Here’s two news stories in one, both of which deal with the "epic adventure" genre: News on a just-published Tolkien book NOT being purchased by a movie studio — and an all-new mega-quest production that’ll be backed by Sam Raimi.
"The Children of Hurin" is the name of the book that’s been 34 years in the writing. It was started by J.R.R. Tolkien many a moon ago, and has since been finished up by his son Christopher. It takes place long before "Lord of the Rings," so don’t go expecting to find many familiar faces. But what’s interesting about this story is that the publishers don’t want to entertain any offers from Hollywood just yet. They want the property to exist as just a book for a little while — but we all know this approach will just make the studios want the book even more. Still, what’s the hurry?
In tangentially-related news, Sam Raimi will produce a big-budget adventure epic … that doesn’t have a title yet. Columbia Pictures is keeping pretty tight-lipped on the project, but we do know that Raimi is involved, that the project comes from screenwriters Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, and that the plot goes a little something like this: "It centers on a cynical guy from New York who is forced to go to a land untouched by modern civilization to save a village and a princess from fiendish fairy tale creatures." Cool. Familiar, but cool.
Sources: IGN Movies, Reuters, The Hollywood Reporter
