Lawsuit May Halt Hobbit Adaptation
By Viv Morter
December 15, 2006
www.allnewsallthetime.com
A book adaptation of Peter Jackson's upcoming film
The Hobbit has been indefinitely postponed due to a pending lawsuit, and new reports say the book may never see publication.
The novelization was set to be penned by J. R. R. Tolkien, an obscure Oxford professor who had also written the adaptation of Jackson's
The Lord of the Rings trilogy. But while Jackson's film, a prequel to the trilogy, is well into preproduction, Tolkien's book has been sidelined.
Last summer, Tolkien filed suit against Houghton Mifflin Publishers over a dispute concerning profits of the pretentiously-named first book in the trilogy,
The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of the Lord of the Rings. While the lawsuit, which is still pending, was largely concerned with financial issues, Tolkien also used it to publicly allege that Jackson's movies were in fact an adaptation of his work, and not the other way around.
This incited an uproar of fan controversy across the Internet, with fansites such as thatonething.net becoming involved in a public campaign to discredit Tolkien and prove that Jackson's films were his own original work.
Sean Johns, president of the prominent "Peter Jackson is the real Lord of the Rings" fan club, voiced his outrage over Tolkien's declarations. "The gall this man possesses is extraordinary. Not only does he write a long and boring book that takes far too many liberties from Jackson's myth, he now claims to have had the original idea in the first place. It amazes me how either Mr. Jackson or Houghton Mifflin can put up with this megalomaniac's lies."
According to news sources, Jackson and Houghton Mifflin may have just stopped putting up with it. An insider at Jackson's Wingnut Films, who declined to be named, reported yesterday that Tolkien has been "axed" as the novelist for
The Hobbit's book adaptation.
In a brief phone interview, Tolkien contended that Houghton Mifflin had attempted to coerce him into dropping the lawsuit in exchange for a spring 2007 publication of his book. "On principle," he said, "I cannot and will not accept any such deal."
While Jackson declined to comment on either the financial issue or the larger issue of who originally conceived
The Lord of the Rings, the controversy continued online among LOTR fans.
An unnamed source at Houghton Mifflin, posting on theonething.com, claimed to have read Tolkien's draft of the book, which was delivered to the publisher several months ago. "Suffice it to say," the source said, "that Tolkien's work is once again far from Peter Jackson's vision. The book adopts a childish tone, features arguing cockney trolls and ridiculous singing Elves, and contains no mention of either Legolas or Arwen. The content of this book, as well as Tolkien's previous work on LOTR, played a role in Houghton Mifflin's decision to drop the book from publication."
Neither Wingnut Films nor Houghton Mifflin Publishers have released an official statement regarding the book, though one is expected within the next 48 hours. There is no word on whether Houghton Mifflin will attempt to pursue a book adaptation of
The Hobbit with a different author.
Tolkien's book was tentatively titled
The Hobbit, or, There and Back Again, and was scheduled to be released in fall 2008. Jackson's film
The Hobbit, starring Ian Holm, Ian McKellen, Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis, Liv Tyler and Orlando Bloom, is scheduled to be released in summer 2009 by New Line Cinema.