Alright, that's it

[serai]

.
I am never again buying a new copy of any Tolkien book.


Hobbit fans meet dire foe in son of Tolkien


From now on, my purchases will all be used. And I intend to write to the Tolkien Estate and tell them so. I may be only one lowly reader, but I can use my wallet to show my displeasure with their actions. My money will never again go to them or their publishers, and Christopher Tolkien can KISS MY ASS.

Comments

[belleferret.livejournal.com]

The most interesting thing in that article is it claims that Ian Holm will narrate!

[serai1.livejournal.com]

That was already known. What I find interesting is that CT is becoming more and more like Gollum as time goes by. The books are his Precious, and nobody else can touch them. Yeesh.

[laurelgardner.livejournal.com]

So...he's suing for profits from the first movies AND trying to keep new ones from being made?

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Yep. He wants to have his cake and eat it, too, looks like. What I can't understand is how he can make his entire living off those books and yet ignore the fact that MILLIONS of copies have been sold in the last eight years because of the films. There are hundreds of thousands of new Tolkien readers because of the films, but that doesn't matter to him. It also doesn't matter that he may be the cause of terrible disappointment to all those new readers.

Jesus Christ, the guy is becoming fucking Gollum, right before our eyes.

[samena.livejournal.com]

There are always people who have a stick up their arse, for whatever reason, and they feel the need to ruin it for everyone else. Maybe he's pissed off because he wasn't involved in the films, so now he's rejecting them and being a total arse. And of course he wants money. It's always about money in the end, isn't it. Blergh.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, basically. I'm less and less inclined to swallow that crap about "protecting his father's legacy", since it really seems to be about HIM making money off the properties and nobody else. Methinks he's just too special a snowflake to let his cash-cow be turned into anything as lowly as a movie.

[samena.livejournal.com]

He's a little late with that, isn't he? He should have thought of that *before* PJ turned the books into these wonderful, very successful movies. CT is just miffed that he didn't think of it first.

[ink-gypsy.livejournal.com]

He has a problem with the films, yet he's greedy enough to sue for his share of the profits from them. And I'm sure his "integrity" didn't stop him from enjoying the money from new sales of his father's books in the last ten years, sales generated because of the trilogy. What a hypocrite.

I'll bet that when Tolkien Sr. sold those rights in 1969, it included The Hobbit, so Junior's probably pissed he didn't get the chance to sell them now for more money than his father got.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. I can see being ticked off if New Line said he'd get a share and then weaseled out. (Although how that's supposed to square with his ivory-tower refusal to "get involved" with the films, I don't know.) But this shit about going to court to stop anyone from ever making films of the books again - that's fucked up.

I understand that his dad wrote them and all, but the guy (like many of the book fans) treats this stuff like it's the friggin' Bible or something. They're just stories. They're fiction. There's no reason why an accomplished filmmaker shouldn't have the right to seek to make the films. If he doesn't want to sell rights to the remaining properties, okay fine. We can hope the younger generation of the family will be saner about it. But this crap about going back on the contract that HIS father signed, which sold the rights to The Hobbit, while simultaneously suing someone else for (supposed) breach of contract - for gods sakes, who does this guy think he is, anyway?

And the rights definitely included The Hobbit. That's why Rankin/Bass was able to make the animated version, and why MGM still owns the distribution rights. As you say, he's just pissed off that he can't sell the rights for $50M. I guess the enormous windfall that's come his way over the last ten years just isn't good enough - maybe he's come to realize that book publishing just isn't where the money is anymore, and he's livid about it.

[celandine-g.livejournal.com]

Hasn't anyone told him that you can't take it with you (unless he knows something I don't, LOL)? I mean at his age and with more money than I am sure he can spend in his remaining years, what the fuck is the point? Why is he not just enjoying his life?

At least, were I his age, the last place I would be spending my remaining years would be fighting New Line lawyers in some dreary court room. I would be walking along the beach, or exploring the desert or collecting flowers in some mountain meadow or learning to paint or just enjoying the delights of my library.

God, man, wake up!

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

This makes me bitterly regret that I bought anything produced by CT and/or the publishers of Tolkien's works over the past few years. The man's being a total knob, imho. I could see using the making of these films as leverage in a lawsuit to recover the money he's owed (though I'd be grumpy about it, tbh), but anything beyond that is just very stupid, imho.

I'm going away now, before I say anything I'll seriously regret about the stuffy, greedy old blighter.

Catherine