It's astute to point out how Jackson seems to be emulating not only Lucas'
Star Wars ethos but Lucas' climb up the professional ladder. (Or is that down the many levels?
) It's a great pity that being a superb director no longer seems to be an acceptable or culminating accomplishment any more. One must become an entertainment corporate entity. People will always take themselves wherever their ambition will lead them, but movies could well still benefit from the likes of directors such as Bergman, Lean, Kurosawa, or, not to sound so elvish, Sonderbergh, Mayao Miyasaki, Michael Moore, even Deepa Mehta--all directors who have established their style and tone as directors. (Not that I'm saying any of these should do TH). But there are those who don't use director as a stepping stone to directors of companies.
That bit of prosyletizing aside, I do think that DT could well work on his Tolkien credentials. Sure enough that those comments about heroic fantasy and swords and little people could be his attempt to ensure that his movie was not incorrectly catalogued as that sort of fantasy--Merlin adventures and all that. Yet at the same time he does need to demonstrate some appreciation for Tolkien's ethos if he hopes to avoid the kind of criticisms which Jackson has received. The
Pan's Labyrinth website contains lots of media spin on DT's idea of fantasy and proclaims his credentials about the formal academic study of fairytale (which are even then selective). There's nary a mention of Tolkien's OFS. As I think I posted elsewhere on this forum, it would make a facinating interview (or media spin) for him to comment on Tolkien's idea of fairie.