In what appears to be a perfect imitation of Gollum, Christopher Tolkien, son of every geek’s superhero – J.R.R. Tolkien is demanding the rights to the The Hobbit movie back. And you’d think the movie’s production could go unhindred for just three months. So why is the 83 year old Tolkien guarding his precious with such protection? Hit the jump to find out!
Tolkien feels that New Line Cinema, responsible for the Lord of the Rings movies owe him an estate of a whopping 80 million pounds as per an agreement that the Tolkien receives a 7.5% share from the profits made by the trilogy.
According to him, his father sold the film rights in 1969 to pay off taxes and now he wants the rights back (something I didn’t know was possible, and besides – what the hell is Tolkien going to do with the film rights anyways?). And so he will go to court to have the rights “terminated” on June 6th. We wonder what the outcome will be.
Personally, I’m not sure what to make of it. Tolkien, despite being described “cantankerous” by his relatives (yes, only the English use that word) must have a good reason for doing what he is, because I can’t picture him as a publicity and money hog.
And also, I’m one of those people who didn’t like how the movies corrupted the original books by nerfing them, cutting down on several plotlines and implications and goddamnit Arwen didn’t love Aragorn! And also, Aragorn will be seen in The Hobbit, which sucks because he was never there in the original book!
Whatever the case, let’s see what comes out of this on June the 6th.
It’s so stupid that Aragorn is in The Hobbit. Or Viggo Mortensen. IMO- Orlando COULD play Thranduil but Thranduil is said to be nasty- but he becomes a bit nicer towards the end.