MovieChat Forums > Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017) Discussion > I don't understand why trilogies aren't ...

I don't understand why trilogies aren't made like The Lord of the Rings series anymore

posted 6 years ago by Gastonian (946)
24 replies | jump to latest

All 3 LOTR installments were filmed concurrently. I understand that requires more planning (e.g. scripting everything out from beginning to end from the get go) and getting longer commitments from actors, directors and crew. But it does so much for consistency, and more importantly (for the studio) it does wonders for the profit margin through budget consolidation.

LOTR budget was under 300 million. It made 3 billion in theaters alone. SW is such an iconic IP, I'm sure they could have gotten the commitments so I don't understand why they didn't go this route. Other than being in a big fat hurry once Disney acquired Lucasfilm

[–] AP (5258) 6 years ago

Anymore? The LOTR series is the only franchise of its kind that filmed everything at the same time. It's very unique in that regard.

[–] Gastonian (946) 6 years ago

I should have said since. Although the 2 Matrix sequels were filmed that way

[–] NonSequitur (44) 6 years ago

Back to the Future 2 and 3 were also shot concurrently.

[–] AP (5258) 6 years ago

Yeah, a few sequels were shot back to back but LOTR has all three movies shot at the same time.

It makes sense to do but it is hard to pull off.

[–] ReelReviews14 (1030) 6 years ago

It really doesn't make sense at all unless the next movie is picking up exactly where the previous one left off (as was the case for LOTR, Back to the Future 2 & 3, etc.) If the sequel is picking up several years later, it would be weird to see the actors looking exactly like they did in the previous movie.

[–] AP (5258) 6 years ago

I never got the sense that the actors aged much in previous movies.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 6 years ago

So you bash Disney for being in a "big fat hurry" as the reason they didn't produce the trilogy FASTER?

There is a big disconnect in your logic there.... big.

[–] Gastonian (946) 6 years ago

Where did I say that I wanted the films produced faster? There's a big insinuation you make based on nothing in the OP. I really disliked TLJ, I was criticizing the story consistency. Something that may have been avoided by following the LOTR model.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 6 years ago

You said this:
"SW is such an iconic IP, I'm sure they could have gotten the commitments so I don't understand why they didn't go this route."

Were you arguing for the reduced cost? Because even if so, you were inadvertently also arguing that they should have been made at one time and come out 1 year apart.

[–] Recognizer (386) 6 years ago

True, but to be fair to Gastonian, he made no mention of release schedule. There's no technical reason that a film trilogy can't be shot in one go, release the first one after post/reshoots are done, then take their time doing post/reshoots on 2 and 3 and release those at 2 year intervals (like they're doing now), and maybe shoot and release anthology films in between (like they're doing now).

[–] Gastonian (946) 6 years ago

The reduced cost is the result of consolidating the production into 1 rather than 3 productions. If they had gone this route, a bi-product of it is that they likely would have been released a year apart but that also means the production schedule on 3 combined films would have been much longer. So the release schedule once post production was finished may have been faster but that also means that the first release would have take longer to get to the audience. Meaning we would likely be talking about the first movie in the trilogy this year than the second.

If anything, I was arguing that Disney should have taken their time. But the substance was that of story consistency. Switching writers and directors between movies is fine but its clear that there wasn't even a hint of collaboration in the interim.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 6 years ago

"but its clear that there wasn't even a hint of collaboration in the interim"

Highly agreed. Last Jedi is such a subtractive movie (in relation to the overall trilogy) that I have a feeling Rian Johnson simply didn't like Force Awakens and decided to "Let the past die. Kill it if you have to."

He wanted to change the trilogy's direction into new ground, but did that really happen? I don't really think so, and it sounds like you would probably agree on that too. He mostly just removed interesting stuff and whittled the story down to bare essentials, while almost obliterating the Resistance.

[–] Gastonian (946) 6 years ago

Agreed. And the problem with his subversive choices is that they didn't lead to any real changes. But I covered that in a previous post about how it was full of fake-outs.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 6 years ago

Yeah and isn't it Abrams' job to do fake-outs? Like Lost?

;)

[–] Gastonian (946) 6 years ago

HAHA. No its his job to create mysteries (which, granted he's quite good at) and then let some other schmucks figure that shit out.

But I think his job is going to be figuring out how to undo all of this nonsense. Here are some pitches if his people monitor these boards:

-Snoke had another apprentice and/or master that will be introduced to be the big bad (and explain who the fuck Snoke was)
-Rose DIES (Either quite horribly or as a result of her dumb fuck move at the end of TLJ, which would be ironic given her reasons for what she did)
-Leia pulls another new force power out of her ass. This time involving the resurrection of Luke because she decides he is much more needed than she is to finish off the FO. Maybe she learns out how to do this from the books Rey stole. This results in her death. (This can all be done off screen with Luke explaining it when he randomly shows up)
-I could care less what they do with Hux, Finn or Poe.

Did I cover all the major cleanups?

[–] Ziggy (1529) 6 years ago

LOTR is one (very, very, very long) story. It's the journey of Frodo and his friends (The Fellowship). But the events are all continuous. We're not seeing the beginning of the journey and then skipping ahead 5 or 10 years and then seeing something else. It's just all one, continuous story.

While the Last Jedi did pick up right where the Force Awakens left off, that's not always the case with Star Wars. There are often several, in not many, years in between episodes. Who knows what they have planned for Episode IX. Maybe there will be a gap between the Last Jedi and IX.

[–] Gastonian (946) 6 years ago

The problem is that they did no planning between sequels. There was clearly no communication between writers and directors between TFA and TLJ and there should have been.

[–] Recognizer (386) 6 years ago

This. TLJ was made as if TFA didn't exist, apart from having the characters established already. Apart from that, it was like a stand-alone film, not Episode VIII.

[–] dteam6 (5073) 6 years ago

Wasn't "The Hobbit" filmed the same way?

[–] janelsenor (2042) 6 years ago

Yes.

And LOTR only principle photography was done all at once. The second film was largely re-structured in pickups after FOTR was a success.

[–] dteam6 (5073) 6 years ago

Same with The Hobbit I think. It's amazing how Jackson pulled that off. I still watch those Appendices special features sometimes because I'm so impressed with all their hard work on those films.

[–] Keelai (31867) 6 years ago

Avatar sequels are being filmed like that now.

There are issues with filming like this. Lord of the Rings is based on books that people enjoyed so the studio knows people like the story. Star Was is more of a gamble since Disney doesn't know how people will react to their new stories. If they make three movies and the fans hate the first one, then they have a problem. If they make one movie, then they can make changes for the other sequels. Example: Lucas gave Jarjar a smaller role for the second and third movie.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Jes' Sayin' (5954) 6 years ago

Because the LotR story was already well known.

When that's not the case, filming so far in advance causes two problems:
- you don't know what the reaction to the early installments will be and so limit your chance to address any negative aspects
- when you work that far in advance you have a much greater risk of spoilers leaking out