By Creative Media Times
L-R: director Dome Karukoski, Nicholas Hoult, Anthony Boyle, Tom Glynn-Carney, Patrick Gibson, aiphotoimaging.com
The man responsible for the The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit stories is getting his own film treatment in “Tolkien”, Fox Searchlight Pictures’ upcoming biographical fantasy film from director Dome Karukoski and writers David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford. The film follows the life story of Tolkien which become inspiration to his great novels.
Starring Nicholas Hoult as John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, the film is directed by Dome Karukoski and written by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford. Hoult was in attendance along with Finnish film director Karukoski, as well as co-stars Anthony Boyle, Patrick Gibson and Tom Glynn-Carney.
The panel showed a clip which sees the four boys in their youth and their plan to form a club, which eventually become “Tea Club in Barovian Society,” or TCBS.
Hoult said of Tolkien’s friends: “He was orphaned at such a young age, and finding these guys and that relationship, somewhere that he could flourish and feel safe artistically, and that gave him a place in the world even though he wasn’t necessarily from the same privileged background,”
During the Q&A, the panel showed a video clip wherein Hoult explained his history with the role and along with co-star Lily Collins, their experience in making the film.
“I first read The hobbit when we were filming About A Boy because the director of that gave it to me to read,” Hoult said. “So I still got the copy of The Hobbit on my bookshelf at home, then its kind of come around full circle.”
About a Boy is of course Hoult’s 2002 breakthrough film which was both a critical and commercial success.
“What struck me the most is that he lived an amazing life,” Karukoski said. “This beautiful, emotional story about love and friendship. So many things about what I had read about the books, occurred or were instrumental in his own life. It’s a film that had to be made.”
Tolkien is set for release in the UK on May 3, 2019, followed by a US release on 10 May 2019.
