If a long time reader, you have probably picked up on the occasional comments about how the Tolkien Estate pretty much loathes Peter Jackson's take on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. This idea was not made up as an interview with Christopher Tolkien illustrates. The 87 year-old-son of J.R.R. Tolkien broke a 40 year silence last year to speak about his life long role of compiling his father's work and his take on how his father work has been exploited. His efforts over the years includes publishing The Silmarillion and the 12 volume The History of Middle-Earth. Below are a few highlights but its worth reading the entire English translation on World Crunch or the original French version at Le Monde.

In 1969, the writer sold the movie rights, along with the rights for derived products, for The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings to United Artists for £100,000 sterling, a considerable sum at the time, but paltry when the current value is considered. This amount was meant to allow the writer's children to pay their future inheritance taxes.

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