It may be C. S. Lewis’s birthday today, but it’s fellow Inkling J.R.R. Tolkien who’s getting all the headlines in Hollywood. There are plans afoot to film his life story.
The Los Angeles Times reports —
“Tolkien,” as the project is tentatively called, will examine the author’s life, particularly his formative years at Pembroke College and as a soldier in World War I, and how it influenced him and his work, according to a person familiar with the project who was not authorized to talk about it publicly.
David Gleeson, a Tolkien superfan and scholar of sorts about the Middle-earth creator, is currently working on the script. The movie will be produced by Peter Chernin ‘s Chernin Entertainment (“The Heat,” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) and set up at Fox Searchlight.
The Times says it’s unknown how much cooperation the project is receiving from the Tolkien estate, which threw obstacles in the way of another stalled-in-development film titled Mirkwood, “a fantastical look at [Tolkien’s] work as a codebreaker during WWII.”
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Humphrey Carpenter’s biography of Tolkien induced yawns from this reader. I don’t know if the facts of his life were dulled to please the estate, but Tolkien’s inner life was far more interesting.
All of the biographies I read (three or four of them) were dull and relatively uniformative about anything other than obvious facts about Tolkien’s life and the publishing history of his books … all but one. It presented a far more engrossing look into the man’s life and beliefs. … and I gather that one provokes snarls and invective from true believers. For better or worse, it would make a far more interesting bio pic, though.
Because it was idiotic and badly written, and nothing original that it said was true. That enough of a reason?
And the title of it is?
“Tolkien, A Biography” by Michael White, New American Library/Penguin, 2003, $13.95. But you must promise not to read it!
No, sure, read it. Have a big laugh. Read Fredric Wertham’s “Seduction of the Innocent” and “The World of Fanzines” while you’re at it, and laugh at those too. But don’t imagine that the author knows anything about fandom, or that the unnformed reader would learn anything about it from them.
For the objections are not about being a “believer”, but about knowing the subject. There’s a lot factually known about Tolkien’s life and beliefs, and White is a bumbling fool in the area. Sure, his story might make a cute movie, but, like most movies, not to be relied on for any facts.
On Amazon,h alf of the reviews for White’s biography are negative. I’ll stick the the Twain autobiography and the Pratchett I am reading.