[LadyBrooke]

Originally Posted by Galin

Very well, but I think you still implied at least (through your wish, even if unintended), that Christopher Tolkien 'should' have done something that he didn't, something that only possibly might have changed the films into some measure of better, which judging by the reactions on the web, 'better' for a film being quite subjective in the first place.

Well, I try to never read implieds into anything anybody says on a forum - for one thing, tone of voice (which is crucial to how I communicate....I have different tones of voice for almost everything, and my friends very quickly catch on to them.), facial expressions, and personalities don't translate well - I am on of those people who likes what ifs, and I tend to comment on them.

Not that you said otherwise, but Christopher Tolkien, at any age, is also entitled to his opinion about the suitability of the book being adapted for film, and we have no reason to not believe him.

And I agree with him - quite frankly, I think the Hobbit, judging by facts and pictures so far released by PJ, is one of those films that at the least, can not be adapted by any film maker who is a slave to the current perception of public wants (and judging by Tauriel and the inclusion of Legolas, I believe PJ by now is one. As I said at the end of my post, I believe that filmmaker's who adapt things have a responsibility to keep them as close to the original as possible. If and when PJ fails this, he deserves scorn, IMO.

Plus, as you're talking about mights and maybes here, any involvement would also maybe (which I think likely actually) result in the filmmakers claiming (something like): 'and we had Christopher Tolkien's input too' generalizing in the extreme and giving their films a false sense of 'authorization' even in some measure.

Don't they already do this to an extent? I remember there being a hoopla on other quarters of the internet about how they got Alan Lee and the others to work on the film, so it was automatically a good adaption. As it stands, they've managed to turn it into a poor oppressed by the author's son situation. On here, we all know the work Christopher has done. Go on some of the other forums, and you'll find people saying that he's done nothing and is oppressing poor PJ. I can't say that I agree with Christopher Tolkien on all counts, but he ranks higher then PJ for me, just because when he messes something up (like Gil-galad's heritage) he doesn't shoot off about how it improves it, he fesses up and admits it. PJ one the other hand, tends to oh it improved it and made it so much better.

And considering how poor I think these adaptations are (and I obviously cannot speak for Christopher Tolkien), 'better' would need to be significantly better, possibly starting with rewrites on page one, and a wholly different take on certain characters, tone, focus, action, 'modernization' and humor.

Agreed - which is why I said that a contract would have been a must in that situation. I don't blame him for not wanting to get into it, especially since even with a contract, there are never assurances of not getting screwed over anyways. Personally, I agree Christopher - I don't think the books are well suited to screen. Not as long as people prefer hot women and action, over plots and characterization.

I'm not in the camp of 'never try' to better something even if things seem unlikely, but afterall this is a film (hyperbole alert) not world hunger, and I think your wish places Christopher Tolkien into a potentially unwanted situation; and it's not the first film based on Tolkien's work, won't be the last, and certainly isn't alone among various interpretations from various fields of art.

As an aside, you'll find that I don't like most of the interpretations - I recently worked on a Silm guide for a website, and had to track down artwork for it. By the time we were all finished, we were all nearly insane from that art. That's an aside that really has nothing to do with CT or the films...just, don't search DA if you're not prepared to run across some truly horrible "interpretations" of his works.

I don't see how my wish places anybody anywhere - it was a pondering of a hypothetical, which has no real power. As far as I know, I am not the goddess of movie making or script writing.