Hobbit curse continues to afflict big production

J.R.R. Tolkien wanted very badly to rewrite The Hobbit, the beloved children’s book that introduced millions of readers to his 3-foot-6-inch Bilbo Baggins and Dwarvy friends in 1937. Tolkien suggested that the book be revised in 1947 when he was almost finished with the manuscript for The Lord of the Rings, the sequel to The Hobbit that George Allen & Unwin, his publisher, had requested. He sent them some examples of changes and updates that could be made. Without Tolkien’s knowledge the publisher issued a 1950 edition incorporating Tolkien’s “suggestions”.

The author wasn’t really satisfied with that, however. His vision of the Hobbit’s world — Middle-earth — was constantly evolving. Resulting from a succession of experimental mythologies that Tolkien had begun creating in 1916, Middle-earth grew into a huge, elaborate collection of maps, histories, genealogies, and languages. It left The Hobbit behind in a pseudo time warp. After The Lord of the Rings was published in 1954/5, Tolkien continued to revise and expand and reinvent Middle-earth.

By the mid-1960s JRRT knew that he wanted a new and very much different Hobbit from the two previous editions. He even started working on a rewrite, intending to leave behind the veneer of children’s fiction (which he found to be much too condescending to children). J.R.R. Tolkien wanted to bring The Hobbit fully into Middle-earth as both a literary construction and a story.

Alas! It was not meant to be. ACE Books, an American publisher, interceded in Tolkien’s life and plans by publishing unauthorized editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, forcing Tolkien into last-minute edits sufficient enough to secure a new copyright in the United States. Tolkien had to abandon his plan of rewriting The Hobbit as he intended to.

Since then, there have been many Hobbit stage adaptations and at least one television adaptation. All have been fairly faithful to Tolkien’s original storyline, making the usual abridgments and changes to allow for artistic creativity and to meet the limitations of their production arenas. But as everyone now knows, Peter Jackson has been trying to get a couple of “Hobbit” movies going in New Zealand.

Jackson, who reinvented Middle-earth by trimming away vast amounts of Tolkien’s imaginary history while adding breath-taking visual elaborations, is sure to introduce yet more changes and additions in “The Hobbit”. If you’re a Tolkien purist who never recovered from what they did to Middle-earth with the first three movies, your eye-rolling days may not ye be over. But if you’re just dying to see what “The Hobbit” looks like on the big screen, then you probably don’t care much about how the journey looks so long as Bilbo parties with the Dwarves, goes to the Mountain, and returns home with some treasure.

No matter how faithful one might feel that the Jackson production process is to any story, he is an extremely creative and talented film-maker who updates his ideas for his audience. “The Hobbit” is sure to be a huge success and everyone wants a piece of the action.

Including, it seems, actors’ unions in Australia and the U.S.. Coming on the heels of MGM’s financial gridlock and Guillermo del Toro’s departure from the production, the Australian and New Zealand actors’ unions have made a power move to impose collective bargaining on “The Hobbit”.

Unions mya have a tarnished history here in America but they are designed to help out the little guy. Big name actors like Ian McKellen don’t need to worry about union contract rates as they are assured of top pay for their performances. But what about all those other actors who don’t have any star power? What’s at stake for them? Their unions would tell you quite a lot is at stake.

But that is neither here nor there. This movie production has been plagued by the Curse of the Hobbit. It seems that Fate and History don’t want anyone mucking with Tolkien’s original formula. Not even Tolkien himself.

The Klingons have a saying: Only Reagan can break the Year Zero Curse. U.S. President Ronald Reagan was the first holder of that office, elected in a year ending in zero, to NOT die in office. Since 1840 every one of his predecessors elected in a year ending in zero managed to pass away or find an assassin’s bullet while serving as President. Reagan barely avoided that fate when he was shot. George W. Bush, elected in the year 2000, also managed to avoid dying in office.

It’s going to take someone of the stature of Ronald Reagan, the Teflon President (to whom no scandal associated with his administration could stick), to break the Curse of the Hobbit and finally realize J.R.R. Tolkien’s dream of updating the story of Bilbo Baggins. Maybe one day the Cardassians will have a new saying: Only Jackson can go to Eastern Europe. Time will tell.

Disclaimer: This article has not been rewritten to update any of its points of view. The author is still very much alive and well at the time of its publication, and firmly believes in the Vulcan proverb: Only Nixon and go to China.