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The Lord of the Rings, an epic high fantasy novel by the British author J. R. R. Tolkien, set in his fictional world of Middle-earth, has been adapted for various media multiple times.
[edit] FilmThree film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings have been made. The first was The Lord of the Rings (1978), by animator Ralph Bakshi, the first part of what was originally intended to be a two-part adaptation of the story. The second, The Return of the King (1980), was a television special by Rankin-Bass. The third was director Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, released in three instalments as The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). [edit] Early effortsIn 1957, Tolkien received a film proposal from Forrest J. Ackerman, Morton Grady Zimmerman, and Al Brodax. The proposed film, a mix of animation, miniature work, and live action, was to be three hours long with two intermissions. Tolkien was enthusiastic about the film's concept art, described as akin to Arthur Rackham rather than Walt Disney[1] whose works Tolkien intensely disliked.[2] However, Tolkien was dissatisfied with the script[3] and the financial arrangements which would have brought him little profit. Thus the project was turned down.[4][5] Tolkien criticized the script for divergence to the tone of the book (such as a "fairy-tale" depiction of Lothlórien, as well as elements cut "upon which [the book's] characteristic and peculiar tone principally depends") and character representation (such as Sam leaving Frodo to Shelob and going on to Mount Doom alone). He also took issue with dialogue changes as regards to the "style and sentiment" of characters, and with intercutting between the storylines of Frodo and Aragorn. He suggested eliminating the battle of Helm's Deep to better emphasize the defense of Minas Tirith, as well as cutting characters out instead of diminishing their roles. Tolkien protested against added "incantations, blue lights, and some irrelevant magic" and "a preference for fights".[5] Contrary to widespread word to the contrary, the film rights to The Lord of the Rings were never held by Walt Disney [6] In fact, Tolkien deeply disliked Disney's adaptations of fairy tales. The film rights were sold by Tolkien to United Artists in 1969. The Beatles planned to do a live-action version with Paul McCartney as Frodo Baggins, Ringo Starr as Sam Gamgee, George Harrison as Gandalf, and John Lennon as Gollum - but those plans came to nothing[7]. It has been said that Stanley Kubrick briefly considered filming the trilogy, but rejected the project as too immense.[8] In the 1970s John Boorman was contracted by United Artists to direct an adaptation that would have collapsed the entire story into a single film.[9] Boorman corresponded with Tolkien about the project.[5][10] In the script by Boorman and Rospo Pallenberg, many new elements have been inserted or modified. Among other things, Gimli is put in a hole and beaten so he can retrieve the password to Moria from his ancestral memory, Frodo and Galadriel have sexual intercourse, Arwen is made into a teenaged spiritual guide with her role as Aragorn's love interest wholly transferred to Éowyn, and Aragorn’s healing of Éowyn takes place on the battlefield and given sexual overtones.[5][10][11] The project ultimately proved too expensive to finance at that time. Again collaborating with Pallenberg, Boorman later made the Arthurian epic Excalibur where he used special effects techniques and locations intended for the Tolkien project.[5][10][11] Materials pertaining to Ackerman/Zimmerman/Brodax and Boorman's treatments, as well as Ralph Bakshi's (below) are stored in the Tolkien papers collection of Marquette University.[5] [edit] Animated filmsMain articles: The Lord of the Rings (1978 film) and The Return of the King (1980 film) Filmmaker Ralph Bakshi was introduced to the work of J. R. R. Tolkien by a director at Terrytoons in 1956. In 1957, he started trying to obtain the rights by convincing producers that the books could be animated.[12] Following John Boorman's attempt to adapt the books, Bakshi proposed that United Artists produce the story as three animated films.[9] Bakshi and Dan Melnick, then-president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, made a deal with United Artists to purchase the film rights to the story for $3 million, but the deal fell through when Melnick was fired from MGM.[9] Bakshi contacted Saul Zaentz, who had helped finance Fritz the Cat, and persuaded him to produce The Lord of the Rings. United Artists agreed to produce the story as two films.[9] Voice actors included Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes and John Hurt. The film incorporated the use of rotoscoping, brief snippets of cel animation, and live-action footage mixed with animation. Bakshi later regretted his use of the rotoscoping technique, stating that he made a mistake by tracing the source footage rather than using it as a guide.[13] Once the film was completed, Bakshi was told that audiences would not pay to see an incomplete film, and The Lord of the Rings was released without any indication that a second part would follow, in spite of Bakshi's objections.[9][14] The film cost $4 million to produce and grossed $30.5 million at the box office.[15] Film critic Leonard Maltin said that it was one of only two major commercial successes in Bakshi's career, the other being Fritz the Cat.[16] Despite this, the studio refused to fund the sequel, which would have picked up half-way through the story and adapted the remainder of the book.[9] The Lord of the Rings won the Golden Gryphon at the 1980 Giffoni Film Festival.[17] In 1980, Rankin/Bass produced an animated adaptation of The Return of the King,[18] based on their own concepts previously applied to their earlier animated adaptation of The Hobbit. [edit] New Line Cinema filmsMain article: The Lord of the Rings film trilogy Miramax Films developed a full-fledged live action adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, with Peter Jackson as director. Eventually, with Miramax owner Disney becoming increasingly uneasy with the sheer scope of the proposed project, Jackson was given the opportunity to find another studio to take over. In 1999, New Line Cinema assumed production responsibility (while Miramax executives Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein retained on-screen credits as executive producers). The three films were shot simultaneously. They featured extensive computer-generated imagery, including major battle scenes utilizing the "Massive" software program. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was released on December 19, 2001, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on December 18, 2002 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King worldwide on December 17, 2003. All three won the Hugo Award for Best (Long-form) Dramatic Presentation in their respective years. The films were met with both critical and commercial success. Jackson's adaptations garnered seventeen Oscars, four for The Fellowship of the Ring, two for The Two Towers, and eleven for The Return of the King; these covered many of the award categories. The Return of the King in fact won all of the eleven awards for which it was nominated, including Best Picture. With a total of 30 nominations, the trilogy also became the most-nominated in the Academy's history, surpassing the Godfather series' 28. Its 11 Oscars at the 2004 Academy Awards tied it for most awards won for one film with Titanic six years earlier and the 1959 version of Ben-Hur. It also broke the previous "sweep" record, beating Gigi and The Last Emperor (which each took 9 out of 9). The Return of the King also made movie history as the highest grossing film opening on a Wednesday and was the second film after Titanic to earn over US$1 billion worldwide. The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is widely and currently considered to be the most popular [19] and is verified to be the currently highest grossing motion picture trilogy worldwide of all time, evidenced by its earning close to $3-billion (US) [20], besting other notable franchises such as the original Star Wars trilogy (without adjustment for inflation) and the Harry Potter series. The film trilogy also set a record for the total number of Academy Awards won, tallying a total of seventeen Oscars.[21] Critical acclaim has commonly hailed the trilogy as "the greatest films of our era," [22] and "the trilogy will not soon, if ever, find its equal." [23] On the other hand, some readers of the book decried certain changes made in the adaptation, including changes in tone,[24][25] various changes made to characters such as Aragorn, Arwen, Denethor and Faramir, as well as to the main protagonist Frodo himself, and the deletion of the next to the last chapter of Tolkien's work, "The Scouring of the Shire".[26], a part he himself felt thematically necessary. The trilogy's defenders assert that it is a worthy interpretation of the book, most changes stemming from the filmmakers putting the book into a modern context[citation needed], rearranging the events into a chronologically linear narrative (as opposed to Tolkien separating the two main story threads into two separate parts for The Two Towers and most of The Return of the King), and their perceived need for developing characters further or for sheer timing issues.[citation needed] In any case, the films proved popular with general audiences (i.e. non-readers) and readers alike. [edit] Fan filmsThe Hunt for Gollum, a fan film based on elements of the appendices to The Lord of the Rings, was released on the internet in May 2009. It is set between the events of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, and depicts Aragorn's quest to find Gollum. The film's visual style is based on that of the Jackson films. Although it is completely unofficial, it has received coverage in major media.[27] Another fan made film, Born of Hope, is scheduled to be released online on December 1. [edit] StageMain article: The Lord of the Rings (musical) Several musical theatre adaptations have been made based on The Lord of the Rings. Full-length productions of each of The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003) were staged in Cincinnati, Ohio [1]. Lifeline Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, produced individual plays of each of the three books over various years in the 1990s. In 2006, a very large-scale three-and-a-half-hour musical was produced in Toronto. The expensive production lost money and closed six months later and, after some cutting and rewriting, began performances in London in May 2007. It re-opened to mixed reviews [2]. [edit] Audio[edit] 1955-1956 radio playIn 1955 and 1956, the BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings, a 12-part radio adaptation of the story. In The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien Tolkien disparages the radio dramatization of The Lord of the Rings, referring to the portrayal of Tom Bombadil as "dreadful" and complaining bitterly about several other aspects of the dramatization.[28] No recording of the 1956 series is known to exist. [edit] WBAI radio adaptationIn the early 1960s radio station WBAI-FM, New York, broadcast a short adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, with music. This version, which had not been authorized by Tolkien, was later suppressed by his legal representatives. [edit] 1979 radio playA 1979 dramatization of The Lord of the Rings was broadcast in the USA and subsequently issued on tape and CD. No cast or credits appear on the audio packaging. Each of the actors was apparently recorded separately and then the various parts were edited together. Thus, unlike a BBC recording session where the actors are recorded together, none of the cast are actually interacting with each other; the performances suffer badly as a result. [edit] 1981 radio playIn 1981 the BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings, a new, ambitious dramatization in 26 half-hour instalments. It starred Ian Holm as Frodo Baggins, the protagonist; he would play Bilbo Baggins, his character's cousin/uncle, in the live-action trilogy. [edit] 1990 unabridged readingIn 1990 British actor Rob Inglis read/performed an unabridged version for Recorded Books. While not strictly an adaptation, Inglis created voices for all of the characters. And along with project producer Claudia Howard, he created music for all of the songs, which he performed. The project took six weeks to record, plus preparation time. A year later he recorded an audio version of The Hobbit. [edit] References
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