[LadyBrooke]

2a, This isn't about you.

I wasn't saying it was - I was referring to the fact that that would be unlike him, because it is a rather b***** stand to take. I didn't make that clear enough, that it would take somebody like me, who really enjoys it to do that. As I said in the third quote, he does have the right to stop due to all the hard work he's put in.

I don't think Christopher has given an interview for a very long time - maybe since the Silmarillion - there is a video on youtube - on anything.

I got slightly confused - it was not an interview, but rather a statement he released. While I cannot find the AP report itself, which had just the statement, and little of the speculation BBC includes, here is the BBC report in which he says he believes that "My own position is that 'The Lord Of The Rings' is peculiarly unsuitable to transformation into visual dramatic form." You don't release a statement saying that if you have no feelings.

I can't believe Christopher Tolkien is being slagged off for the films failings as well as everything else. He couldn't get more stick if he had burnt every last scrap of manuscript. Absolutely beggars belief... what do you want from the man? Blood?

And I can't believe that you have somehow managed to change a I wish he wanted to because it would have been a better movie into blaming him for the mistakes - I leave full blame for the mistakes on PJ. All I said was that I wished Christopher Tolkien had a more active role, because I believe it could have and would have been a better movie. I can understand why he didn't, because he is an old man. I could have easily said that I had wished J.R.R. Tolkien was still around, and would you be jumping on me for that? Because I do. I honestly wish a movie had been made while he was alive, so that he could have reacted to it. I could have said that I wished that J.R.R. Tolkien had a stricter contract sold (which I do) that left limits on what the filmmaker's could do. Do you now think that I blame a dead man for what went wrong with the movies? There's a difference between blaming somebody for want went wrong, and wishing they were there to keep it from getting that bad.

Originally Posted by Nerwen

I mean, film people don't like an author trying to drive the production from the back seat. I can't say I blame them, either.

I can say I blame them...if you don't want to stay true to the book, don't adapt a book for a script. And certainly don't claim you're adapting a book, and then go 180 degrees opposite of a book. Because to me, that shows disrespect for the book and the author. Perhaps I'm weird, but I don't think this movie or LotR will be/was an adaption of the books. I think they're a sort of glorified fanfic script, because they're not true to the book. I don't watch movies frequently, and if going to see an adaption of a book, I don't want to see dwarves with hammers hanging out of their heads, or every warrior from Lothlorien get slaughtered in a battle. The worst moments in the movies are when the script has no backing from Tolkien's writings.