Talking Tolkien
With the December 17 release of the third and final film in director Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, Smithsonian.com reached out to a pair of Tolkien scholars, including Wheaton’s own Professor of English Michael Drout, to find out how the movie measures up to the original book.
In the article, titled “The Tolkien Nerd’s Guide to The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” Drout discusses the film’s similarities and differences to the book.
He also shares his overall view of the series: “I was bored out of my mind with some of the repetitive fighting, but my son was totally into it,” he told Smithsonian.com. “If that was [Jackson’s] target demographic, then he completely nailed it.”
And Drout hints at possible future adaptations of author J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, such as a Middle-earth amusement park or an HBO version of The Silmarillion, much like the popular series Game of Thrones, based on the best-selling books by George R.R. Martin.
Drout directs the Center for the Study of the Medieval at Wheaton and has written numerous books and articles on the works of Tolkien.
