The lord of the rings : the films, the books, the radio series

The comprehensive step-by-step guide to The Lord of the Rings in all mediums. Originally just a small part of the life's work of the distinguished Oxford University lecturer and philologist JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings achieved a huge cult following around the world -over 50 million copies of the books and have been sold in 25 languages.

It was voted the British public's favourite book of the twentieth century and more recently its favourite book of all time when it triumphed in the BBC's 'Big Read' competition.

The phenomenally successful release of New Zealand-based director Peter Jackson's 2001-03 film trilogy brought Tolkien's work new prominence but The Lord of the Rings, and other works by the author, had also previously been adapted by other film makers with varying degrees of commercial and critical success.

This guide takes a detailed look at both Jackson's films and some of the previous adaptation attempts - both on screen and on radio - and provides detailed commentary on the particular difficulties of adapting this epic book for the screen.The differing visual approaches of Jackson and his predecessors, such as Fritz The Cat's' Ralph Bakshi and cartoon legend Arthur Rankin, are also discussed, as are the roles played by actors and special effects in trasferring Tolkien's world-building exercise into a performed medium. A detailed examination of the difficulties, decisions, triuphs and mistakes made when moving something beloved from one medium to another, The Lord of the Rings: The Films, The Books, The Radio Series offers new perspectives on theese enormously popular works.