10 Movies That Could Be Made In Middle-Earth After The Hobbit

4. The Children Of Hurin

What's the story? Hurin, a king of men and uncle of Tuor, is captured by Morgoth after the cheerfully named Battle of Unnumbered Tears. The Dark Lord curses his children so evil will befall them for the rest of their lives. Hurin's son Turin is adopted by elves, but the envy of some elves and Turin's pride cause him to spend most of his life in exile and as an outlaw leader. The curse fulfils itself as Turin accidentally kills his closest friend, marries his sister and forms an enduring rivalry with the malevolent dragon Glaurung. Why should it be filmed? Published in 2007, clearly off the back of the success of the films, The Children Of Hurin is the most recent Tolkien book to be appear and drew quite a lot of critical and fan attention at the time, attention which could generate a strong film audience. As the story features in both The Silmarillion and published as a standalone, the movie could appear either as part of a Silmarillion series or as its own film. With its darker, tragic tone, morally dubious characters and story full of incest and murder it would be a Middle Earth film to appeal to the Game Of Thrones crowd. Meanwhile, in the dragon Glaurung it features a distinctive villain that would build on the previous films' success with Smaug. Why shouldn't it be filmed? All of the darker stuff that makes it appealing also makes it a much harder sell. It would be hard to make a family friendly version of the story to reach the same audience and make the same money as the earlier films. Turin, meanwhile, is kind of too much of an asshole to be a conventionally successful movie hero.