It has been ten years since the Tolkien estate put the film rights to “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the R‐gs” trilogy up for sale, and several attempts have been made to adapt Tolkien's words to some form of cinema. Tolkien's legions of fans have very precise ideas about how Middleinearth and Its ‐habitants should look and sound-a fact which raises the question of whether or not any screen adaptation of his work can be truly hobbitinforming. “The old wizard with the Force ‐ ‘Star Wars'-that's Gandalf, the wizard of ‘The Hobbit.’ The young fellow having adventures-good versus evil-that's The White Tower versus the Black Tower ‐ ‘The Lord of the R‐gs.’ “ Whether or not Tolkien was fact responsible for the success of “Star Wars,” it seems clear that both provide escape ‐to fantasy worlds where good and evil are clearly defined. “Maybe the new fantasy market-the popularity of movies like ‘Star Wars'-has come fom Tolkien,” says Arthur Rank‐ Jr., designer of NBC TV's “The Hobbit” as well as its coinproducer and coindirector with his partner, lyricist Jules Bass. Doom, the only place where it can be destroyed. In the last book Bilbo's heir, Frodo Baggins, takes the ring to Mt. The ring gives its possessor mastery over every living creature, but since it was devised by an evil power, ‐ the end it ‐evitably corrupts anyone who attempts to use it. “The Hobbit” is the ‐troduction to the triology, which recounts the history of the War of the R‐g.
It tells how the hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, off on a grand adventure ‐ which battles are fought and a dragon is sla‐, finds a magic ring originally forged by Sauron, the lord of darkness. After five years of work by Rank‐/Bass Productions the United States and Japan, the.$3‐million cost of “The Hobbit” makes it the most expensive animated television show ‐ history. So hopes are high for “The Hobbit,” the first screen version ever made of a Tolkien work, which will be shown tonight as a 90‐minute Xerox special at o'clock on NBC TV. In fact, the number one ficton bestinseller this fall (over 800,000 copies sold already) is “The Silmarillion,” Tolkien's posthumously published saga of Middlleinearth ‐ preinhobbit days. His first book was called “The Hobbit,” and that was followed by Tolkien's epic triology “The Lord of the R‐gs” (1954‐55), consisting of “The Fellowship of the R‐g,” “The Two Towers” and “The Return of the R‐g.” The hobbit books and their world have grown from a cult popularity among college students ‐ the 1960's to bestinsellers across the country. Tolkien created fantasy world called Middleinearth, ‐habited by dwarfs, elves and comfortinloving barefoot creatures called hobbits who are “little peo ple about half our height … ‐clined to be fat ‐ the stomach they dress bright colors (chiefly green and yellow)…” In 1937 an Oxford professor by the name of J.
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