🎞️ Tolkien's legacy and adaptations:
The great success of The Hobbit and
The Lord of the Rings led directly to a popular resurgence
and the shaping of the modern fantasy genre. This has caused Tolkien
to be popularly identified as
the "father" of modern fantasy literature or, more
precisely, of high fantasy.
In 2008, The Times ranked him sixth on a list of "The 50
greatest British writers since 1945". His influence has extended to
music, and to a broad range of games set in Middle-earth. His work
has had a massive impact on western pop culture, and remains
extremely influential.
Tolkien was not implacably opposed to the idea of a dramatic
adaptation, and sold the film, stage and merchandise rights of
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to United
Artists in 1968. As the film was never realised, the rights were
sold to Tolkien Enterprises, a division of the Saul Zaentz Company.
The first film adaptation of
The Lord of the Rings was released in 1978
as an animated rotoscoping film directed by Ralph Bakshi, with
screenplay by the fantasy writer Peter S. Beagle. It covered only
the first half of the story of
The Lord of the Rings.
In 1977, an animated musical television film
The Hobbit was made by Rankin-Bass, and in
1980, they produced the animated musical television film
The Return of the King, which covered some of the portions of
The Lord of the Rings that Bakshi was unable to complete.
Animated movie 'Lord of the Rings' (1978)
From 2001 to 2003, New Line Cinema released
The Lord of the Rings as a trilogy of
live-action films that were filmed in New Zealand and directed by
Peter Jackson. The series was successful, performing extremely well
commercially and winning numerous Oscars.
From 2012 to 2014, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema released
The Hobbit, a series of three films based on The Hobbit, with Peter Jackson
serving as executive producer, director, and co-writer. The first
instalment, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, was released
in December 2012; the second,
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, in December 2013; and
the last instalment,
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, in December
2014.
Scenes from 'Lord of the Rings' movies by Peter Jackson
