Kristin Thompson writes: After several months of raised and dashed hopes, the question of who will direct the film of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit remains open. I first weighed in on the question back on October 2 of last year, when this blog was in its infancy. MGM had just announced that they would be making The Hobbit and hoped that Peter Jackson would direct. At that point I was trying to sort out Peter Jackson’s large number of film projects and to explain how his schedule might include time to direct The Hobbit. Subsequently there was a clarification. MGM, which owns the distribution rights to any film version of the novel, would co-produce with New Line, which produced The Lord of the Rings and owns the filmmaking rights for The Hobbit. [More]
Category: Books Publications
Harry Potter’s moon-faced mug is plastered all over the front doors of the Borders bookstore in Altamonte Springs. A life-sized rendering of the star Quidditch Seeker stands just inside the store entrance, and the sales staff wears lanyards bearing more signs of Harry’s seventh coming. Area booksellers can be forgiven for baiting their hooks as the July 21 release of the seventh and final book in J.K. Rowling’s series approaches. But in the meantime, a much older — and some say wiser — wizard has risen from a grave deep beyond Middle-earth. This one has slashed through the Hogwarts hoopla and claimed lordship of the best-seller ring, provoking glee among legions of his mostly older, Hobbit-formed fans. [More]
Claire writes: A new translation of the ‘Mabinogion’ by Sioned Davies, Professor of Welsh at Cardiff University, has just been published. These Welsh tales appear in ‘The Tolkien Fan’s Medieval Reader’ by Turgon, though in an older translation. If you’d like to read a modern one, try this version. There’s a review, by the first national poet of Wales, Gwyneth Lewis, from the Guardian newspaper at books.guardian.co.uk.
You can buy a copy on line at all the usual outlets – one which specializes in Welsh books is Gwales at www.gwales.com. If you want the link to this book on the Gwales site, it’s here.
Mary writes: I found this in Time Out & thought you’d be interested in this. The new book by Tao Lin, Eeeee Eee Eeee, features a group of dolphins who are plotting to assassinate Elijah Wood & other celebrites. How was Elijah chosen for this plot? Rest easy, the author doesn’t hate Elijah, in fact, “I like Elijah Wood. I don’t want to kill him,” he says. “The dolphins probably wanted to murder him because he’s small and easy to kill. He seems pretty gullible.” LOL!! Read the whole article here.
Order ‘Eeeee Eee Eeee’ at Amazon.com today!
It will be an important and historical day in Tolkien history when the new book, “The Children of Hurin” goes on sale. It will be even more significant for a few hundred people who manage to snag a copy signed by Christopher Tolkien and illustrator Alan Lee! At the Manhattan’s Barnes & Noble (555 Fitfh Ave., between 45th & 46th streets) fans will start lining up at 8 a.m. to get one of the rarest of rare, highly coveted copies. TheOneRing.net will be on hand to distribute edible breakfast stuff to keep fans alive until the book goes on sale at noon. Better yet, the first 500 fans in line will get a great (and we mean great) prize from Sideshow Collectibles!
Our friends at Sideshow Collectibles have a surprise (except that we just let it slip) for the first 500 people attending. This is no promotional trinket, but is worth virtually what an unsigned book costs. (What the signed books might sell for on Ebay is anybody’s guess.) In addition Sideshow has provided 10 or so bigger prize items for a lucky few and Turbine Inc., producers of the ready-to-launch online Tolkien game “The Lord of the Rings Online” have another dozen grand prizes. (Something do to with the game perhaps?!) So, in the course of waiting for the almost unthinkably cool copy of “Children of Hurin” signed by J.R.R. Tolkien’s son and literary heir, Christopher Tolkien, TheOneRing.net, courtesy of Houghton-Mifflin, Sideshow Collectibles and Turbine Inc. will distribute many thousands of dollars worth of prizes!
Barnes & Noble will have a security agent on hand and all people participating in the 8 a.m. line are expected to behave in an orderly and polite fashion. Our goal is to make an event out of the greatest Tolkien literary event in 30 years! (Not to disrupt business.)
Those TORnados planning to attend (part of the greater Tolkien public sure to attend) please go to Barnes & Noble line party and sign up. This will help us know how much breakfast stuff to plan for! Rumour has it that the publisher may rally local media and we definitely want to show the world that the Tolkien era is far from over and the heady days of Hollywood blockbusters was just another stage in many decades of Tolkien fandom. See you there!
Rick writes: I wanted to inform you good folks that there is a new academic book soon to debut, entitled: ‘Lord of the Rings : Popular Culture in Global Context’. I am an academic librarian at the University of Guam library, and found this listing in a new books catalog. Though academic in its underpinnings, it has the kind of interest and appeal that would make it very good for most readers, particularly older ones. [More]