Tolkien Trust Okays Hobbit Movie 325
saudadelinux writes "Last year, the Tolkien Trust, which administers JRR's estate, bellowed stentoriously, 'Youuuu shall not make The Hobbit!' and sued New Line Cinema for 'a reported $220m (£133m) in compensation, based on breach of contract and fraud.' New Line, chastened, has settled for an undisclosed sum of money. The Trust has given its blessing to New Line for Guillermo del Toro to film The Hobbit and for New Line to make other films based on Tolkien's work. Much rejoicing!"
Hollywood accounting (Score:5, Interesting)
Too bad, I wouldn't have minded too much if their Hollywood Accounting [wikipedia.org] had backfired on them.
Hooray! GDT!!! (Score:4, Interesting)
Derivitive work (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh dear God, NO!
Re:Hollywood accounting (Score:4, Interesting)
If there's one wikipedia page (and in reality there's 10,000s), that sums up the inadequacies of wikipedia, it's that Hollywood Accounting one. That page is 100% hearsay, gossip column and TMZ-esque gossip presented as fact and wikiality.
While there are (likely) many instances of creative accounting practices in Hollywood, the truth is very guarded. And the truth is NOT displayed on that wikipedia page. There is nothing to see on that page that's of any value to the human race.
Re:Guillermo del Toro (Score:3, Interesting)
Director of Mimic, Blade 2, Hellboy, Hellboy 2, and Pan's Labyrinth.
I'm quite happy with him as director of The Hobbit as his body of work is excellent. And, yes, it will have a vastly different feel from the LotR trilogy. And that's not a bad thing given his vision for fantasy/faerie tales is beautiful.
Re:Guillermo del Toro (Score:3, Interesting)
Pan's Labyrinth is a marvelous fable. The eye-candy is secondary. All I've seen is snippets of Hellboy, which is standard action-movie fare.
But on Pan's Labyrinth alone I'm willing to give the credit. No one can create something with that much depth in meaning, character, and visuals on a fluke.
Maybe his stuff isn't that great in translation? Especially when he's working in translation, like Hellboy.
Re:God, Not Another One (Score:3, Interesting)
Based on the amount of movie, merchandise and people who keep buying the DVD's I would say you are in the minority with your feelings. Personally, I don't want them to make another one, but they will, my wife and I will probably see it with friends, and if it's a good movie (this doesn't mean 100% true to the book or my envisioning of the characters) then we might even buy the dvd er blue ray.
Re:God, Not Another One (Score:4, Interesting)
I never came pass the first book when I tried to read it as a kid because it was so damn booring.
The movies kicked ass.
I now read the books again and I think that the movie adds a lot (in all sense of the word) but I really think the books are still a bit boring. I think they followed the books as good as they possibly could.
I really hope Jackson gets do do all movies in JRR's world.
Re:A Sickening State of Affairs (Score:3, Interesting)
Surely the point of such trusts is to prevent the original works from being abused^H^H^H^H^H^H interpreted by media companies set on profit and little else. Without this trust Disney (or somebody else, they are not the only cuplrits) would have done the same thing to LotR as they did with the Jungle Book & Peter Pan.
Re:God, Not Another One (Score:4, Interesting)
I read The Hobbit, loved it (even though I generally am not a fan of fantasy fiction*), read LOTR and thought it was very good if a bit depressing in parts, and loved the movies as well. Most movies don't follow their books very closely, but Jackson seemed to get the "feel" right; the characters and scenery pretty much matched what I saw when I read the books, even if it didn't follow the books exactly. Far better than the Ralph Bakshi [wikipedia.org] version.
I have the extended versions on DVD, but I iked the theatrical versions better.
Re:Hollywood accounting (Score:2, Interesting)
So, you are claiming that the lawsuits referenced on that page are complete fabrications? Why don't you correct it, then?
Re:God, Not Another One (Score:2, Interesting)
Apparently, the Tolkien Trust is supposed to be a charity. Businesses masquerading as charities seems to be de jour these days, not to mention the tax benefits....... I digress.
Erm the Tolkien Trust does give out a substantial amount to the WWF amongst other things (seem to be big on fixing church roofs from a quick google) and well charities are businesses, they just don't pocket the profit. Hey you can't give money to people if you haven't made it.
Re:Hollywood accounting (Score:5, Interesting)
Forest Gump had a budget of $55M, it grossed $677M. According to Hollywood Accounting the movie did not make a profit.
Re:Yes, you are the only one (Score:3, Interesting)
I find it likely that we are the quiet majority, actually. Those films barely made any sense because they skipped so much. It is very unlikely that the washed masses were able to pick up a story from it. The first one was good, but the second ones were just too dull. I couldn't even finish watching the third one. The movie was over-hyped, and a lot of people just got swept up in it.
Hopefully The Hobbit will be better. This book lends itself slightly better for a movie format, since there was action and comedy in pretty much every chapter.
Re:The Silmarillion (Score:3, Interesting)
Years ago I was in a debate about that. It would be impossible to make a movie. A miniseries, certainly, but not a movie. Now you could take some of the stories, in particular I think Beren and Luthien and the Turin Saga could be adapted to film.
I suspect as production costs drop for special effects, within twenty years we might see it economically feasible to do the thing as some sort of miniseries. The Ainulindale would be kind of tough, because all it really is is a whole lot of singing by angelic creatures, but if it were tied directly into the first few chapters, where the Valar are making the world and Melkor/Morgoth keeps screwing it up, well that could probably be doable in a sort of a "Clash of the Titans" way, because, let's face it, these chapters are about gods making mountains and a bad god throwing them down.
Though not technically part of the Silmarillion, I think the final years of Numenor would also make an awesome film. You'd have Ar-Pharazon, mightiest of kings, beat the hell out of Sauron, bring back, turn to wickedness and evil, while Elendil and his sons strive to prevent disaster, and ultimately flee Numenor just as God tosses it into the ocean. That would be the proper "prequel" to LotR, so far as the Rings and Sauron go.