This story was one of TheOneRing.net’s April Fool Jokes for 2012. Thank you for participating!
Word has reached us on the latest happenings with regard to The Hobbit pub in England. Officials from the Saul Zaentz Company visited the pub a week ago, to ‘assess the situation’; presumably to check exactly what references to The Hobbit – apart from the pub name – there are at the venue, which the SZC claims is breaking licensing laws. Now, in a totally unexpected turn of events, we hear that the SZC have put in an offer to buy the pub and take over management. ‘We just fell in love with the place,’ a representative told us. ‘As we own the rights to the name, it seems right that we should own the pub itself. It would certainly be a solution to the current copyright infringement. Our intention is to use it in our advertising campaign for the movies. We plan to ship the pub and all interior fittings to LA … We hope to have it up and running there in time for the opening of the first Hobbit movie at the end of the year.’
Shipping a building, brick by brick, is certainly costly but not unheard of. The most famous such occurrence was of course the shipping of London Bridge, in 1962, via boat to California and thence to Arizona. There’s no word as yet to the exact location intended for the relocated Hobbit pub; TORn is keeping an eye on events in the hope that it might be a possible location for Oscar happenings next Spring! Meanwhile, we have yet to see how the current owner – and supportive regulars – will respond to this purchase offer. It seems unlikely that they would let their beloved local go without a fight. As ever, we’ll bring you the latest as we hear it!
