Caffeinated Clint
New Tolkein book may become a movie, too
Another J.R Tolkien novel looks set to get the big-screen treatment – but first, its got to sell as a book first.
Tolkien’s son and literary executor Christopher, now in his eighties, constructed “The Children of Hurin” from his father’s manuscripts, and said he tried to do so “without any editorial invention”, says Reuters.
Already told in fragmentary form in “The Silmarillion”, which appeared in 1977, the new book is darker than “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”, for which Tolkien is best known.
“It’s not Harry Potter,” said David Brawn, director at Tolkien publisher HarperCollins, a division of News Corp.
The story is set long before “The Lord of the Rings” in a part of Middle-earth that was drowned before Hobbits ever appeared, and tells the tragic tale of Turin and his sister Nienor who are cursed by Morgoth, the first Dark Lord.
He told Reuters that Christopher, who does not give interviews, wanted to put the spotlight back on Tolkien’s writing after Peter Jackson’s hugely popular film trilogy based on “The Lord of the Rings”.
Hollywood studios are eager to buy the film rights of the new book, according to Brawn.
“We all want this first and foremost to enjoy life as a book,” said Brawn. “No one’s saying never to a film (but) the film rights are reserved by the estate. We want to see what reaction it gets and then let it run its course.”
