Film Rights to First & Second Age

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hickli

Ah, Wayne Hammond, is it? One of the best. And I suppose he does draw very modest royalties from his (limited readership) books- but certainly not enough to allow him to quit his day job. Most academics do, after all, write books.

What drew the conspiracy-theory quip from me was your use of the phrase 'connect the dots.' One which, unfortunately, is used by a lot of tinfoil-hatters, and exemplifies the sort of 'logic' they use. Over the top of me.

Nonetheless, I don't especially like the insinuation that people only dislike the movies for some venal motive. Isn't it really rather the case that Tolkien Scholars are by their very nature purists?

I don't like it either, for two very good reasons. Firstly, those involved with the Estate are in general very nice people, and those of us in the Tolkien Society will vouch for that - they are friendly, open and generous. And membership of the Tolkien Society is hardly like the ruddy Freemasons, anyone can join for twenty quid.

The other reason is that a lot of long-time Tolkien fans feel a little bit annoyed that the work of this man, the lifetime's work, is subject to being picked over like the corpse of an Orc. We live in a world where nothing is left unexploited for the great god of Mammon, even the water we drink is costed and turned into profit. It makes a lot of fans a little bit sick to think of people like Peter Jackson sitting in his calf leather armchairs, swigging ruddy Chateauneuf De Pape and eating truffles off the back of a slave boy or something because he's made a profit out of the literature we've quietly loved for years before he'd even heard of it.

Fine, he can make his films, they will no doubt be enjoyable and I for one am looking forwards to collecting some more action figures, but he certainly cannot expect us not to criticise and discuss what we think he's doing wrong. And to be fair - I think he expects us to carp at him. He needs to bear that in mind before considering writing about Gandalf turning the Spiders of Mirkwood into zombies and having Thranduil fling a lawnmower at Thorin.