LotR Star Finally Says What Fans Suspected All Along About Rings of Power
Some of the actors who starred in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings movies had already watched The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and say that they have liked it.
But others are more hostile to the whole idea of the series, so much so that they did not watch it, and do not intend to.
For example, Bernard Hill (King Théoden) made his feelings clear in a recent interview with Metro.
When asked if he watched the show, he answered with "No, not interested."
"It's a money-making venture and I'm not interested in watching that or being in it," Hill said. "Good luck to them and all that stuff but it's not like the real thing."
Well, to be fair, any filmmaking that does not involve milking rich sponsors (probably for the sake of making something that only people at film festivals would watch).
Making of expensive blockbusters like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, is a money-making venture, so the criticism seems to be a bit of banality when worded this way, but Hill quickly explained the full reasoning, as he mentioned that filming The Hobbit trilogy already veered close to just trying to squeeze more money out of Middle-earth, regardless of whether the book sources can provide a solid foundation for another story:
"I think they were pushing it when they made 'The Hobbit.' 'The Hobbit's' a tiny book," Hill said. "They did it well – they did it really, really well. They expanded it [but] I think you can only stretch a piece of elastic so far. I think they managed it in 'The Hobbit' because there were some really good things in 'The Hobbit' without a doubt."
Yes, trying to stretch a short novel into roughly the same amount of screentime as the amount into which a huge one was compressed can surely be seen as a sign that some people in the industry just want to sell as much Middle-earth to the audience as they can.
But if Hill believes that The Hobbit trilogy still had merit because the literary source was good, no wonder he does not care about The Rings of Power, which is based on appendices and Tolkien's personal notes, providing a brief outline of historical events, at most seeds from which a good story can be grown... but only if you have immense talent and passion, well surpassing those of Peter Jackson, in addition to your big budget. And if those were in evidence, the whole film world would have been talking about them.