"History became legend. Legend became myth."

[rogueslayer452]

++ Over the last several days a long lost early episode of MST3K was found and uploaded (you can watch it here), and some of the missing old Doctor Who episodes were found in a ramshackle collection. "Keep circulating the tapes", indeed.

Stories like this make me happy, because there is a lot of genuinely lost media out there that can miraculously be found in someone's garage sale or random collection. As someone who used to record a lot of things onto VHS back in the day and still have them stored in numerous boxes upon boxes in her own garage, I hope that someday I'll find the method of transferring all of those digitally and uploading it somewhere or keeping it available on DVDs to continue to be passed around. It's why I'm fascinated by watching others who have done similar, not just with lost episodes of shows but just anything, commercials and other programs that have since been lost to time and memory. It's such a time capsule, honestly, and it's something that in this age of streaming we need to appreciate and treasure more when finding these kinds of things. Don't throw away your old DVDs or even VHS tapes, there are ways of preserving them and keeping them because streaming will not last forever.

++ Stephen Colbert is writing a new Lord of the Rings movie. As described in the article:

The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past is set 14 years after the passing of Frodo. Sam, Merry and Pippin set out to retrace the first steps of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam's daughter, Elanor, has discovered a long-buried secret and is determined to uncover why the War of the Ring was very nearly lost before it even began.

On one hand, Stephen Colbert is notoriously known for being a massive Tolkien nerd and if there was going to be anyone to take on anything Middle-earth it would be him, especially after the cancellation of his late night show this would be a dream come true in terms of his career. On the other hand, however, I can see how this might be viewed this as a cash grab and we've seen franchises be drawn out and milked to death. On the other other hand though, considering that the Tolkien Estate still owns the rights to The Silmarillion and The Unfinished Tales, I do like that they're taking liberties on chapters from the LOTR books that were omitted from the previous films and adapting them in a completely different way. Tolkien wrote chapters and even just paragraphs that could be its own movie alone, so it's not inconceivable, it's just a matter of having the right people involved to make it work.

Also, I do like this idea better than The Search for Gollum.

Comments

[merricatb]

On the other other hand though, considering that the Tolkien Estate still owns the rights to The Silmarillion and The Unfinished Tales, I do like that they're taking liberties on chapters from the LOTR books that were omitted from the previous films and adapting them in a completely different way. Tolkien wrote chapters and even just paragraphs that could be its own movie alone, so it's not inconceivable, it's just a matter of having the right people involved to make it work.

I think Warner Bros/New Line lose the rights to LotR if they don't continue using it, or something like that. Which is why they keep putting out adaptations. You're absolutely right that it sounds better than The Search for Gollum, and I hope it turns out more like LotR than the Hobbit movies or Rings of Power. Come on Colbert, you can do this!

[rogueslayer452]

I think Warner Bros/New Line lose the rights to LotR if they don't continue using it, or something like that.

I remember there was a big legal battle between the Tolkien Estate and Warner Bros right before The Hobbit started filming, so it could most definitely be something along those lines of maintaining rights and the concerns of money. Although I do actually adore The Hobbit movies, they weren't without their issues especially where production was concerned, so I do hope this at least this one goes a bit more smoothly without much interference from the studio.

[merricatb]

I guess we'll see. It's nice that the people involved are passionate about it regardless.

[blakmagjick]

Thanks for including the link for the MST3K!! Gonna watch that sometime this week after work.

Also...I have some of the same feels for the LOTR franchise, but would definitely not be as excited if someone other than Stephan Colbert was writing it...I know he'll do it justice.

[rogueslayer452]

You're welcome! :D

Yeah, truthfully the announcement of him writing it makes the most sense to me. If anyone was to handle Tolkien's Middle-earth in this way, it would be Stephen, and I wouldn't settle for anyone else. How this project is going to turn out is anyone's guess, but at least we know that Stephen respects the source material.

[goodbyebird]

I've seen those lost media news, so heartening. There is so much cultural stuff trickling away, but since it's fairly close to our time people tend to find it less important. And that's really not the case.

Colbert at least will have his heart in the right place when it comes to LoTR, so we can hope it'll be good. (I couldn't even finish the first Hobbitt movie)

[rogueslayer452]

It's honestly so wonderful seeing a piece of media that was once believed to be lost to be found again, especially in such a random yet ordinary way too. You just never know what treasures you'll find even in the most unexpected places. This is why preserving media, no matter how recent, is incredibly important.

For all its flaws and production issues, I absolutely adore The Hobbit trilogy. They remain my favorites and I marathon them alongside LOTR.

[blackcatofmisery]

I heard about the recovered media, but not about Stephen Colbert writing a movie. I knew he was a dedicated fan but not that dedicated. He'll definitely have the time to write after his show's done in, what, two months? Should be interesting to see what happens with it.

About the lost tapes, though: This is something I love to hear about. "Lost" things being recovered after so long. We know it exists, but what happened to it? Sitting in someone's basement for eons or discovered in a box of unlabeled tapes on some shelf somewhere. It may not seem like it at the time it's made, but I feel all media is important to history, even if it's just personal history. My mom had 10 tapes digitized by Kodak, I think. You can get a USB drive or a physical DVD, depending on what kind of media you send to them. They do not restore, which would've been fantastic, but just having a copy with a longer shelf life is nice to have. The won't be entirely lost, then, just misplaced for a little while.

=^..^=~