"Hobbit" held up
 

Hobbit movies meet dire foe in son of Tolkien

John Harlow in Los Angeles
Video: watch an interview with Christopher Tolkien

The son of JRR Tolkien will try next week to halt Hollywood plans to follow the critical and commercial triumph of the Lord of the Rings trilogy by filming The Hobbit and a sequel.

Christopher Tolkien, 83, is calling for “one last crusade” in a long-running court battle against the producers of The Lord of the Rings only weeks before carpenters are due to begin work in New Zealand on the sets for the latest Middle-earth epic.

He claims the Tolkien family is owed £80m by New Line Cinema under a deal for a 7.5% share of profits that was signed in 1969, when his father reluctantly sold film rights to pay a tax bill.

Today the film-makers will confirm that Sir Ian McKellen is returning to his role as the wizard Gandalf in The Hobbit and that Andy Serkis will reprise his role as the murderous creature Gollum.

Sir Ian Holm, who played the hobbit Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings, is expected to narrate. Viggo Mortensen has unexpectedly been asked to return as Aragorn, a character who does not appear in the original Hobbit story, published in 1937.

Peter Jackson, who directed the Rings trilogy, is to produce the Hobbit films. The director will be Guillermo del Toro, the Mexican whose grim fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth won three Oscars last year.

However, at a hearing on June 6 Christopher Tolkien will ask a Californian judge to back his claim that he can “terminate” film rights to The Hobbit. He is said to be furious with the New Line studio, which earned £3 billion from the Rings trilogy. Tolkien’s lawyers accuse New Line of “accounting chicanery”. Warner Bros, owner of New Line, declined to comment.

In an internet press conference last night, Jackson and del Toro answered questions about the new films, which will cost about £150m to make over the next three years.

The first will be rooted firmly in the original book The Hobbit, following the naive young Bilbo on a quest for dragon’s gold and showing how he obtained his all-powerful ring. The second will cover the 50 years between his return home and the events of The Lord of the Rings.

That period is described in The Silmarillion, a collection of notes and tales assembled by Christopher Tolkien and published four years after his father’s death in 1973.

Tolkien Jr, described by his biographer as “cantankerous”, is unlikely to allow the film-makers free access to The Silmarillion. He has always been sceptical of Hollywood. Even now relatives are unsure whether he has watched The Lord of the Rings, which won a total of 17 Oscars.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co....cle3999008.ece

Well, they tried to screw over the director, so this isn't a shock at all.

Is Tolkien being treated fairly, do you think?

FAX

Unless he's rolling in dough, no, he's not being treated fairly. How can the studio have no comment? Either they just hope the whole thing goes away, or they don't think much of Jr.'s claim, but I can't believe there would be no comment...

I imagine him, old and bent and bitter, carrying on a conversation with himself like Smeagol and Gollum.
"They're trying to steal my Daddy's precious character."
"But Daddy would want them to do it."
"Must kill the wicked producer. Stab it's eyes out. It's stealing our hobbitses."

Christopher Tolkien is a self-absorbed POS, far as I can tell. If his father sold the film rights for three cups of coffeee 40 years ago, then it's his bad luck that he can't cash in on a share of the film fortune.

Here's alot more detail. Given that New LIne seems to have screwed everyone else, I suspect Tolkien's estate has a valid claim.

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/art...255945,00.html

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Another two films? I thought they were just going to do one.....

Nope, it was announced that it was going to be 2 a while back.

It's interesting that they are doing the dead space between Hobbit and Fellowship...

...I'm right now half way through the Two Towers, and it's amazing how they re-arranged the story for the movies...

Yeah ... apparently, the're doing The Hobbit then another film that takes place during the time between Bilbo's return and Frodo's departure, Mr. pestilenceaf23.

It's going to be a comedy/romance about four diminutive, furry-footed quasi-elfs who gossip about their love lives and explore ways to maintain meaningful relationships in 1220 Middle Earth ... kind of a "Sex And The Shire".

FAX

Don't remember Mary and Pippin in The Hobbit.
You must be talking about the 2 children Sam and Frodo have together?

I just read all three books as well, lot of differences, but in this case most of them were for the best. I remember reading the part on Tom Bombadil, and just kept thinking that this was stupid as hell.

Well, it IS the story between Hobbit an LOTR so...

I remember loving Bombadils songs when I was a kid. Mainly because my dad would sing them out loud when reading the stories.
Frodo would've been destroyed by the Willow tree had it not been for ole Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadilo.