Who will write the "Hobbit 2" tie-in novel?

[Eridanis]

Since the second Del Toro Middle-earth movie will be spun from the threads left in Tolkien's unfinished work, there is no original novel to publish like for Hobbit and LotR. In this day and age, when every genre movie has a tie-in novel, I can't imagine this one would be different.

SO: Who will take up the responsibility of writing a new novel in the Tolkien universe? My vote is for Guy Gavriel Kay, since he is an excellent novelist who got his start working with Christopher Tolkien in gathering SILMARILLION for publication. He has great knowledge of the setting, even after all these years, I'm sure.

Give us your realistic guess, as well as your out-there suggestions!

 

[Squire James]

I'd say J.R.R. Tolkien really wrote all the material somewhere already... between the Return of the King Appendix and some of the stories heaped in with the Simarillon. I suppose Christopher Tolkien may do a "Children of Hurin" on that material, but I doubt it. He pretty much opposes the idea of Tolkien movies in general, and is apparently suing the movie studios to keep any Hobbit movies from happening.

As for some outsider (i.e. a non-Tolkien person) writing it, I'd place the odds somewhere between infinitesimal and zero.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I seriously doubt there will be any movie novelization, if only because I can't see the Tolkien estate allowing such a thing. what will more than likely happen is that they will simply issue rereleases of all the Tolkien novels, with special emphasis on the Lost Tales and/or Silmarillion, like they did with the LotR movies.

 

[Gadget]

There seems to be a misunderstanding here: There is no Appendix or unfinished tales that give any sort story for what happened in the 60 yrs between the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. Other than a few dates (i.e. so-and-so was born on this day) and couple of two-line events (in such and such year a battle happened between so and so). So there really is no "story" left by Tolkien, finished or otherwise to make into a movie. Or at least not one which wouldn't require a large amount of invention to flesh out, thus making it mainly a fan fiction.

I can only see three possibilities of events to make a movie out of in this time period:

1) The White Council (Gandalf, Saruman, Galadriel, Elrond, et. al) finally putting forth their strength to throw the Necromancer (Sauron) out of Southern Mirkwood. Initially just an excuse to get Gandalf out of the narrative of the Hobbit, it is a nice tie in to events in Rings, allowing some of the big movers and shakers of Middle-eath more screen time. It also ties to the more epic plots in the earlier movies. Saruman was already going bad at this point and agreed to the attack largely to prevent Sauron from finding the Ring before he could. The problem is that this happened simultaneously with the last half of the Hobbit (so it does not really advance the timeline any, as Gandalf is able to make it back for the battle of the five armies at the end of the Hobbit) and not much is detailed about the event.

2) Aragorn comming of age and falling in love with Arwen. This was a major focus of the Rings movies and would be prime fodder to 'link' the two seperate movie franchises. It does advance the timeline, but even less is know about the details of Aragorn's early adventures than about the Attack on Dol Guldor mentioned above. Other than falling in love with Arwen, we know he spends much of his time in the wild on a kind of 'errantry', learning and growing. He spends time in disguise serving in both Rohan and Gondor for Theoden's and Denethor's fathers. That's about it.

3) Balin's failed attempt to re-colonize Moria happens during this period as well. While it does serve as a good link from the dwarf-centric Hobbit to a place visited in Rings, I'm not seeing how they can make a movie about just this and link it in to the overall epic plot of the series.

Finally, even if Christopher Tolkien is sitting on some hitherto unrevealed manuscript relevant to this time period (highly unlikely), the film makers would not have the rights to use any of the material anyway, as most of the material outside of the Hobbit and Rings is off limits.

 

[Darth Shoju]

**double post**

 

[Darth Shoju]

I suppose Christopher Tolkien may do a "Children of Hurin" on that material, but I doubt it. He pretty much opposes the idea of Tolkien movies in general, and is apparently suing the movie studios to keep any Hobbit movies from happening.

I think he's suing New Line over profits from LoTR, and as a side-effect it is affecting production on the Hobbit. I don't think he can exercise any direct influence over the Hobbit movie, though I think you are right about him not wanting any movies about his father's work (although I've heard that the good professor was alright with movies being made from the books and even had some input on how to rewrite it for the medium).

Also, put me in for another vote for Guy Gavriel Kay to do the adaptation, if he was interested.

 

[trancejeremy]

I can see a novelization. It wouldn't be unprecedented, really. While it doesn't work if there was an existing novel, there have been novelizations of movies which were based on short stories. Total Recall, for instance.

Possiblities:

Terry Brooks (did Star Wars ep I, some consider Shannara something of a LOTR knockoff)

Alan Dean Foster (has done a ton of them, and while SF is his main genre, he's done some fantasy)

Piers Anthony (famous if creepy fantasy author, did the above mentioned Total Recall novelization)

If had hadn't passed away, my pick would have been Wayland Drew. He did a wonderful novelization of Dragonslayer (so good, it was actually reprinted sans any mention it was ever a movie)