The life of J.R.R. Tolkien was as tumultuous as his books: orphaned at young age, marked by World War I, fighting to woo the woman he loved despite the disapproval of his guardians, and finally unspooling an entire fantasy world and multiple languages while teaching at Oxford. Now this story will get a star-studded cinematic treatment in a new biopic, Tolkien, with Nicholas Hoult as the author himself, Lily Collins as Tolkien’s ladylove (and inspiration for Lúthien Tinúviel) Edith Bratt, and Colm Meaney as the young Tolkien’s guardian and parish priest, Father Francis Morgan.
Click through for the full trailer!
Tolkien will simply walk into theaters on May 10, 2019!
Okay, goosebumps.
When I saw the letters turn around at the end of the trailer, I was expecting to see the Tolkien estate logo before they settled on the title, but of course the film is not called JRR Tolkien, so that wouldn’t work.
Maybe I’m a cynic, but this appears to be a full-fisted money grab. For a factual account of Tolkien’s life, read the authorized biography by Humphrey Carpenter.
@3 If it is in the same ballpark as Shadowlands, I’ll be ecstatic.
Didn’t Nicholas Hoult play JD Salinger in a movie too?
For Christmas, my little brother gave me Joseph Loconte’s bestseller, A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918.
I wonder if the film will handle Tolkien’s Christian faith in a truthful way or, more likely, gloss over it.
@3: Thing is, I can’t think of any film that’s not attempting to get money from as many viewers as they can. That claim—made over and over about the Hobbit films—has lost all meaning for me now. Are there some altruistic movies out there, free to view even in theaters, and is that what we’re expecting here?
@7 — It seems obvious to me that money is not the only factor. Some people believe in a project for its own sake; some get involved to make money; some want it to fail (e.g., because it came from the previous administration at the studio). A lot of shades of gray.
For example, during the Iraq War, Hollywood made a lot of anti-war movies that presented soldiers as pathetic dupes. The movies all failed but Hollywood kept right on making them. Aside from simply believing in the message, the filmmakers may have calculated that, in the long run, the films would be good for their careers by positioning them politically.
Well, hopefully they do better by him than the PJ movies did by Faramir ;)
Always pictured Tolkien as a scholar. Trailers seem to show him as a mix between a hero and a dead poet society member, funny.