All of us were enthralled by the Lord of the Rings movies and probably have a copy in our DVD/Blu-Ray collection. While The Hobbit also written by J. R. R. Tolkien was also made into a movie trilogy. The Hobbit is only about three hundred pages long. However, confident that his book would one day be divided into a dozen movies, author JRR Tolkien also provided 125 pages of Hobbit backstory, billed as “The Appendices,” in a later edition of the final Lord of the Rings novel The Return of the King,.
Even so the challenge of Peter Jackson the director and producer making three movies from the material by JRR Tolkien’s short book was amazing and very imaginative. The Hobbit did quite well at the box office comparing to The Lord of the Rings making the studio very happy. Their $1,047,000,000 cost of six films brought $1,852,429,850 domestically and $5,895,804,182 worldwide.
JRR Tolkien has other books and two new ones edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien. The new releases of books are “The Children of Húrin” in 2007 and “Beren and Lúthien” in 2017. They are both middle earth stories many years before “The Hobbit” or “The Lord of the Rings”. Middle earth stories are popular but is there room in Hollywood for more movie productions of Tolkien’s work?
The Silmarillion was published in 1977 and is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien’s mythopoeic works, edited and published posthumously by his son, Christopher Tolkien. The narrative that describes the universe of Eä in which are found the lands of Valinor, Beleriand, Númenor, and Middle-earth within which The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place.
The Unfinished Tales is a collection of stories and essays by J. R. R. Tolkien that were never completed during his lifetime, but were edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and published in three volumes in 1980. The History of Middle-earth is a 12-volume series of books published between 1983 and 1996 that collect and analyze material relating to the fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, compiled and edited by his son, Christopher Tolkien.
As you can see their is more material about the wonderful stories from the mind of J. R. R. Tolkien. Can Peter Jackson or some other director make more Middle-earth Movies again? MGM and New Line don’t currently have the rights to turn that material into a movie. Considering that Christopher Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien’s son, once said that the Lord of the Rings trilogy “gutted the book, making an action movie for 15 to 25-year-olds,” it’s doubtful that they will budge on the issue in the future.
However, things change and minds change also. The hope of seeing more of J.R.R. Tolkien inspired movies is still there. The people that control the J. R. R. Tolkien’s works are aging and all ready in their 80’s and 90’s. Perhaps the younger Tolkien family members have a different opinion. Anything is possible. For those who enjoyed the Middle earth movies hang in there it still could happen. 🙂 Walt