I never thought I’d say this, but I feel guilty about doing nothing. I’ve had about three weeks of holiday, during which time I’ve done absolutely zilch…. Well, not exactly nothing: I just feels that way because I haven’t had any college work.

So, what the smeg have I been doing? Well, for one I’ve been looking up about a few of my favourite directors, especially peter Jackson. I’ve a lot of respect for him – although Lord Of the Rings was not an exact copy of the book, it seems to me that every effort was made to stay true to Tolkien’s work. Perhaps the most obvious evidence for this comes from the fact that he decided to keep the narrative divided into three parts. He could very easily have just condensed the film into one, given that it can largely be seen as one large story. This fact alone shows that Jackson was very serious about adapting the book, and also that he was highly confident that it would sell cinema tickets. Obviously, most sequels are made after the initial film has been proven a success, and that initial film is usually a self-contained narrative with beginning, middle and end (think The Matrix or Star Wars) but Lord of the Rings (LOTR) is rare in that it was made as a trilogy, and Fellowship of the ring was only a beginning. I cannot think of any other example of this. Jackson was gambling that fellowship would sell, and hook audiences enough to bring them back the following year. In the fickle world of the film industry, the stakes were very high indeed.

But Jackson’s gamble paid off, and he made it do so. He re-created the rich world of Tolkien for film, staying faithful to Tolkien’s creation. He incorporated his languages, maps, chronologies into the film: he maintained the integrity of the books. On my wall hang posters with the original ring poem in it’s elvish form. I am thus satisfied that Jackson succeeded in transferring the books to screen.

The thing is, it may have been so different. For example, what if Disney had beaten Jackson to it? No doubt, such a company would have just made one film, romanticised and Americanised! Look at what such companies do to stuff like Aladdin and Cinderella. Oh god, it’d have looked like the Wizard of Oz! the hobbits would have been like frikkin munchkins! AAARGH! all I can say is thank Illuvitar for peter Jackson and his beautiful native New Zealand! Surely his trilogy stands alongside stuff like Star Wars in the annals of cinema history.

All this pondering over peter Jackson lead me down some weird channels of thought. If a book like LOTR, can be filmed so well, surely anything can be filmed.

Yesterday, I was reading up on Jackson, and discovered that they’re intending to make a film out off….guess what…..[huge spastic grin]…The magic roundabout! Holy shit! How cool is that? I hope Quentin Tarrintino directs it! That’d rule.

Also, I read on Sunday that Matt Stone And Trey Parker are making another film, this time wwith Puppets. It’s called team America, and they haven’t released too much information on it. As far as I can gather, its another of their obscene political satires about post 9/11 America, and it takes the mick out of characters as diverse as bush and Moore. It should be good.

But I’m yet to see Farrenhiet 9/11, I, Robot and a bunch of other films. Time to go harass my brother into taking me o the cinema.