"Children of Hurin" heading to big screen?

peter jackson? maybe?...hmm...well there is always hope it could get made by the right peeps

They could make every one of Tolkein's books into a movie and I would see every single one. And I'd hope Peter Jackson's name is perennially attached to anything and everything Middle Earth. I just hope he can find a way to reconcile with New Line.

Since the movie rights haven't been sold yet, maybe a different studio can pick it up and sign Jackson to do it. I'd like to see every Tolkien story turned into a movie too. Only problem is that they would all be very expensive to produce, and I'm not sure how wide of an audience they could get outside of LotR and The Hobbit. One Tolkien story with a good chance of translating well to the big screen takes place completely outside of Middle Earth - namely Farmer Giles of Ham. I always saw John Cleese in the title role, though he's a bit too old for it now.

Considering previous comments and such, I think the possibility of this book being turned into a movie can be summed up with this: Over Christopher Tolkien's dead body.

Well, I think it would be prudent to read the book first before getting excited about a film adaptation.

"Over Christopher Tolkien's dead body." Well, he is 82...

snallygaster...I don't think finding an audience for the films would be a problem. Just look at the box office business the LOTR trilogy did. The audience is there and would turn out in droves to see another LOTR-based film, especially if directed by Jackson.

Yes, but most casual fans of Tolkien don't get past LotR and The Hobbit. They may try to slog their way through The Silmarillion but they usually don't enjoy it. And it's not just the cumbersome writing style. Most of the stories in The Silmarillion and the unfinished tales don't involve Hobbits. The Hobbits served as a "everyman" role in The Hobbit and LotR, which made the stories more relatable to the readers. I always found those stories to be more distant from the reader - about elves, and kings, and powerful godlike entities, generally lacking the warmth and humor found in Tolkien's more accessable works. Just as a parallel, remember that one of the valid criticisms of the Star Wars prequel series is that it lacked that sort of "everyman" point of view provided in the original trilogy by Han. It helps to have that sort of character to draw the audience in. I'm not saying that movies can't be made from Tolkien's other Middle Earth stories. I just think it's a much more risky venture than the LotR trilogy.

I see your point, especially when it comes to reading Tolkien's works, but I don't believe that holds true for movies quite as much. Screenplays can be written around certain story arcs and add whatever's needed to make the movie entertaining. If a trailer for a Tolkien movies shows similar scenes and has the overall feel of LOTR with Jackson's name attached and WETA doing the effects (for those of us who follow those things), it's going to be a box office heavyweight. The god-awful (that's just my opinion) Star Wars prequels were blasted by many critics and fans alike and still made tons of money at the box office because it was "Star Wars." I agree that the prequels lacked the everyman point of view (among many other things), but you can't deny that fans flocked to the theaters anyway.

J.R.R. Tolkien himself although interested in the potential of his stories being turned into films was very concerned about studios staying true to the story as he had presented it. In particular he did not want Disney getting their hands on any of his material and sanitizing it with their own vision. Since Tolkien was something of a friend of C.S. Lewis one might wonder what he would have thought of the latest Narnia film. Christopher Tolkien in trying to stay true to his father's vision would not let the rights to any of the material beyond LOTR and The Hobbit go to any studio easily. Those two had already had the rights sold long long ago and there is nothing to be done about that. I had heard there were to be two films to come, one being The Hobbit and the other being something else presumably between The Hobbit and LOTR to bridge the gap between the two, perhaps being called The Hobbit 2 or something of the sort. It would be unclear what material it would draw from since they would be hard pressed to procure the rights to anything else. Who would then write such a thing? This all being said Children of Hurin sounds as if it might make as good a film as anything else in all the Middle Earth material, but then again I'm not under the impression that Christopher was particularly impressed or pleased with Peter Jackson's films or any of the earlier cartoon films and hard core Tolkien fans were often not very pleased with changes Jackson made to the stories. I myself have mixed feelings, but can see why some of that might have been done. Other genre fans I know agree that some if not most of the changes helped make it better or at least more popular for today's audiences. Jackson's involvement is important to the majority of these folks, but if he cannot be brought in bacause of a falling out with the studio then someone else whom we might trust such as Raimi might do very well. There is a lot of debate about the "everyman" aspect of these books and Star Wars and that seems to be a valid point. Just as seemingly valid is the so called cumbersome writing style that Tolkien used. Hey he wrote this stuff as if it was a history and all og the notes he left concerning Middle Earth were details of things that happened or were in existence. It is praiseworthy that Christopher could have compiled all of this in any form that would make sense to any of us. Who could know better that he his father's vision of this fantasy world? The Hobbit and LOTR at least have character development that most of the rest lack. I mean the whole LOTR story takes up about a paragraph in The Silmarillion, which only mentions the few details that are important in light of the history of Middle Earth. How would you ever turn such a thing into a film. You would have to make a huge series of films and have other writers flesh out all the personal details of characters who were involved. Who could do that and remain true to any vision of this world even remotely similar to Tolkien's. Personally I skip around in The Silmarillion just reading of parts that strike my interest, but it's like reading a historical textbook with fantasy elements.