Peter Jackson has improved Tolkien

[Draken]

bropous

"But then again, the Hitchhiker's series, while extremely witty, insightful and entertaining, simply isn't in the class that Lord of the Rings is, but I don't think you were implying"

Quite right, no such implication intended. Just an interesting example of the original writer happy to adapt to the medium.

"But then again, maybe ol' Ronald was just a lot more stubborn, a lot more willing to not let his works be remade unless done properly, and, frankly, far crankier and grumpier about the "ownership" [oooo, full circle] of his own creation to allow someone else to alter it for the sake of distributing his works to the "unwashed masses." "

Maybe. Probably, in fact. But couldn't he then have taken measures to never sell the film rights? (that's a genuine question, I'm not sure how feasible that is after the death of the author). Also this sort of debate always brings to mind Philip K Dick, reputedly a very cranky and awkward man, whose misgivings about a cinematic version of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" disappeared when he viewed the early rushes of "Bladerunner".