Sunflower
Valinor
Feb 13 2008, 8:50pm
Views: 12969
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Look, let me state it again, I do NOT hate CT or the Estate. It's just that the TIMING of this whole thing has me suspicious of their motives. You state that it would be a good thing that the Estate got back the rights, so we could have the Tolkien family's "full blessing" to make the best Hobbit adaptation possible. But as several people have posted on here regarding CT and Priscilla's apparent attitude toward the films (Priscilla never saw them in a theater either, apparently, and makes you think that they went out of their way to rent them on a DVD, once the heat of media pressure was off? ) I have a hard time believing that they want any more adaptations to be made. That statement of CT's that NE Brigand referred to, dated December 10, 2001, that indicated that CT did not "disapprove" of the impending LOTR films (sight unseen by the world at that point), did not sound to me like a willingness to change his opinion and give them some grudging respect. It sounded to me like a bleated mea culpa, a polite nothing for the media who were pressuring him for a statement. Spoken like the gentleman he is, of course; but still, a statement forced under pressure. And not an indication of what he really felt. As to any statements made AFTER the film's release, we have not heard one peep. Sure, he isn't expected to give any, but all indications are that he has not changed his opinion one iota. And neither, it seems, has the Elder Echelon of the Tolkien family, who are the ones in control of this whole thing. Probably, anyway. Who was the one younger member of the family who spoke out in support of the films, and was disinherited soon after? The Family could simply have censured him in some way about making public statements of such a nature, if that was all he did wrong. But no, he was cast out. I'm sure they had some sort of private quarrel going on, we have no idea. God only knows. But you can bet that the films must have a been part of it. But the timing of that occurrence, too, makes me skeptical. As to Zaentz being an "ally" I did not mean in literal terms. I merely was trying to say that there seemed to me to be no apparent reason to brand him as an adversary in a lawsuit, either, IF this was a lawsuit about money, rather then one about getting the rights back. CT has indicated it is both. Or it seems to be. Both his timing and his methods seem to be duplicious--he is using Art to get Mammon, and versa vice. As to your opinions about CT.....yes, yes, we should thank him for all that he has given us, etc etc. Of course I agree. But he is NOT his father. And he is not God. I often wonder what his father would have thought of his attitude toward the films, if he had been alive. It seems to me his father was a LOT more open-minded. Again, I must refer, ad nauseum, to JRR statement about adaptations, music, art, etc etc. CT it seems to me, is acting as if Homer should be available only in print, and that anything else is pollution. His father would have been the first one to remind him that Homer began as a series of oral histories, and that in the Middle Ages, the spoken word was looked upon with more trust than a mere scroll on paper, which could be re-written. (a weird attitude, but if you think about it, it makes sense.) Should we really believe that JRR on his deathbed, gave to CT a sacred admonition to have the books be pre-eminent? ANd to get back the film rights at all cost, b/c he regretted ever selling them? Maybe he despised his father for selling them, no matter how cash-strapped the family was? Maybe he hated his father's doing that. His attitude mystifies me. Sorry if this speculation regarding the family offends anyone. I am not trying to offend anybody. I'm just trying to make sense of all this, and wishing I could have been a fly on the wall in so many places. And you don't have to drag out the NARF banner....(as someone said yesterday)....my collection of Tolkien works is just as dog-eared as yours, and will eventually fall just as apart with use too:). Yes, I have the utmost respect, sympathy, etc for CT< but at this point, The Estate's lack of HONESTY about its motives makes me cynical. I'd feel a lot better if they came out with a statement as to whether or not they were going to allow more films to be made. Of course, such a statement should be voluntary. And NOW is not the time,with the suit going on. But I have a nasty feeling that the only way we'd ever heard from them is if Warner's actualy tries to go ahead with the Hobbit. It is painful, I know, to see your decades of hard work superceded (albiet temporarily, though I am not so sure of that, in a global sense) by a series of films. I could understand that attitude. But I hope CT understands and appreciates that PJ took almost a decade of his life to make those too. It was not any easier than the task he had set upon, to edit and re-write and release his father's works. Sorry if this statement offends the book purists on here, and yes, I am not a PJ worshipper et al. And OF COURSE they don't owe the filmmakers anything, they don't even owe them even a whisper of public acknowledgement. It isn't their obligation; they don't have any obligation at all.
(This post was edited by Sunflower on Feb 13 2008, 8:59pm)
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