Review by C.J. Bunce
Rarely has anyone been able to create a single work that includes so much information in such spectacular fashion about such an epic body of work. Writer Daniel Falconer has done just that with Middle-earth: From Script to Screen–Building the World of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, his new 512-page, exhaustive, encyclopedic chronicle of the making of both of director Peter Jackson’s trilogies adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Never before seen photographs, never before published recollections of cast and crew of the films that all-told would add up to nearly 24 hours of award-winning cinema, garnering seventeen Academy Awards for The Lord of the Rings films and seven nominations for The Hobbit. Weta Workshop’s Daniel Falconer, who has written some of the best-reviewed books we have looked at here at borg.com, catches up The Lord of the Rings to the coverage he has documented in his books on the making of The Hobbit trilogy, without providing any redundant content from his prior books, including The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Chronicles: Art and Design, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Chronicles–Creatures & Characters, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles: Cloaks & Daggers, The Hobbit, Smaug: Unleashing the Dragon, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Art & Design, and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, The Art of War. In doing so he has created the definitive resource for fans of the films, and fans of the Tolkien books now have a visual, fully-realized geographic resource guide to Middle-earth.
Beginning with a fabulous map of Middle-earth that includes cross-references to the pages of the book where each location is discussed, the reader can take his or her own tour across the film (and book’s) fantasy realm and real-life New Zealand filming locations. The journeys of Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring from The Lord of the Rings and Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin and the other Dwarfs in The Hobbit are overlaid so that the reader’s tour sweeps across the landscapes and environments created entirely by concept artists, artisans, and skilled workers of every imaginable category, required to faithfully reflect Tolkien’s and Jackson’s visions. Even more exciting are accounts, including descriptions and photographs, of places that Jackson filmed, but did not make it to the final cut of the film. The weight of this task–the task of creating the films and also in creating this hefty document–are reflected in the artistry and organization of every single page.
Along with the primary narrative focusing on selection, planning, building and filming each environment, readers will discover several sidebars covering topics like key characters, races, and creatures, and a veritable how-to guide to making an epic film series that takes readers through breaking down a script, set conceptualization, set drafting, use of “big rigs”–a twist on forced perspective filming, sound design, location scouting, art direction, set construction, set decoration, cinematography, performance/motion capture, building model miniatures, previsualization, aerial and scenic photography, organic sets, the greens department (charged with plant life set dressing), talismans and props, set and prop finishing, post-production, color grading, lighting, shooting on location, using locations responsibly, and creating digital environments.
Throughout the book readers will learn what materials and settings could be re-used from The Lord of the Rings for The Hobbit. Initially environments were not built to last, but after the success of various filming locations in New Zealand as tourist attractions when filming wrapped on The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, many sites were rebuilt to survive past production for The Hobbit films. This included the creation of 44 Hobbit holes that can be visited today among many other sites. The journey across the map of Middle-earth will take readers to The Shire, Lands of Arnor, Rivendell, The Misty Mountains, Khazad-dûm, Wilderland, Mirkwood, Lothlórien and the River Anduin, Realms of Rhovanion, Rohan, Enedwaith & Calenardhon, Realms of the North & Wastes of the East, Ithilien & the Morgul Vale, and Mordor and the Shadowed South.
Key contributors to the book in addition to Falconer include Peter Jackson, actors and artisans, as well as art production and other key staff, such as Alan Lee, Dan Hennah, John Howe, Grant Major, Brian Massey, Simon Bright, Philippa Boyens, David Whitehead, Ben Milsom, Ra Vincent, John Callen, David Farmer, Joe Letteri, Matthew Wear, and Richard Taylor.
A foreword was provided by Peter Jackson and additional contributions by K.M. Rice. Although the book is certainly a treasure trove of information, a great supplement to Middle-earth: From Script to Screen–Building the World of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit would be a digital version–not merely a standard e-book edition–but a digital version that allows the smaller imagery found throughout each two-page spread (sometimes only about two-by-two inches or less in size) to be increased in size to fill a computer screen, for additional in-depth study. The vast majority of the photographs in the book are sufficiently large to see details, but many readers and future Tolkien scholars might want to investigate further those images that are not.
This week Amazon announced a new Middle-earth television series is in development. Next month the six-film franchise celebrates its 16th anniversary, and it has been 20 years since Jackson began work on the saga.
This is the book fantasy fans, Tolkien fans, and Peter Jackson fans, have been waiting for. Epic in scope and worthy of the franchise, Middle-earth: From Script to Screen–Building the World of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit is available in hardcover for pre-order now here from Amazon at a significant discount off the release price. It is scheduled to be released November 21, 2017, from HarperCollins.
