9 Times Authors Disavowed Adaptations Of Their Work

J.R.R. Tolkien never lived to see the films based on Lord of the Rings, as they were made some 30 years after his death, but there was still plenty to be upset over. While his son, Christopher Tolkien, refused to allow any more of his father's works to be adapted for fear they would be disgraced by movie makers, the writer was not concerned with film, but with radio.

In the 1950s, a radio drama adapted from the trilogy was created, and Tolkien believed that the cast was not taking it seriously enough. This was not the end of Tolkien's issues with adaptations, as a script was pitched to him about a movie in 1958, and the writer hated the screenplay even more, saying that he could not allow the series to be "garbled" like that.

In the end, Tolkien decided to hand the film rights for Lord of the Rings over to New Line Cinema, a relatively small company at the time, that would later use it as an excuse to split The Hobbit into three 180 minute movies.