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Archive for the ‘Tolkien Estate’ Category

Jemima Catlin, the newest illustrator of The Hobbit

This is an illustrated tale of the untried university graduate who brought new life to JRR Tolkien’s previous creations. Here lies a tale about a young rookie who was plucked from the wilderness to deliver an almighty task despite lacking in heavyweight stature.

Art student Jemima Catlin, an avid JRR Tolkien obsessive, was just 23 when her work fell into the lap of literary giants Harper Collins – and little did she know that she would go on to illustrate none other than her beloved epic, The Hobbit. (more…)

Posted in Christopher Tolkien, Hobbit Book, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, Tolkien, Tolkien Estate

Is PJ inching towards making The Silmarillion?

PJ Have you ever wondered how Peter Jackson’s film-making style has evolved over the last 15 or so years?

The short, retrospective video below offers a few tantalizing glimpses into Jackson’s thoughts on his works as he’s built his career across that period — something that, perhaps, could one day lead to a cinematic production involving The Silmarillion. (more…)

Posted in Creations, Fans, Miscellaneous, Tolkien, Tolkien Estate

TWO YEAR Anniversary of Our Live Webcast TORn Tuesday!

SDCC2013 016It is hard to believe, but the little live webcast that could, TORnTUESDAY, has reached a new milestone! Two years non-stop, ongoing live coverage of major fan events such as Comic-Con and Dragon*Con — as well as bringing you a bevy of stars such as Sean Astin, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd and his band Beecake, Royd Tolkien, “The Last Unicorn” and LOTR writer Peter S. Beagle, “Hellboy” star Doug Jones, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” creator Kevin Eastman, the Happy Hobbit girls, “Lord of the Rings” Living Card Game designers, and many more!

To mark this special anniversary we will have a lot of material to cover, and let’s all take a closer look at the Extended Edition of THE HOBBIT: AUJ that is coming out — so please bring your questions and comments to the chat!

We launch TORn TUESDAY every week at 5:00PM Pacific: brought to you by host Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway and producer Justin “Nothing Up My Sleeve” Sewell — Our innovative live show includes worldwide fans who join us on the Live Event page with a built-in IRC chat (affectionately known as Barliman’s Chat room). Be part of the fun and mischief every week as we broadcast *live* from Meltdown Comics in the heart of Hollywood, U.S.A.!

And yes our YouTube channel will have this archived later.  You can find us on www.youtube.com/the1nering

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Posted in Barlimans, Conventions, DragonCon, DVDs, Fans, Headlines, Hobbit Book, Hobbit Movie, Merchandise, NYCC, Rumors Spy News, The Hobbit, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, TheOneRing.net Community, Tolkien, Tolkien Estate, TORn TUESDAYS Live!

The literary legacy that members of the Tolkien Estate want to protect

JRR TolkienTORn friend,  Brian Tither, who has studied Old and Middle English and Old Icelandic at Victoria University NZ, has sent this response to our post on Making Sense of the latest Tolkien Lawsuit.

(more…)

Posted in Christopher Tolkien, Fans, Green Books, Headlines, Hobbit Book, Hobbit Movie, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, LotR Books, LotR Movies, New Line Cinema, Other Tolkien books, Studios, The Hobbit, Tolkien, Tolkien Estate, Tolkien Family, Warner Bros.

Making Sense of the latest Tolkien Lawsuit

LOTR_Online_Slots.jpgFurther to our earlier report this week, attorney and message board member Douglas C. Kane aka Voronwë the Faithful has once again sent us a breakdown on the latest Tolkien Lawsuit.

 

(more…)

Posted in Headlines, Hobbit Movie, Lord of the Rings, Merchandise, Other Merchandise, Studios, The Hobbit, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, Tolkien, Tolkien Estate, Tolkien Family, Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. claims Tolkien Estate breached Hobbit contract

warner_bros Warner Bros. is going after the estate of author J.R.R. Tolkien hard in litigation over online slot machines and games tied to the lucrative Lord of the Rings and Hobbit properties.

In November, the Tolkien estate and and its book publisher HarperCollins filed an $80 million lawsuit that claimed that Rings/Hobbit producers including Warner Bros. had infringed the copyright in the books and breached a contract by overstepping their rights.

Rings/Hobbit rightsholder Saul Zaentz Co. already made their own counterclaim that the Tolkien estate has breached an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing by going down this road. (more…)

Posted in The Hobbit, Tolkien Estate, Warner Bros.

The Tolkien nerd’s guide to The Hobbit

For readers of The Hobbit, which became an almost overnight classic following its 1937 debut, the new movie may elicit some puzzlement. Seemingly extraneous flourishes clog up what many remember as a simple fairy tale, and random characters appear at every twist and turn throughout Middle Earth.

Yet those fans who went on to immerse themselves in J.R.R. Tolkien’s wider lore will find inspiration. For the most part, director Peter Jackson does not exercise an extra heaping of artistic license. Rather, Jackson—reportedly something of a nerd himself—borrows from the larger Tolkien literature to create a rich Hobbit tableau.

“Jackson knows the lore pretty well and wanted to bring that larger material in there wherever he could,” said Michael Drout, an English professor at Wheaton College who founded the academic journal Tolkien Studies and edited the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. It’s this so-called textuality—or texts behind texts behind other texts—that lends Tolkien’s work the air of reality, he said, and which Jackson seeks to capture in his films.

Jackson isn’t free to tap into any detail he wants from Tolkien’s wider works, however. “He had a very difficult task in that the movie rights extend only to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings,” said John Rateliff, an independent Tolkien scholar and author of The History of the Hobbit. “He’s well aware that there’s a great deal more material set in that world, but contractually not allowed to use that material in the movies.”

[Read More]

Posted in Christopher Tolkien, Hobbit Book, Hobbit Movie, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, LotR Books, Other Tolkien books, Peter Jackson, Silmarillion, The Hobbit, Tolkien, Tolkien Estate

Rumour: Universal plans Middle-earth theme park?

Hogwarts Orlando Universal Unconfirmed rumours are circulating that Universal is talking with Tolkien Estate about creating a Middle-earth theme park. The rumours emerged on New Year’s day on the Orlando United forum where a user reported claims that Universal Studios asked Warner Bros. to raise the topic with Tolkien Estate. At this point, it is unclear whether the user has insider knowledge, or is simply reporting what others have said.

From the source post:

“…here is how I heard that it played out. Universal asked Warner Bros. to approach the Tolkien family since the Tolkien’s trust WB with the success of the LOTR series. WB described how Universal was willing to work with JK Rowling and how the 2 of them (WB and JK) held Universal’s feet to the fire to uphold Rowling’s vision of the IP. And I believe that the Tolkien’s may have actually talked to JK Rowling. This was before Universal said a word to the Tolkien’s. So after WB stoked the fire, Universal entered the picture with an impressive plan.

As of now there is a lot of hammering out to go, but Universal has gotten a lot farther than Disney ever did.”

Tolkien aficionados would recall, of course, that the professor had a notoriously low estimation of the creative works of Walt Disney. Letter #13 in Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien makes his position clear:

“It might be advisable [...] to let the Americans do what seems good to them — as long as it was possible [...] to veto anything from or influenced by the Disney studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing).”

That’s not to say that Universal would fare any better with Tolkien Estate in any quest to create a Middle-earth theme park. The Estate is well-known to be wary of merchandising, and is currently engaged in a legal stoush with Warner Bros. and Saul Zaentz, alleging that the companies are merchandising beyond what was contractually agreed upon in the 1969 rights deal.

Micechat, a site that specialises in theme park news, claims Universal “is very close to acquiring the rights to develop and produce attractions based on the successful Lord of the Rings franchise of films”. So we might see whether there’s anything to this rumour quite soon.

Posted in J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Merchandise, Rumours Spy News, Tolkien Estate

Geek Dad’s Erik Wecks has some insight into the Tolkien Estate’s lawsuit

Christopher Tolkien

You may have read recently that the Tolkien Estate has brought a lawsuit against Warner Bros., regarding Warner Bros.’ marketing rights for Lord of the Rings and Hobbit products.  Our friend Erik Wecks has written a great piece for Geek Dad at Wired.com, clarifying some of the issues at stake and suggesting why the Tolkien Estate may have felt the need to take such action.  For fans of Tolkien’s work, just how far is too far – when does a franchise become a sell out?  Check out the excellent article here.

Posted in Hobbit Book, Lord of the Rings, LotR Books, Production, Studios, The Hobbit, Tolkien, Tolkien Estate, Warner Bros.

Tolkien Estate sues WB and Saul Zaentz

Tolkien Estate and HarperCollins are suing The Saul Zaentz Company and Warner Bros. Tolkien Estate alleges that the companies are merchandising beyond the bounds of what was agreed in the 1969 deal with the studio and rights holder Saul Zeantz.

“The original contracting parties thus contemplated a limited grant of the right to sell consumer products of the type regularly merchandised at the time (such as figurines, tableware, stationery items, clothing and the like). They did not include any grant of exploitations such as electronic or digital rights, rights in media yet to be devised or other intangibles such as rights in services,” says the 26-page complaint. (more…)

Posted in Christopher Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien, Studios, Tolkien, Tolkien Estate, Warner Bros.

New Eldalamberon from Elven Linguistic Fellowship

Parma Eldalamberon (The Book of Elven-tongues) is a journal of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship, a special interest group of the Mythopoeic Society. This new issue presents previously unpublished writings by J. R. R. Tolkien about an early version of one of his invented scripts, edited and annotated by Arden R. Smith, under the guidance of Christopher Tolkien and with the permission of the Tolkien Estate.

The Qenya Alphabet is an edition of Tolkien’s charts and notes dealing with the circa-1931 version of the writing-system later called Fëanorian Tengwar. It includes 40 documents in which Tolkien’s examples of the scripts are reproduced using electronic scans of black-and-white photocopies of the original manuscripts. (more…)

Posted in J.R.R. Tolkien, Languages, Silmarillion, Tolkien, Tolkien Estate

Steve Hillard’s ‘Mirkwood’ Coming to a Screen Near You?

More Tolkien on the big screen? This might not be what you had in mind, but… Remember Steve Hillard, the author of a controversial book ‘Mirkwood‘ which features JRR Tolkien as a fictional character? Well, after a series of legal wranglings, his lawsuit was settled with the Tolkien Estate, and  it looks like he has decided to adapt ‘Mirkwood‘ for the screen.

Here’s the exclusive story from The Hollywood Reporter:

Author Steve Hillard has signed a deal with EMO Films to develop and secure financing for a film version of his novel Mirkwood, which centers around a fictional version of The Lord of the Rings authorJ.R.R. Tolkien.

Emo’s Joel Eisenberg and Timothy Owens will executive produce the project.

“The adaptation of Mirkwood will follow the template of the novel,” said Hillard, “but will delve considerably deeper into Tolkien’s little-known back story, such as his original plans to become a codebreaker in World War II up through the writing of his enduring works.”

[Read the Full Story]

Posted in Creations, Fans, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Miscellaneous, Tolkien, Tolkien Estate