This originally appeared in our Today in Books daily newsletter, where each day we round up the most interesting stories, news, essays, and other goings on in the world of books and reading. Sign up here if you want to get it.
_________________________
Warner Brothers Decides to Make Its First New Lord of the Rings Movie About the Franchise’s Toughest Hang
Look, maybe it will be good. Andy Serkis was a terrific Gollum, and the CGI Weta used for Gollum was truly mind-blowing back in 2000. And yet, in my last two decades of rewatching the extended edition Blu-Rays of Lord of the Rings, I skip the Gollum stuff. And this is from someone who is watching the extended versions. Also, spoiler alert for a movie called The Hunt for Gollum: they don’t find him. In fact, he spends several hundred years in a dark cave. So, narrative tension is what might we call light. Does it mean Warner Brothers can trot out characters we already know? Sure. Did that work terribly well for Star Wars of late? No. In my opinion, the biggest reason to do a movie based on characters from The Hobbit is this: The Hobbit enters the public domain in less than 10 years. Fading franchise loyalty just might be The One Ring of modern movie-making.
“Lost” book by The Last Unicorn Author Peter Beagle is Finally Coming Out
The Last Unicorn has a die-hard following (with special affinity for the deeply weird movie. And now, after much business-related slap-fighting, author Peter Beagle’s latest novel is coming out. Are we to believe that suddenly Penguin and Beagle are hunky-dory? Or might it be that books about dragons are currently flying off the shelves and into breathless TikTok videos? Sometimes you strike while the iron is hot, even if you are not entirely happy with who else is holding the hammer and tongs.
Amazon Launches a Dedicated Book Sale Event Cunningly Named “The Amazon Book Sale.”
I don’t remember ever seeing Amazon doing a dedicated book-related sale. During Prime Days, there are almost always down prices on Kindles and some selection of ebooks. But special, book-stuff only day, even if rather flatly named? Can’t recall. In addition to the expected Amazon device deals, there will be a special three-book Sarah J. Maas bundle. So why do this now? Well, mid-May is a good time for getting ready for summer reading. I also wonder if TikTok and Bookstagram’s reliance on physical copies to make more interesting videos is a sore spot for the Kindle team. Ebooks have been largely moribund for the last few years, and maybe Amazon thinks it can drum up some interest with some targeted messaging?
