Customer Reviews

The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood

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DVDs can be stamped out in seconds, while VHS tapes are slower to produce because they have to be recorded in real time. Time is money, and so the movie industry's movers and shakers acted decisively to all but eliminate the VHS format - by charging video rental stores exorbitantly high fees for the rights to offer VHS rentals and much lower fees for the rights to offer DVD rentals. Author Kristin Thompson (Honorary Fellow in the Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison) traces how this and numerous other profit-driven directives have permanently changed the modern film industry in The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. Central to The Frodo Franchise is the story of Peter Jackson's celebrated three-film adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings", and the lasting impact it has had on cinematic and entertainment culture. "The Lord of the Rings" was utterly groundbreaking in that it was, from Jackson's initial vision, a commitment to three full-length movies to be released over a short period. Yet the success of the film itself is virtually eclipsed by the immense profits of the franchise label - toys, video games, movie-related books, collectibles, and countless other Lord of the Rings licensed merchandise. The Frodo Franchise examines this franchise phenomenon and its repercussions on modern cinema (where the real money to be made lies in a film that will spawn profitable sequels and merchandise, rather than one-shot stories), with especial attention paid to the construction of "The Lord of the Rings" trailblazer trilogy. Accessible to lay readers and cinema scholars alike, and illustrated with numerous black-and-white photographs as well as an inset section of color plates, The Frodo Franchise is an utterly fascinating, completely unbiased behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" movies and their effect on both the body of Tolkien's famous mythology and cinema as a whole. Highly recommended.

This book is an intimate look at the creation, filming, and deployment of The Lord of the Rings movies. It discusses all the key participants, the role of New Zeland, how fans influenced the movies over the Internet, and how the film industry is fundamentally changing because of this project. It is well documented and close to the events because the author had access to everyone involved, producers, director, actors, techis, the works. The book is also a great action-packed read. Maybe the best film book we have seen this year!!

The Frodo Franchise is a MUST-HAVE for anyone who is passionate about: The Lord of the Rings movies, Peter Jackson and how he and his fellow creative geniuses revolutionized the movie industry, New Zealand, the LOTR fan world, etc. It is an engaging, carefully researched and very detailed work about all aspects of the PJ/LOTR phenomenon. It includes great photos, important interviews, fascinating information about the way films are marketed and how LOTR took that to a new level, etc. The title tricked me--for some reason I thought it would be a negative book; however, it is clear Thompson is a Tolkien fan who was at first skeptical about the films but then grew to love them. This book is an in-depth look at all things LOTR and, much to this reviewer's delight, it is clear the LOTR phenomenon is not going away anytime soon. Thank you, Kristin Thompson, for this wonderful and important book!

This book was recommended to me by my thesis advisor. It's a great documentation of the entire context of a movie, which is difficult for cinema historians to do most of the time. Thompson really lucked out in her access to all this data, and she recreates the circumstances of the filming very well. It's definitely a must read for fans of the franchise and those who are interested in theorizing about transmedia poetics.

This book centers around the development and repercussions of the movie franchise on the industry. Its primary focus is to explain in detail how Peter Jackson was able to create one of the most successful movie franchises in the history of film making. That being said...its not just a book about the film, but an argument against the notion that franchise films stifle creative thought and are simply money making schemes of Hollywood. Some of the most interesting sections detail how big a risk New Line was taking with Lord of the Rings, how Jackson's New Zealand shooting gamble paid off, the development of Wellington's movie making capacity through creation of postproduction facilities and other movie-making related business firms, and the enormous impact the movie franchise had on the New Zealand economy.

I enjoyed this book immensely because it discusses a facet of movie making that I didn't really understand. This book is about the business of making movies and how the Lord of the Rings trilogy was able to capitalize on emerging trends in movie making and internet-based marketing, and how Jackson and his crew used innovative practices and cost-cutting mechanisms to make the film.

Finally, I don't recommend this book if you are interested in learning more about how the movie was filmed. Instead I recommend simply watching the movie development series on the Extended Edition versions.

I really enjoyed the book Frodo Franchise. I must have because I got two of them. Actually, I was curious about how a movie got made, especially one that I loved as much as Lord of the Rings. But I don't know why I got two.

Don't be mislead by the positive reviews. This is not a book about the making of the movie series and had very little new information in that regard. What it is is a detailed look at how the films were marketed and how the franchise was leveraged for maximum profit. There is also a lot of discussion of how that applies to the way Hollywood does business.

Just make sure you know what you are getting.