After the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the first installment of the Hobbit series fans were continuously debating if New Zealand director Peter Jackson were going to make a film version of The Silmarillion. Until now this topic was under a big question mark and not just because it is a book with an entirely different narrative structure. The main issue was the situation with the copyrights: as opposed to The Hobbit and LOTR the rights to Silmarillion are with Tolkien Estate and its head, Christopher Tolkien, son and literary heir to the Professor. Christopher Tolkien was known to be very reserved about movie versions of his fathers works. A stalemate until now.
Today an announcement was made which is going to give fans another chance to dive into the world of Middle-Earth on the big screen. Peter Jackson has struck a deal with Christopher Tolkien and will be directing The Silmarillion!
The most interesting aspect in this matter is of course Christopher Tolkiens motivation. The 88-year old son of John R. R. Tolkien who is living in France, was in fact blaming the Lord of the Rings film adaptation last year in an interview for its bad influence on the audience. Why did he change his mind? The reason was The Hobbit by Peter Jackson which opened this winter. Throughout the Net community an interesting phenomenon occured: many fans of Peter Jacksons LOTR trilogy didnt like the Hobbit movie. On the other hand, many purists who used to loathe PJs LOTR, were quite positive about The Hobbit. This phenomenon seems to be at work with Christopher as well. In his last interview to the French newspaper Le Monde he was unexpectedly full of praise for Peter Jacksons Hobbit:
- I already told that Peter Jackson eviscerated the [LOTR] book by turning it into an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25. But it is quite different with The Hobbit. This book was conceived by my father as a childrens book from the beginning. And to my great astonishment, the director made something deeply poetical and deep out of it. It is considerably closer to the spirit of Middle-Earth depicted in The Silmarillion and The Lost Tales, than the original Hobbit.
Christopher Tolkien described more precisely what he liked about The Hobbit.
- The thing of utmost importance to me was to prevent omissions from the original text. That was my major objection to The Lord of the Rings film. On The Hobbit, the script writers chose a different path: they extended it with the help of the materials from LOTR Appendices. This is a clear sign of the dedication of the filmmakers in studying the works of my father as well as of the seriousness of their approach. [
] But the main reason was the depiction of the Elves from Mirkwood and from Rivendell. In comparison with the faulted Lord of the Rings this is an entirely different matter. For the first time I have seen real Middle-Earth elves, the ones my father was writing about.
After this interview things went surprisingly fast. A few weeks after its publication Peter Jackson visited Christopher Tolkien in his estate in South France and they started first negotiations. The exact details remained secret until this morning, when Warner Bros. released the following press release.
PETER JACKSON ANNOUNCED TO DIRECT SILMARILLION
A MIDDLE-EARTH PREQUEL TRILOGY WILL OPEN 2015-2018
After successul negitiations between Peter Jackson (Wingnut Films) and Christopher Tolkien (Tolkien Estate) the Silmarillion film trilogy was greenlit. Pre-production work on it is scheduled to be started immediately after the premiere of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. The production companies will be Warner Bros., New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer.
The multiple Academy Award winning New Zealand director PETER JACKSON has effected an exclusive deal with Tolkien Estate about J.R.R. Tolkiens book The Silmarillion which was released posthumously. The film rights were exclusively granted to Peter Jacksons company Wingnut Films for realization as a film trilogy. Christopher Tolkien of Tolkien Estate will be involved as Executive Producer to maintain creative control over the work of his father.
Peter Jackson: I am very glad to have this chance to visit Middle-Earth yet unseen on film. What we showed you in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are just leftovers of the former epic events which happened during the First and the Second ages. The Silmarillion has many emotional stories and full-scale battles and I cant wait to show them to you. The War of Wrath is such an epic battle that our WETA artists will have to have some sweat over it.
Philippa Boyens, co-producer and co-writer: The script will not be an easy one. The Silmarillion is an entirely different book its like Middle-Earths Bible. But it has some excellent, very personal stories which we can translate into cinema language. The choir of Ainur you will be astonished about what we did to it. You will have tears in your eyes, I promise.
The script writers have support from an unexpected source. Christopher Tolkien, head of Tolkien Estate, literary heirs to J.R.R. Tolkiens works will be actively involved in the project, maintaining creative control.
Christopher Tolkien: To support the script writers in this uneasy task Tolkien Estate will support them in any way possible. We granted Peter Jackson access to the archives of the Bodleian Library which are closed for the public. On the other hand we received creative control over the script during the entire length of the project. I am sure, with united forces we shall create a film true to the spirit of my father, targeted for a more mature audience. After all this film will be another motivation for the viewers to read the original book.
In recreating the former glory of Middle-Earth, the landscapes of Beleriand, Numenor and Valinor the cinematographers team around PJ will once again rely on the unique New Zealand landscapes as well as WETAs team of designers. Also, the team of concept artists which consisted of Alan Lee and John Howe will have a new member. The Canadian Ted Nasmith who depicted the world of Silmarillion with an astounding level of detail and who twice declined the offer to work on Middle-Earth films, has finally agreed to collaborate with PJ.
Nasmith: Until recently I was sure I wouldnt be able to live in New Zealand for such a long time. However after visiting it I found out I was wrong this country is absolutely stunning. And after all when will I get the chance to work together with such amazing colleagues?
The pre-production work on The Silmarillion which will be created as a trilogy will commence immediately after the work on the second Hobbit film, The Desolation of Smaug and will occur simultaneously with the post-production of the third film, There and Back Again. As Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Peter Jackson will start working on the script, the WETA designers will start working on the appearance of the past ages of Middle-Earth.
Richard Taylor, WETA Workshop creative director: In Lord of the Rings we have witnessed the fall of the Third age of Middle-Earth; on The Hobbit we saw its Indian summer. On The Silmarillion we will see the young world of Arda. If you compare the costumes of the Elves who came to Helms Deep with those from the Battle of Last Alliance and those from the Exile from Valinor, youll see how the shape of their helmets has evolved over time. The difference is very subtle, but it is there.
Warner Bros. spokesman: We are very glad that Mr. Jackson and Mr. Tolkien have reached a mutual agreement and are looking forward to work on this project. We want to seize the opportunity when the Hobbit creative team is still assembled and ready to work. Therefore the work on The Silmarillion will start just after The Hobbit with the targeted release date for the first film set for December 2015.
As always, there will be old and new partnerships in merchandizing. The high-quality collectors statues and weapon replicas (like Grond, the mace of Morgoth; Ringil, the Sword of Fingolfin or Aiglos, the Spear of Gil-Galad) will be produced by WETA Workshop; the company Bridge Direct has secured licenses on action figurines (the first to arrive are Luthien riding on Huan and Eru conducting the Choir of the Ainur). Also, Warner Bros. struck a deal with McDonalds fast food chain: for each premiere of the Silmarillion films there will be special thematic menu creations (Noldor Burgers) as well as special gaming events (Collect three Silmarils and win a journey to New Zealand).
However, there are still unanswered questions. The titles for the individual installments are yet unknown. There is no information on probable actors who are to play such famous Silmarillion heroes like Beren, Luthien and Morgoth. The film company refuses any comment any questions on these topics.
