#Lord of the rings extended trilogy length movie#

In my 20s, with the first Jackson movie coming out, I bought one of those 150 million copies of the book. In our distracted social media era, in the Golden Age of TV, who has the time? There are long speeches, strange songs and a whole lotta Elvish. The book weighs in at nearly half a million words. But I'm willing to bet most of those copies sit on shelves, looking at their owners reproachfully, bookmarks stuck in an early chapter.

Many read it some read it multiple times. Sure, the book sold an estimated 150 million copies (30 million more than even the bestselling Harry Potter). JacksonвЂ™s trilogy, three bottles full of lightning that earned 17 Oscars and nearly $3 billion at the box office, is by far the most likely way you or anyone else experienced TolkienвЂ™s tale. We think of it as a trilogy largely because of the Peter Jackson movies. And yes, Tolkien conceived Lord of the Rings as one novel it was published in three parts because paper was expensive in Britain after World War II. Lord of the Rings has now become so many versions of itself that the original novel - a decade-in-the-making sequel to the only other novel Tolkien actually finished in his life, The HobbitВ - seems buried under all the layers. It will be a billion-dollar, five-plus season epic titled - you guessed it - Lord of the Rings.ДЄ TV show. Last year, the worldвЂ™s richest man gave an estimated $250 million to the Tolkien estate so he could develop what he hopes is the successor to the global smash hit Game of Thrones, which ends this year. This May sees the release of Tolkien, a big-budget American movie focused on his early years. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, war veteran and Oxford medieval language professor who died more than 45 years ago, is about to be the subject of another of those global waves of fame that so perplexed him when he was alive.