I hope it's true. I enjoyed The Hobbit more than the Lord of the Rings books. Even on the EE of TTT Peter said he might be interested but that no one from New Line asked him about it. Nice to see interest both from New Line and Jackson.

Hmmm
 

Christopher Tolkien is getting up there in age, isn't he around 80 now? It so sad, because I think if Christ6opher Tolkien would open his mind, he'll see that this isn't what his father wanted. Now, if New Line royally screwed up with "The Lord of the Rings" then I can understand, but these films did the books justice. It's sad that one grumpy old man, who is bitter and is extremly reclusive these days, refuses to budge on this.
Again, what if he died....what happens then? Hey, he is getting old, so that is a possibility to consider. I NEVER WISH death on anyone(except people like Osama bin laden), however I want this film to be made so badly....and Peter Jackson wants to direct it after KIng Kong? I think I will have died and gone to heaven if that actually happens

Re: Hmmm
 

I am putting a hit team together as we speak to try and take out Tolkien.

Re: Hmmm
 

And you know this... how?

Why does he have the rights, and not the rights to everything? Who had the rights to the trilogy?

^^^
the rights to LOTR were sold long ago (the 60s, i think), and thats why the cartoon versoin came out in the 70s. so, eventually New Line bought the rights from someone who bought the rights from Tolkien at some point before Christopher took over.

Here's an old article talking about how the film rights were sold off back in 1969 for LOTR.

http://www.xenite.org/faqs/lotr_movi..._0000/470.html

Sounds like he never cared for the LOTR movie trilogy either, so I don't think he's budging...

"Mr Tolkien, 77, went public with his concerns. "My own position is that The Lord of the Rings is peculiarly unsuitable to transformation into visual dramatic form," he said. He insisted that he did not disapprove of the films — there are to be three — "whatever their cinematic quality", nor think ill of those who have given them their support."

This is OLD news...it was reported in LOTR fan club magazine two months ago...and on this site in another thread (about Peter Jackson's future projects).

If tolkien himself sold the rights for the lord of the rings trilogy then he should in no way be deciding what happens with the hobbit, it is not his work

So whenever someone dies, their life's work should just go up for grabs? Interesting....

my point was tolkien sold lotr trilogy to be put in screen, so the hobbit would most likely be sold too if someone had asked. He should not decide what happens with the hobbit since its not his work and the author wanted it on screen

Not really complaining about the law but about the tolkien relative denying fans of another amazing film :)

Yeah, I bet Jackson would 'do' the hobbit... We're talking about Michael, right?

To clarify: Christopher Tolkien and the Tolkien Estate have *no* say over whether a Hobbit film is made. JRR Tolkien sold the film rights years ago. The Tolkien Estate no longer has any claim on the Hobbit film rights (or, obviously, LOTR film rights, otherwise we wouldn't be seeing the current movies!)

The reason the Hobbit may not be made for a while has to do with a completly different issue. New Line owns the rights to *make* the Hobbit, but a different studio, United Artists, owns the rights to *distribute* any Hobbit film. Obviously the two studios need to come to an agreement before a Hobbit film can be made. But here it is three years after FOTR premiered, and there's still no agreement.

Again: the obstacle to the Hobbit being made has nothing to do with Christopher Tolkien, and everything to do with Hollywood deal-making.

(The confusion arises because the same article that quoted Mark Ordesky of New Line about the Hobbit also quoted him on a separate issue which *does* involve the Tolkien Estate, namely setting up a museum for LOTR props in New Zealand.)

I too would like to see this happen. If it ever gets made, I want it to be Jackson.

The only rights that Christopher Tolkien still holds is those to the Silmarillion. So there will probably never be a Silmarillion movie.

Chris Tolkien = Luca$

Well since I don't know either personally, I'm not taking that bait.

Except to say if your statement is true, shouldn't it be:

Chri$ Tolkien?

Somebody should just murder the old mofo so the rights to the hobbit gets pass on to someone in the family who is greedy as hell and sell it before the old man gets buried, so LOTR freaks can finally satisfy their last hunger of the series.

Fine, then it is good old news.:banana:

What's a Hobbit? :hscratch:










...:D...

I was curious about the rights issues and so I did a quick search and found Tolkien Enterprises. According to their website: http://www.tolkien-ent.com/
I also found an article that details how Tolkien Enterprises got the rights.
http://www.xenite.org/faqs/lotr_movi..._0000/120.html
It seems odd that UA sold the distribution rights for LOTR to Zaentz, but not for The Hobbit. Still, it's not outside the realm of possibility, especially since UA was involved in the first film adaptation of LOTR.

From that same xenite.org page:

"MGM/United Artists apparently owns the distribution rights for "The Hobbit". It has been alleged that a script for The Hobbit has been circulating at MGM/UA but they are not moving forward with the project because they do not own production rights."

My guess is that back in the deep dark past, Zaentz bought film rights for The Hobbit but not the distribution rights, on the grounds that he was setting up a deal for the made-for-TV Rankin Bass version. Since it was a TV deal, the fim distribution did not apply (I speculate.) And now that oversight has come back to bite New Line in the butt.

I'm hoping Peter Jackson will get the chance to show us something else other than non-stop Lord of the Rings sequels/prequels, because I'm sick of them. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do with his King Kong remake, though (and I pray it will be better than the dreadful Godzilla remake).

sick of them? why exactly? seriously.

the third and final film has not even been released yet.

This may come as a tremendous shock to you, but not everybody in the world likes the Lord of the Rings. I think Return of the King will be the best of the trilogy, but I'm tired of the fans proclaiming the movies to be the best thing since Jesus. And I'd like to see a King Kong remake by Peter Jackson. Have you got a problem with that?