels guilty. He loses all but one of his discussion group friends to the war.
11. Academic life. Begins to write Silmarillion. Inklings. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit".
12. Sons born. Writes The Hobbit as a serial to amuse oldest boy at boarding school. Roverandom is told at bedtimes to comfort younger boy after losing toy dog on the beach. Christmas letters.
13. Hobbit published. The world hears of JRRT.
14. The struggle of writing LotR
15. Publication and worldwide acclaim.
16. Edith (Luthien) dies
17. JRRT dies.
18. At the funeral, watching, hidden in the trees, are Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf, Elves, Dwarves and other creatures (yes, this biography said so!).

I'd watch it!

[Lhunithiliel]

El, a nice 'plan' !!! :)
I still think that each of these 'episodes', if combined with 'flashes' from the the book-stories, will make such a magnificent spectacle !!!

[Finduilas]

Yes! Splendid...the ending...ah :rolleyes:
And yet I believe that also in the end there must be a witness of undoubtable importance...-...the Sea.
I imagine it this way:
The End:
The waves stirring the golden sand. No land beyond. Just the Sea. Moving, talking, whispering the story of a life. And there in a single moment it stops. The picture is still. One wave, frozen in the air - the End of the Sea, the End of Pain. Death.
Then the image darkens and 'Into the West' starts its impact while the ending titles slowly elapse down the screen...

This is how I see it... Dunno...if the project is taken seriously, it will happen magically.

[Ithrynluin]

Nah! If they can make a story out of CS Lewis' rather dull life, they can make a much better one with Tolkien's - with CS among the dramatis personae, of course.

Would Hopkins be playing both of them, seeing how he's got some experience in the field of playing Mr. Narnia? :D

Just imagine that episode ....
1917, Humber Garrison at Roos in Yorkshire ... in an early evening hour Ronald and Edith having a stroll in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks ... and then she starts dancing among the trees - "her hair raven, her skin clear, her eyes brighter than you have seen them" ... and then (through the 'magic' of contemporary movies) we see Lúthien dancing and it is no longer young Tolkien standing there but Beren - enthralled by the beauty of the moment ....
Ah!

Yes, that would certainly be lovely to behold.

Or ... could you "see" how planes in the warry skies turn into flying dragons in the skies over Gondolin?....

Perhaps this would be a bit too much? If not, then I suggest Edith (= Luthien) riding away on a rather large German shepherd (= Huan). :D Just providing some comic relief! ;)

So, we've got Hopkins playing the more senior JRR, and Osment playing the young one. Both are good choices, I think. What about Jude Law playing the 'inbetween'? Or would that be too Hollywood-y and some talented British actor would be better (in which case the same could be said of Osment)?

Can he carry off a British English accent well enough to not make that particular audience go "yuk!"? Even the adult actors in LotR barely managed it.

Yes, that would have to be double checked. I disliked how some of the LOTR film crew (e.g. Mortensen) fumbled around with the accent, barely managing it at times.

18. At the funeral, watching, hidden in the trees, are Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf, Elves, Dwarves and other creatures (yes, this biography said so!).

What a wonderful addition that would be, and what a wondrous way to finish the film.

Sounds like the biography by Michael Coren...not really a recommendable one, IMHO....

What is false, or incorrectly depicted, in Eledhwen's 18 points? Except that I'd put WWII somewhere between #s 13 and 14.

Dunno...if the project is taken seriously, it will happen magically.

I think it should too. It should neither be a dry and dull array of facts, nor some wild piece of fantastic writing - there should be balance either way.

[Astaldo]

17. JRRT dies.
18. At the funeral, watching, hidden in the trees, are Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf, Elves, Dwarves and other creatures (yes, this biography said so!).
That would be a perfect scene and ending.

[Finduilas]

So, we've got Hopkins playing the more senior JRR, and Osment playing the young one. Both are good choices, I think. What about Jude Law playing the 'inbetween'? Or would that be too Hollywood-y and some talented British actor would be better (in which case the same could be said of Osment)?

Jude Law...he seems perfect to me...He does have that magnatism...call it Hollywood, but it is English to me...mystical...Like he's hiding secrets and he is looking for the right person in order to let them out...
I didn't think of him before but now that I think about it...yes...he's the man! :)
And if he makes the film Hollywood-y...then if the film is beautiful...it's better! More people will be interested, more people will be interested in the author himself than in the movies or books...They'll see what made him write his works...At least make them think...who knows...it may make Hollywood think... :rolleyes: :p :D

[Thorin]

Somebody who would have played (at least looked the part) well of older Tolkien is the late Lloyd Bridges (Jeff and Beau's dad). Had they made it years ago before he died, they could have had Anthony Hopkins reprise his role of C.S. Lewis.

[Lomelinde]

I was watching a film last night - Anthony Hokins starring... and all of a sudden I realised that he would've been the very right and best choice for the role of J.R.R.Tolkien - the creator of the LotR ...if someone would've ventured into making a film about him.

What do you think of it?

Look at them:


he would be great except since he's already played CS Lewis in Shadowland that'd be just weird (imho)

[Astaldo]

I personally don't mind. I find Mr. Hopkins great actor. I would like to see him "writing" Silmarillion. ;)

[Eledhwen]

Sounds like the biography by Michael Coren...not really a recommendable one, IMHO....Yes, he does err on the side of story rather than fact, but not to destructive excess, and would have been accurate enough for a casual reader. It was worth reading if only for the quoted newspaper obituary that made me weep. It was Coren's journalistic slant that recommended it to me for film fodder.