In a recent appearance at Cannes, filmmaker Peter Jackson says he and studio WB are trying to get movie rights to The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion is a collection of tales from the First and Second Ages of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings mythology. Whilst the movie rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were sold off while Tolkien was still alive, there was no actual published material outside of these stories. It was not until the death of Tolkien that his son Christopher took it upon himself to collect and edit the greater mythology that Tolkien was building up until his death. This collection was published posthumously under the title The Silmarillion.
Whilst he lived, Christopher was dead against selling any rights to this work, and he was no fan of any types of adaptations at all. However, since his death, we have had that travesty that is The Rings of Power and now it seems there could be more on the way.
You can watch the Peter Jackson video here on Instagram via Deadline. But if you’d rather just have the details, I’ve got you.
Jackson said that a “combination of Warner’s and us have been talking to the younger Tolkien members about the possibility of actually licensing some of the rights to the other books.”
Bear in mind all the other books relating to Middle-earth were published posthumously.
He also referenced how Christopher Tolkien oversaw the editing and publication of works such as The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, adding that there is “a lot more Tolkien writing that would actually make great movies.” Whilst mentioning that whilst Christopher was against this, the new, younger custodians of the Tolkien Estate seem to be more open.
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Frankly, I dislike this and it feels like the younger Tolkien generation cashing in to Hollywood. They are well within their rights to do so and who am I to tell them otherwise. As a fan of their grandfather’s work though, I honestly don’t think he’d want this turned into film.
Unfinished Tales is, unfinished tales that Tolkien never fitted in or decided upon the version he would use. The real prize is the material Christopher edited together into the best narrative he could in The Silmarillion.
What to Expect?
The most likely period to mine in that book is the end of the First Age. A period of 530+ years (not a long time to Elves) where the Noldor Elves who had rebelled against the Valar and followed Feanor back to Middle-earth to go to war with Morgoth do just that. It’s a story of many moving parts and the creation and ultimate fall of great Kingdoms. Until at the very end the Elves and men (who appear first during this time) look for pardon and aid from the Valar, who defeat and capture Morgoth.
Morgoth being the Satan type figure in the mythology and far greater (in his beginning) than Sauron who was his chief Lieutenant .
There’s enough material there for ten movies. However, much of it is written as a historical record. Therefore, only the major characters are named and have dialogue worthy of recording by the Elves.
My fear is that they won’t do it well and that it’s tonally a much different story from the one we pick up in The Lord of the Rings. The LOTR movies were decent, but I’ll still always prefer the story told in the books. The Hobbit movies were poor and added too much fan fiction into them and the less said about Rings of Power the better.
Oh well, what do you think of Peter Jackson and WB in talks for the rights to The Silmarillion? Thoughts below.
