When Peter Jackson makes a new movie, and we get out of the theater after watching it, most of us think “damn, I want more!”. The fact is he does a great job in taking Tolkien work to the big screen (for some more, for some less). And, looking it from the economical side, The Lord of the Rings is a very lucrative franchise.
So… what will come when The Hobbit ends? Our Master, Helge Fauskanger, has an answer, and I like it a lot! Some time after the movie trilogy ended (back in 2003), he published in Ardalambion a draft for another possible prequel: Westernesse or the story of Númenor.
Its an amazing story, which you may remember from the Akallabêth, the second to last part of The Silmarillion. It tells the tale of the civilization formed by the Men who fought Morgoth in the War of Wrath. For their help, the Valar gifted them with longer life, and an island as close to Valinor as men where allowed to be. Elros, who is Elrond’s brother (that choose mortal life), was the first 
King of Númenor. When Sauron messes with these men, the downfall begins, leading to them migrating to Middle-earth and establishing the realm of Gondor. As you may see, from the line of these Kings comes the Kings of Gondor, and in the end comes Aragorn.
There are certainly some characters that would be well known to the audience: take Sauron, for instance; and Elrond could also be there (with his brother Elros). In the end, the whole story is about Aragorn’s ancestors, isn’t it? Remember the battle of the Last Alliance, the one in the “prologue” of The Fellowship of the Ring movie? Well, this new movie could end with the very same battle, making the link with the Trilogy.
The only problem is that there is not much canonical material available on this subject, but surely Peter Jackson can manage that, can’t he?
If you have some time to spare, read Helge’s explanation of the movie, or go straight to the two parts of the story itself. Enjoy!
What do you think? Would it be good? I would like to hear from you in the comments below.
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Maybe now that Disney owns Middle-earth Enterprises (tinyurl.com/disneytolkien), we can expect to see every story from The Silmarillion by 2020.
All joking aside, I’d love to see this movie made. Westernesse and The Children of Húrin are my top two choices for adaptation. Pick any story in The Silmarillion, though, and you’d have a great plot for a movie.
If you’ve seen anything of the History Channel’s show The Bible, that is an example of excellently-done TV movies. I’ve only seen the first episode, but it was not skimpy on production. I think The Silmarillion as a whole could be made to that level of production and do well.
Of all of it, though, I want to hear the Ainulindalë. I can’t imagine the beauty. I’m not even sure if there is a composer in all of Arda who is worthy of talking that one.
*tackling
Dangit, I need to proofread these things! -__-
Absolutely agreed! Silmarillion is a well of excellent plots, interesting characters, moving dramas, adventures, wars…it’s ripe for anyone like Peter Jackson to try and harvest the good fruits from a well done production. If the production fails the stories….the Tolkien World will collapse upon the guilty heads who didn’t give the proper respect for the stories!
I can’t even start to imagine how my ears would receive something like the Ainulindalë. It’s beyond what I can imagine!
I dont think that it would be good to make a movie about Numenor. The story needs to be told, but doing it through film would be construed as money grabbing and probably would be. Nice idea though.
Well, I don’t think The Hobbit was done for another thing than…..money.
Do you think The Hobbit movie would still be produced if there weren’t money involved? What if the Lord of the Rings box office would have been a total failure? Do you still think The Hobbit would be made?
All movies are money grabbing, that’s why studios make them at first place. It’s not their hobby.
If they respect the quality a movie telling a story from Tolkien deserves to have, well….I’d be most pleased that they grab my money!
Is it just me that thinks it’d be better if no films were made after The Hobbit? Peter Jackson’s already running the risk of being all about money, and in my opinion another trilogy would be milking it. We don’t want to see Tolkien’s work sold out like Star Wars, do we?
If the quality is not kept, we don’t wanna see more movies. If the quality is the #1 concern of the ones producing more Tolkien movies, what’s the problem? Don’t you like entertainment?
It would just seem like money-grabbing to me.
Wait…
Was the trilogy of Lord of the Rings movies made for charity causes???
I read his full synopsis last night…it’s amazing. Granted I laughed at each of his time estimates…it would probably end up closer to six hours, minimally.
And when you think closely about that: 6 hours don’t seem to be THAT long for such a story, huh?
Would it be good? No, it won’t. It will be AWESOME! I believe many of the stories (for example Beren and Luthien) that appear in Silmarilion can become entire feature films on their own. But, wouldn’t turning Silmarilion legendary stories (feats of 1st/2nd age are superior to most of the 3rd age) into movies greatly overshadow LotR/Hobbit?
I don’t know. If it overshadows or not, that wouldn’t worry me. The quality of the film production is my #1 concern!
But yes…it’d would be beyond AWESOME!
I’ve read Fauskanger’s ideas quite a few years ago, and remember enjoying them. However, I fear that trying to put all of Numenor’s history into a film, even three (or six, or ten) films, would make the plot too disjointed. It would have to cover more than 3000 years! I could imagine Akkalabeth as a film, or the tale of Aldarion, or perhaps some other stories. Perhaps a film series could be made, in a similar format to Hornblower (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129686/) – 2-hour-long TV movies.
I have my personal issues with those 2-hour-long TV movies cuz usually they lack a good production, you know…they tend to be “cheap”, after all it’s just aimed to TV audience! I’d really dislike to see my dear beloved Silmarillion being portrayed cheaply not the way it really deserves! (due to budge limit)
Or the WHOLE Silmarillion. That would be EPIC
That would make enough material to produce an epic HBO series like the one being made about A Game Of Thrones. OOOOOHHH How I wish!
God I hope it happens
I have no problem with that! As long as it’s well done (and Peter Jackson for instance has proved he can), I’d be extremely happy to be entertained with Númenor story on the big screen!