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Zigûr · 07-17-2013, 05:27 AM

In an update, the Estate tried to have the counter-claims dismissed, but this was denied, so both the suit and counter-suit are still going ahead:

http://www.deadline.com/2013/07/warn...olkien-estate/

Frankly I could never support the filmmakers in this situation. The Tolkien Estate is repeatedly accused of greedily resting on the spoils of the Professor's achievements but personally I believe they have every right to quibble in cases like this where it's not black and white as to where the rights lie.

I assume this is why there was never a video game released for "An Unexpected Journey"?

It may or may not be pretense but if the Estate is genuinely concerned about the legacy of Professor Tolkien's work I think their concern is understandable. We are always told that "the books are still there" but when marketing, merchandise and spin have obliterated the majority of discourse on the subject I can't complain if WB and Zaentz are taken to task. On Facebook the other day people who had Liked the "The Fellowship of the Ring" page (for the book, not the film) were requested for a favourite quote. Half must have been from the film. There may have been a time before the films when Tolkien enthusiasm had receded and our conversations might be more isolated, but surely that is preferable to having it drowned beneath a sea of fatuous nonsense.

Elrond told the Council "It would be better if the Three had never been." I believe the same of the films. It is hard to know what to do in hindsight. Professor Tolkien once wrote that "the spirit of wickedness in high places is now so powerful and so many-headed in its incarnations that there seems nothing more to do than personally to refuse to worship any of the hydras' heads..." (Letter 312)

It may seem pointless for me to come here and preach to the choir, as it were, and I realise that this is not really meaningful news on a front regarding lawsuits which don't really mean anything insofar as the texts themselves are concerned, but I wouldn't be here if Professor Tolkien's work wasn't so important to me, and the symptoms of its occlusion are correspondingly troubling. If these stories are at risk of becoming palimpsests in culture, rewritten in the public consciousness in a way where films and merchandising and lawsuits have largely obscured the true and valuable matter, then I feel like there must be some who take responsibility for keeping the flame alive.

Any remarks of this nature may similarly seem like an overreaction, and I don't lay the blame at the feet of individuals in Hollywood or elsewhere, because it's symptomatic of the wider (neoliberal?) disease which afflicts Western Culture. Nonetheless I feel the need to muster my courage and take Gandalf as an example (as Professor Tolkien referenced in the same letter): "it is not for us to choose the times into which we are born, but to do what we could to repair them". Professor Tolkien places these paraphrased remarks before discussing his frustration with the heads of the hydra, but perhaps in the spirit of optimism and determination this is rather the sentiment upon which to focus.

07-17-2013, 05:27 AM	#51
Zigûr Ghost Prince of Cardolan Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 785	In an update, the Estate tried to have the counter-claims dismissed, but this was denied, so both the suit and counter-suit are still going ahead: http://www.deadline.com/2013/07/warn...olkien-estate/ Frankly I could never support the filmmakers in this situation. The Tolkien Estate is repeatedly accused of greedily resting on the spoils of the Professor's achievements but personally I believe they have every right to quibble in cases like this where it's not black and white as to where the rights lie. I assume this is why there was never a video game released for "An Unexpected Journey"? It may or may not be pretense but if the Estate is genuinely concerned about the legacy of Professor Tolkien's work I think their concern is understandable. We are always told that "the books are still there" but when marketing, merchandise and spin have obliterated the majority of discourse on the subject I can't complain if WB and Zaentz are taken to task. On Facebook the other day people who had Liked the "The Fellowship of the Ring" page (for the book, not the film) were requested for a favourite quote. Half must have been from the film. There may have been a time before the films when Tolkien enthusiasm had receded and our conversations might be more isolated, but surely that is preferable to having it drowned beneath a sea of fatuous nonsense. Elrond told the Council "It would be better if the Three had never been." I believe the same of the films. It is hard to know what to do in hindsight. Professor Tolkien once wrote that "the spirit of wickedness in high places is now so powerful and so many-headed in its incarnations that there seems nothing more to do than personally to refuse to worship any of the hydras' heads..." (Letter 312) It may seem pointless for me to come here and preach to the choir, as it were, and I realise that this is not really meaningful news on a front regarding lawsuits which don't really mean anything insofar as the texts themselves are concerned, but I wouldn't be here if Professor Tolkien's work wasn't so important to me, and the symptoms of its occlusion are correspondingly troubling. If these stories are at risk of becoming palimpsests in culture, rewritten in the public consciousness in a way where films and merchandising and lawsuits have largely obscured the true and valuable matter, then I feel like there must be some who take responsibility for keeping the flame alive. Any remarks of this nature may similarly seem like an overreaction, and I don't lay the blame at the feet of individuals in Hollywood or elsewhere, because it's symptomatic of the wider (neoliberal?) disease which afflicts Western Culture. Nonetheless I feel the need to muster my courage and take Gandalf as an example (as Professor Tolkien referenced in the same letter): "it is not for us to choose the times into which we are born, but to do what we could to repair them". Professor Tolkien places these paraphrased remarks before discussing his frustration with the heads of the hydra, but perhaps in the spirit of optimism and determination this is rather the sentiment upon which to focus. __________________ "Since the evening of that day we have journeyed from the shadow of Tol Brandir." "On foot?" cried Éomer.