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Hard Hobbit to Break

The final installment in Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy is already tipped for a Best Picture Oscar. But will we ever see The Hobbit on film? Iain S Bruce reports on an epic row over Tolkien’s work

Already it has enthralled millions, generating cash by the billion-dollar bale and sending even heads of state into paroxysms of excitement. If there really is One Ring – the ring to rule them all, and bring them all and in the darkness bind them all – then surely this must be it.

It may only be made of celluloid, but the final installment of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy has ensnared the world in its magical grasp. Already forecast for a box office take in excess of £2 billion following its release in 10 days’ time, The Return Of The King cast’s victorious parade through the streets of Wellington last week attracted a cheering crowd of 100,000 fans – led by a whooping New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark – in the first of a series of triumphal marches tipped to carry the epic movie all the way to next year’s Best Picture Oscar.

“This is fantastic. It’s utterly unbelievable because I never believed that my great-grandfather’s trilogy could ever be dramatised,” said a misty-eyed Royd Tolkien, a bit-player in the big screen version of his ancestor’s masterwork who travelled to the Antipodes last week to participate in the celebrations. “The stories are so complex and magical that the technology just didn’t exist to translate his epic into a movie until now.”

Yet despite all the enthusiasm and the guarantees of commercial success, there are dark rumblings beneath the surface that threaten to pierce the pomp and circumstance cloaking director Peter Jackson’s £200 million tale of wizards, Hobbits and Orcs locked in a deadly ultimate battle between good and evil. Soured by an undercurrent of dissension from the moment filming began, now a furious fight for the soul of one of Britain’s greatest literary legacies has set lawyer against lawyer and father against son in a bitter feud that could derail the bandwagon just as it gathers momentum.

Producers New Line Cinema are understandably keen to cash in on their success by pressing on with a dramatisation of the trilogy’s prequel, The Hobbit, while Jackson wishes to use the hundreds of weapons, suits of armour and fantastic props left over from his epic cinematic endeavour as the foundation for a Lord Of The Rings museum in New Zealand. Both projects are now in severe doubt, however, following the refusal of Christopher, eldest of Tolkien’s four children and the author’s literary executor, to give the estate’s blessing.

A Legal Battle Over The Hobbit

“The difficulty everybody has is the Tolkien estate and the problem is always a legal one. New Line Cinema doesn’t have the authority to allow the museum to happen and I understand there are issues with The Hobbit rights as well,” said director Jackson. “It’s frustrating, because we want to thank the people of New Zealand for their support and have appealed at various times to do something for the community, but they keep saying no.”

Under pressure from tax collectors and Hollywood sharks, JRR Tolkien sold the movie rights to The Lord Of The Rings in 1968 for a reputed £10,000 plus a cut of future royalties, a deal which allowed filming on the current series to proceed irrespective of his estate’s barely concealed hostility towards the subject. While various rights governing merchandising and publishing were similarly parcelled out, the writer’s inheritors retained control of his other titles and the use of his famous name, a technicality which now threatens to end Tinseltown’s lucrative expedition into Middle Earth due to Christopher Tolkien’s vigorous guardianship of his father’s literary legacy.

“Talented authors often feel complimented when others build on what they’ve written, but the family, unable to create anything nearly as brilliant, see the work as a precious treasure to be guarded by any and all means. It’s ironic, because while JRR himself was amused by the attention his tale drew, his amusement was not that of a literary elitist, sneering at the masses for not understanding a work that lay beyond their comprehension,” said author Mike Perry, whose book Untangling Tolkien only made the presses this year after reaching an out-of-court settlement with the estate. “Where Christopher is wrong, in my opinion, is in wanting his father’s work to be taken seriously by the sorts of people his father cared little about when it’s easy to believe that, were he alive today, Tolkien would not only have approved of Peter Jackson’s movies, but would have been delighted by films such as The Matrix, Star Wars, and Terminator because he loved to see the arts ask ultimate questions in a bold and visionary context.”

A Divided Family

Wrong or not, Christopher Tolkien has yielded not an inch to pressure from Hollywood and has barely put any greater effort into explaining his stance as head of the trustees governing his forebear’s memory, releasing just a single terse statement to the effect that, as he deemed The Lord Of The Rings unsuitable for big-screen adaptation, the estate would be best advised to avoid any specific association with the films. Although brief, these views are clearly dearly held by the 77-year-old man who, as a boy, used to correct continuity errors in his father’s manuscripts. When his own son Simon showed vague support for the films and attended the first installment’s premiere, the errant heir was removed from the Tolkien Company board.

“I never saw the films as a threat and I’ve enjoyed the movies for what they are, but I crossed my father on a Tolkien issue and if you’re after someone who can explain the estate’s attitude, I can’t. I’m cut off,” said 44-year-old Simon, who is legally barred from discussing the family’s inner workings. “I haven’t spoken to my father except in an annual business meeting context for the past four years. He communicates with me now through his lawyer... he will never speak to me again as long as he lives, he will never see my children and will never have anything to do with me.”

Since completing the unfinished Silmarillion in 1977, Christopher Tolkien, himself a former Oxford professor who now lives in France, has consistently displayed a powerful urge to rigorously preserve his father’s literary legacy. “From all of the work Christopher has done it is clear that he has displayed enormous integrity in refusing to compromise his editorial standard on anything he has been a part of. He has made every effort to bring his father’s visions to realization without adding his own touches and I think that is the key point,” said Michael Drout, a Massachusetts professor of mythology and folklore. “He appears to want to present JRR Tolkien’s work. Period. Given that the words have to be interpreted in order to be made into visual form, I can see why he didn’t participate.”

Controversies and Impact

Another reason mooted as an explanation for his reticence is one of privacy. With the massive worldwide fan base gathered by JRR’s work already holding the family in considerable interest, some members have spoken out about their fears for what an intensification of the publicity might do to their personal lives.

“The Tolkien family is under perpetual abuse of one kind or another. It goes on all the time,” retired Roman Catholic priest John Tolkien, second of the siblings, told reporters before his death last year. “Christopher doesn’t live in England any more and when he comes can’t use his own name. He now keeps wild boar in his garden, which is a little bit dangerous, but they are useful when people become a nuisance.”

For many of the thousands of Tolkien purists dotting the globe, the family’s stance has been entirely correct. But for every purist, there is a Tolkien fan who has been waiting years for these films to be made – and, if box office receipts are anything to go by, Jackson’s epics have more than satisfied.

“I have been a fan of Tolkien’s work for more than 25 years and have read The Lord Of The Rings many times. It has come to mean something different, something fresh and new, something more powerful and more admirable, each time, and I deeply cherish the images in my mind’s eye, put there through Tolkien’s beautiful prose and poetry,” Jackson told a press conference. “But the demands of the medium mean we either had to make changes or a 12-hour movie, and it’s surely ridiculous to suggest that we could have done anything different.”

The Story of Bilbo Baggins

Following the global success of Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings movies, attention has turned to the prospect of filming The Hobbit, Tolkien’s first tale set in the fantasy world of Middle-Earth. The Hobbit, published in 1937, introduced a mass audience to the sword-and-sorcery stories written for his children. The book was followed by Tolkien’s epic Lord Of The Rings trilogy, starting in 1954 with The Fellowship Of The Ring and, later the same year, The Two Towers. The Return Of The King was published the following year. The trilogy features many of the characters from The Hobbit, including Bilbo Baggins, played in the current films by Ian Holm, his wizard ally Gandalf, played by Sir Ian McKellen, and Gollum, the computer-generated star of Jackson’s films.

During the course of The Hobbit, Bilbo deprives the unpleasant Gollum of the One Ring, which makes the wearer invisible, useful when Bilbo raids the lair of the dragon Smaug. While the ring played a relatively minor part in the plot of the first book, it becomes the powerful and corrupting focus for Lord Of The Rings. The Hobbit has been translated into 25 languages and has sold more than 40 million copies, while the first two Rings films have so far grossed more than £1 billion pounds worldwide. Such success makes The Hobbit an obvious next candidate for adaptation. What’s more, the first book was written for a younger audience than the Rings tales, and is a more straightforward and perhaps more appealing yarn. Its miscellaneous creatures would also take full advantage of the cutting-edge computer graphics used throughout the current films. In particular, Jackson may well be relishing the set-piece confrontation with Smaug which would have daunted earlier generations of filmmakers.

CS Lewis, offered drafts of the trilogy by Tolkien to review, is famously claimed to have said: “Not more bloody elves!” New Line Cinema, the studio behind the film trilogy, are unlikely to feel the same way about letting Jackson loose on The Hobbit.

Hotels for Tolkien Fans

For fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's works, visiting locations that are associated with Middle-earth can be a dream come true. While New Zealand is often considered the ultimate destination for Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film fans, there are other locations around the world that are worth a visit for Tolkien enthusiasts.

1. Hobbiton - Matamata, New Zealand

Located in Matamata, New Zealand, Hobbiton is the real-life set from the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. Fans can take a guided tour of the Shire and explore the hobbit holes, gardens, and the Green Dragon Inn.

2. The Eagle and Child Pub - Oxford, England

The Eagle and Child is a historic pub in Oxford, England, where the literary group known as "The Inklings" used to meet. J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were both members of this group, and it is said that they would often read their works to each other in the pub.

3. The Tolkien House - Bloemfontein, South Africa

The Tolkien House is a museum in Bloemfontein, South Africa, dedicated to J.R.R. Tolkien. The museum is located in the house where Tolkien lived from 1895 to 1900. Visitors can explore the exhibits and learn more about the author's early life.

4. Mount Sunday - Canterbury, New Zealand

Mount Sunday is a filming location in Canterbury, New Zealand, used for the iconic "Edoras" set in The Lord of the Rings films. Visitors can hike to the top of the hill and enjoy the stunning panoramic views of the surrounding landscapes.

5. The Bodleian Library - Oxford, England

The Bodleian Library in Oxford is home to one of the largest collections of J.R.R. Tolkien's manuscripts and artwork. Fans can visit the library and explore the exhibition dedicated to Tolkien's life and work.

Whether it's visiting the real-life sets, exploring museums, or immersing yourself in locations that inspired Tolkien, there are plenty of opportunities for fans to embark on their own Middle-earth adventures.

London

Manchester

Bournemouth

Chester

Durham

Eastbourne

San Francisco

Benidorm

Copenhagen

Krakow

Benalmadena

Paphos

Leeds (West Yorkshire)

Poole

St Ives (Cornwall)

Great Yarmouth

Southport

Leicester

Reading

Lyme Regis

Filey

Canterbury

Chichester

Falmouth

Portrush

Salisbury

Leamington Spa

Worcester

Perth

Whitstable

Barmouth

Sunderland (Tyne and Wear)

Lymington

Chesterfield

Matlock (Derbyshire)

Truro

Broadstairs

Porthmadog

Dartford