Tolkien Family No Longer Controlling Tolkien Estate

Christopher Tolkien resigned from the Tolkien Estate on August 29 leaving control of his father's work more or less in the hands of lawyers and other non-family members. The 93 year was one of the leading officers that controlled the rights of Tolkien's work. Other then the movie rights and related merchandise, including video games, the Estate rarely granted rights to others. The movie rights themselves were basically a mistake as the 1969 deal that eventually gave rise to the Peter Jackson movies was done at a time when the concept of Intellectual Property (IP) was still new and not really being exploited in a way we understand today. For example, back then something like coke can didn't have to be hidden on screen nor permission to be used granted in advance. Today showing that same can would require the company signing off on how its used, the story line its shown in, how long its on screen and other details which is why some objects get stickers and other things to hide their logos and other IP attributes).

Christopher Tolkien has long hated the fact his father's work (other family members have indicated they liked the movies) were being re-interpreted by Hollywood. He fairly frequently bashed the Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth movies for not staying close enough to the novels and probably would have tried to revoke that 1969 contract if he could. Instead he simply sued the studio on a number of occasions with the last lawsuit being settled for $80 million - after Christopher Tolkien resigned.

This brings us to why this news matters to Middle-Earth fans. He was probably the one and only blockade preventing the Tolkien works from being exploited for their maximum value by Hollywood and other interested parties. The just announced Amazon TV deal is likely the direct result of his resignation as unlikely he would have signed off on it. I would not be the least bit surprised if the other Estate officers overriding his wishes led to the resignation. What this will mean in the long term remains unknown but I suspect we will see merchandise and other related works showing up in a wide variety of places that was not available before. Whether this turns out for the better for Tolkien's work is too early to say.

The Middle-Earth Family Tree

Emil Johansson has recently started the website LOTR Project that attempts to put together all the relationships in Middle-Earth that goes beyond The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and includes everything Tolkien wrote. The result is an impressive family tree table that isn't even completed as he continues to work on it. He tells The One Ring, "The first family tree I made was probably six years ago and consisted of two huge papers, 1 by 1 meters. I quickly realized this was something I wanted to share, but my knowledge of the web was too poor to allow it. I was not until November last year that I decided to give it a try. Even though much of the research already had been done, programming the site and adding the characters into the database have taken a lot of time. Too much for me to want to think about it." It is a must view site for any die hard Tolkien fan. Click here to check it out.

Stephen Fry Talks Tolkien with Peter Jackson

The Master of Laketown, Stephen Fry, sits down with Peter Jackson to talk about JRR Tolkien with The Hobbit director Peter Jackson at the Bag End set at the Hobbiton location. In the interview for Fry's "Planet Word" they discuss the language and writing style of Tolkien. If in the UK, can get the BBC stream here or on YouTube (also below). (via TheOneRing)

BBC Tolkien Interview Available Online

BBC has placed online a 27 minute interview with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings writer JRR Tolkien from March 30th, 1968. Below is the synopsis of the video.

John Izzard meets with JRR Tolkien at his home, walking with him through the Oxford locations that he loves while hearing the author’s own views about his wildly successful high-fantasy novels. Tolkien shares his love of nature and beer and his admiration for ‘trenchermen’ in this genial and affectionate programme. The brief interviews with Oxford students that are dotted throughout reveal the full range of opinions elicited by ‘The Lord of the Rings’, from wild enthusiasm to mild contempt.

Click here to watch the interview. (via OneRing)