Tolkien - The Biopic

[Hookbill the Goomba]

Having watched An Adventure in Space and Time last night (essentially a biopic of William Hartnell) my eagerness for this kind of thing has redoubled. Tripled, perhaps. I remember reading the biographies of Tolkien in the mid 2000s and loving them, but I will have to refamiliarise myself with them before they make this.

I would like to see Ben Whishaw as a young Tolkien at university. But the older Tolkien, writing The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, to me would be a perfect roll for someone like John Hurt. (I am slightly biased, perhaps, to want him to span my three biggest fandoms; Doctor Who, Harry Potter and Tolkien).
I'd like to see Ian McKellen cameo in it because he seems like such an excellent chap and I always loved the fact that he carried around a copy of the book on set for the Lord of the Rings.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Hookbill the Goomba

Having watched An Adventure in Space and Time last night (essentially a biopic of William Hartnell) my eagerness for this kind of thing has redoubled. Tripled, perhaps.

Personally I found An Adventure in Time and Space to be melodramatic and overwrought and wouldn't like to see Professor Tolkien's life given similar treatment.

If I'm going to be perfectly honest, and I apologise if this is a little strong, I actually think this idea is appallingly crass and I hope the Estate does whatever it can to shut it down. It's bad enough that this great man's life's work has been repurposed to line the pockets of fat cats who had absolutely nothing to do with him, they have to do it to his life itself? And it would inevitably be a sob story featuring Edith being all jealous about his friendship with Lewis and he and Lewis having a falling out over Williams or some other biographical detail blown entirely out of proportion.

[Thinlómien]

I'm with Inzil - we can't really know if it's going to be good before we see it. I would bet it'll be better than The Desolation of Smaug in any case.

As for casting, Ben Whishaw is a fab suggestion for young Tolkien. And young Edith should be portrayed by Ruth Wilson. As for older versions... Jim Broadbent and Diana Rigg?

[Mithalwen]

While I could do without this film I would go for Eddie Redmayne , too tall maybe but I think there is a striking resemblance to the photos of young Tolkien in uniform. Big no to Jim Broadbent not that he isn't a great actor but he is the wrong type and is in EVERYTHING... Carey Mulligan maybe as young Edith.

[Galadriel55]

This is a completely unrelated comment, but it has been bugging me so long that I have to share. Since the thread was first started, I keep misreading the title - instead of pronouncing it bIopic, in my head I pronounce it biOpic, like an adjective. As a result I have a cross between myopia and bipolar stuck in my head whenever I look at the title. Freudic predictions, anyone thinks?

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

I'm with Inzil - we can't really know if it's going to be good before we see it. I would bet it'll be better than The Desolation of Smaug in any case.

I can't compare it to DOS if I never see the latter.

For whatever reason though, I'm not altogether against the idea of an account of Tolkien's life on the Big Screen. At least if they get things wrong enough to be slanderous to an actual person, living or dead, there's the possibility of legal action that could stick. The poor books aren't afforded that protection.

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

While I could do without this film I would go for Eddie Redmayne , too tall maybe but I think there is a striking resemblance to the photos of young Tolkien in uniform. Big no to Jim Broadbent not that he isn't a great actor but he is the wrong type and is in EVERYTHING... Carey Mulligan maybe as young Edith.

Maybe Peter Vaughan then, for old Tolkien? Er.. maybe not.

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

This is a completely unrelated comment, but it has been bugging me so long that I have to share. Since the thread was first started, I keep misreading the title - instead of pronouncing it bIopic, in my head I pronounce it biOpic, like an adjective. As a result I have a cross between myopia and bipolar stuck in my head whenever I look at the title. Freudic predictions, anyone thinks?

Less myopia, more of this.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

This is a completely unrelated comment, but it has been bugging me so long that I have to share. Since the thread was first started, I keep misreading the title - instead of pronouncing it bIopic, in my head I pronounce it biOpic, like an adjective. As a result I have a cross between myopia and bipolar stuck in my head whenever I look at the title. Freudic predictions, anyone thinks?

Don't worry. I had exactly the same feeling since the beginning. My first impression was that this was a thread about how Tolkien was recently discovered to have had some eye problems, then when I opened the thread and saw the first line of the opening post, I was like "okay, so it's a joke-title, probably referring to that among other things, in that film we will see how Tolkien had to come with bad eyesight." The best part about it is, that I think Lal or someone had mentioned this on Facebook long time ago and I had had the same misconception (which of course I had also immediately understood was wrong, but the first impression stayed), and now seeing the thread here, I made the same mistake again.