God no! I've read some of the abomination novels that were the expanded Dune universe stuff and it was horrible compared to the originals. I don't want that to happen to LotR in a million years. Best bet is to film some stories from the Silmarillion.. the huge battles against Morgoth (who lets Sauron look like a noob) would make for epic eyecandy interwoven with Beren and Luthien's story. That's about it.. sometimes you just need to let things go. I don't know if Jackson has it in him to invest yet another decade into the LotR universe.
This along with Silmarillion and The History of Middle-earth material could convince me regarding further films, nothing else. Out of interest, are Nick Perumov's Ring of Darkness novels any good, and where can I get English translations ?
To be honest, I have no idea if they're any good. I don't read Russian, and no English translations (except for a little of the first book) exist. The summary I've read, however, sounds like it makes a lot of sense -- a sorcerer from the East goes on a quest to gather the Nine Rings, which aren't as powerless as Tolkien claimed. (That never made sense to me, btw. The Three, Seven, and Nine were all made and empowered before the forging of the One, so the destruction of the One wouldn't have completely stripped them of their power.) Here's a plot summary. The complete Russian text is here.
Very true - which is why I suggest combining TBOT and TBC in the linked thread. Still, you're right, the scale would be much smaller, far more Original SW Trilogy than Prequel Trilogy.
Where there's a whip, Mr. Cox, there's an army of dog-nosed grey-skinned flabby orcs walking across a watercolour. According to Wikipedia, though, Perumov followed his sale of his LOTR trilogy with a few dozen fantasy novels in his own setting(s). And really adapting stuff that is inspired by LOTR but legally distinct from it interests me a little more than original fiction by an author (Gaith's Prydain example probably relevant also here, I mostly only know of that series because of the Disney movie), because it wipes clean any frustrations or disappointments in how they handle Tolkien's subject matter.
Sonar Entertainment is way ahead of them. Maybe they could snap up the rights to Eragon and make another showing in that.
Aye, I acknowledge the idea lift in the thread. I don't wholly approve of the Disney movie's plot by any means, but, barring not-quite-feature length TV movie adaptations of each book, I think combining those first two stories is the best way to sell a film series.
Surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet, but Christopher Tolkien has no interest in any further LOTR movies and would shut down the existing ones if he could. When JRR sold the rights years ago, it was only to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. If it wasn't in there (including the appendices, which is where Jackson is getting the extra Hobbit info), it cannot be used to make a movie. Never heard of the Perumov sequel, I'll have to read up on that. I have heard of this one and read part of it. It takes the POV that Saruman was the good guy, trying to bring progress to Middle Earth. I need to finish it sometime. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ringbearer It is available for free on the internet, per the author's wishes.