[Gorwingel]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>However, happily for the rest of the movie going world who are happy with the films, CT has no say whatsoever as to whether the Hobbit gets made into a film. The problem actually lies between New Line who have first refusal on making the film and Universal Artists who own the distribution rights. Until those two companies come to an arrangement there will be no film.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Yes, this is actually right, from what I have heard recently. Christopher Tolkien and the Tolkien Estate does not own the film rights to The Hobbit, and additionally they did not sell the rights to LOTR directly to New Line either as some people have been saying (the rights to the films were sold years ago to Saul Zaentz, a producer, who also produced the animated films, and who acquired the rights before Tolkien died). The main conflict, and the reason a Hobbit film is not going straight into production is that United Artists (aka MGM) owns the rights to make the film, and New Line just recently acquired the rights to distribute the films. Of course both studios really want to make these films (New Line wants to continue their most popular series, and MGM could really use a hit film right now, because they have not been doing well recently, and are basically almost to the point of being sold to the highest bidder). But it looks like, most likely we will see a Hobbit film from PJ, and the people at New Line. If they fork over enough money for the rights (which they will probably eventually do) The Hobbit film will probably go into pre-production after King Kong is done.<P>I think the main reason that Christopher Tolkien is speaking out now is that it is just a good time to try to change public opinion with all these rumors gong around, and to rally the group of die-hard fans who have been sadden by the films. I appreciate both sides of this argument though, and I understand where both groups are coming from, and I really don’t know (after reading all of this) where I stand. I would actually like to see a Hobbit film, but then I don’t want it to stray as far away from the main storyline as the LOTR films have. I love the LOTR films and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them. But now after reading the books multiple times, I find that the films really don’t show the true spirit of the story, and I find that much of the “quietness” of the books that I appreciated is gone from the film because it is considered “boring”.<P>It will be interesting to see what is going to happen in the next couple of years though. But I don’t think that Christopher Tolkien is being an enemy because he is speaking out against the films. This is a free world where we should be allowed to say whatever we would like, and he is just expressing his true feelings. And for me that is truly a refreshing thing