Some thoughts on the Frame and Story line. Some may be good, others may not, and others are not as original as I thought before reading other posts.
There are many possible ways to look at framing
The Silmarillion. Episode by episode I believe the best way to engage audiences in a visual story is to interweave many stories into the same arching story such as Game of Thrones or the LOTR, Hobbit movies do. This helps the audiences stay engaged and not to bore them with one continuous character’s story the entire way through. This would however be very difficult since in the written text we only have few stories at a time which overlap chronologically over thousands of years and it will create more individual episode planning. Since we do not need to accommodate to an actual audience and because I do not believe we need to add many filler stories to what is already a 25+ season show, for simplicity I believe we focus on the actual stories we are trying to tell and only add relative side stories which will enhance the main story.
My first thought was for a multi-frame story, where we introduce certain characters who tell and are told stories to and these stories catch up to the characters. Some of these could be Finrod and Beor, Tuor among the elves, Earendil growing up, Turin in Doriath, and others. I particularly like the last one since you could have the audience become attached to the Turin as a child over many seasons, only making his own story that much devastating to one’s soul…
Although I really like how this may play out in some cases such as combining telling stories with real time events I think it would cause many problems (other than putting our audience on antidepressants and creating a Turambar group theory class). We would be losing continuity in the frame story as well as a way to relate the stories to the audience and not explaining how the stories came to the audience. After consideration I feel like one of the best choices for a frame story is the actual writing of The Silmarillion (by which I mean the Translations from Elvish,by B.B.)
Using the writing of the Red book and other translations by Bilbo creates options of involving many late Third Age characters. It is reasonable to say that Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pipin, could have all added to the eventual book which became The Silmarillion as well as individuals in Gondor when it was brought there as the
Thrain’s Book. On top of that we could set up scenarios where other characters may actually hear the stories and imply they relay them to the hobbits at a later time (such that possibly Gilren actually frames the Luthien tale with Aragorn, but we could reference the story with a scene when Aragorn and the hobbits are at Weathertop). Dwarves could tell Bilbo their versions of stories, and many different elves from Cirdan, Elrond, Glorfindel, Galadriel, Celeborn, and Legolas may also narrate.
The timeline of the frame could start at many points, but I like starting with Bilbo after his 111st birthday party on one of his stops. We can then follow Bilbo through the frame on some of his journeys before settling in Rivendell. One possibility then is to have other characters move into the frame, particularly if we have fun with having the entire Lord of the rings in the Background of the frame story. It would be interesting to have some of these stories being told at stops such as Bombadil’s house, Rivendell, Lorien, etc with vague references to the events in the war of the ring. It would be complicated but intriguing. Depending on the time line possibilities could arise for Numenor stories to be told in Minas Tirith/Rivendell, Sam could read
There and Back again to his children, and Aragorn could tell his children
The Downfall of the Lord of the Rings and the Return, or something like that, I’m getting a little carried away by now.
Another consideration is deciding what the main story is. I believe it is a mistake to film the project in chapter order of the book and many of the chapters, particularly in the beginning can be used as reference in other stories. I think it is best to stay at Elf, or incarnate level, meaning that we should not have many Valar only episodes. Not that I don’t want to watch a Ring of Doom episode, it just might get a little old with all that nonverbal communication.
An idea which has been in my head lately is this. Episode One: We encounter some beings which we come to find out as primitive elves, living under the stars, and next to a Lake. We would come to know a few of them, understand their naivety about the world and their hopes and fears. The last scene of the episode would show a number of elves away from a village when up rides a dreadful being on a dark horse from which all flee, save three… (it’s Orome FYI) End episode. The start of the next episode could be a speaker, I would go with Cirdan, (since he might have actually been there and I believe we all need more Cirdan in our lives), transitioning into the next part of the tale but being interrupted by one of the listeners, the only non-elf in the audience, Bilbo. We could get an exchange setting up the story of what happens next with the elves for the rest of the season as told by Cirdan (or other speaker), with Bilbo taking notes.
I know this idea jumps many chapters into the book, but it leaves a sense of unknowing which creates mystery and interest of the Valar, Iluvatar, Maiar, the earth. It is similar to all the references in the Hobbit and LOTR which are never explained until Christopher published Tolkien’s other works. It is also similar to how Valyria is mentioned in GOT and Voldemort in harry potter (until the end of book 4 when he get a lot less scary), and the stuff Corey never wanted to talk about in the Dune sequels. If the Pre-elf events are slowly told over time it could create a slow revealing of the making of the world and make the first chapters of the book more easily managed, otherwise we may not see elves for a number of episodes/seasons.
Another random thought, I think Tom Bombadil should recount the Ainulindale. I don’t know how or when, but it should be Tom... (Brandon Lovesee agrees with me)
If anyone is still reading, has anyone seen the Cartoon "Samurai Jack"? its a kids cartoon and is weird and cheesy at times but the story and animation is interestingly done in a way that shows greater then life characters in a respectful way. The same guys also did the 1st clone wars tv series, the best Star Wars Adaptation in the last 20 years in my own opinion (I am hoping I will have to amend that statement in 6 months). If
The Silmarillion, which will never be converted to film was converted to film, I believe something similar to this would be the best possibility to preserve the integrity of the book while making an entertaining lower risk project. It will never happen, but her are some clips
Birth of evil: Samurai Jack sample
Star Wars Clone Wars:
Done.