Read this article for news about the legal disputes between the heirs of The Tolkien Estate and New Line Cinema. Apparently, they are now over - Tolkien's two surviving children Christopher and Priscilla being happy with the settlement. New Line Cinema are apparently now free to commence with their plans to make The Hobbit into a film, into two films in fact. I wonder why they have decided to make two films? The book isn't that long - I expect for pecuniary reasons. Also, I have heard of plans to ''fill the gap'' (with what clap-trap I wonder?) between the end of The Hobbit and the beginning of The Lord of the Rings. 40 years ago, Tolkien (stupidly in my opinion) sold the film rights to United Artists. I can't think why - he had heavily criticized an early film attempt by the American Morton Zimmerman. Most of his criticisms can be found in The Letters (no. 210) and make very amusing reading! I say amusing, but they are reasonable and deal mostly with unwarranted tampering with the story, distortions of the characters and deliberate contracting of the time-scheme.
I wonder what Tolkien himself would think of the film trilogy? I expect he would think much the same as I do...
The above painting is by the Tolkien artist John Howe, and depicts Gandalf's arrival at Bag End. Not exactly as the book has it, since it appears to be raining in the image, and Gandalf's attire doesn't exactly correspond to the description given in the book, but I am a hopeless pedantic afterall...
I think the films are okey. At leat I enjoyed watching them. However, there are many things which also vex me about them, mainly changing bits unnecessarily (there would be too many to list here). Why? Grrr! My friends don't really understand this, but for those of us who love the books it's quite important.
ReplyDeletePurists! Blah!
ReplyDeleteYou never understand that you cannot translate from one medium (the written word) to another medium (film) with any kind of accuracy. I love the books and I love the films; all for different reasons, I never confuse the mediums. Those who have tried to do on film what is originally written fail miserably. The movies are either boring to the nth degree or incoherent. There may be exceptions but I do not know of any.