Serkis to release The Hobbit reading... And the Gollum version?

Timdalf

Active Member
No, not his flawed but heroic marathon from May, but....


https://www.tor.com/2020/07/02/andy-serkis-the-hobbit-new-audiobook-edition/

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/andy-serkis-records-audiobook-hobbit-harpercollins-1208925


Finally we might have a lively, engaging alternative to the boring, dull, lifeless Rob Inglis... I hope someone will reissue on CD the fabulous Nicol Williamson reading of The Hobbit... abridged, but priceless!! Done in the 1970's.

Compared with the heroic but flawed marathon in May the sample sounds excellent Hilarious how Serkis almost spits out the the name, Baggins... Gollum and Sirkis, Sirkis and Gollum, where does one end and the other begin??

Makes me wonder if someone will write The Hobbit from the Gollum point of view, sort of a Screwtape Letters for Tolkienians!!

Oh, yess, Preshhuss, we knows him we does... Baggins, the tricksy thief... We remembers when he snuck hisself down into our quiet, nice cavernses... rippled the calm waters he did and then stole it! STOLE IT! Our presshuuss... didn't tell uss what it had in its nassty little pocketses... waived his vissshuus sharp sword in our face, he did... threatened us, US!, Presshuuss, who did him no harm, not a hair on his wicked head! Kicked us he did, when he leaped over us to escape our righteousss handses, he did... Nasty piece of work with his vile riddleses, taking advantage of our long forced exile deep in the sheltering mountainses, when we hadn't been out under the glaring hot sun in soooo many decadeses! Took us, and he knew it, yess, he did, tricksy clever, he was, figured us out and bamboozled our innocence, yess... (snifs, tears welling up)

Where did he come from? Oh, we learned... Came all the way from far out just to steal our presshuss, so stubborn and malicious he was... We tracked him all the way back to his ugly little stupid Shire with its fat. brutal hobbitses... Lived in a cramped stuffy twisty hole, he did... filled with extravagant luxuries it wass. Ugly uncomfortable tableses and chairses... stuffed with overcooked foodses... nothing nice an natural raw... all ruined with spices and sauces which nature never made, only these slobbering old hobbitses...

That is a sample of the newly found manuscript -- he must have dictated it to some orc in Mordor...recently recovered from the wreckage there...
 
I did wonder at the time if the Hobbitathon reading had been done at a deliberately poor sound quality to try and prevent copies of it competing with licensed professional releases. Now it makes even more sense, that there is a commercial high-quality reading about to be released.

Couldn't agree more, Timdalf, on the Nicol WIlliamson reading - it's such a shame it was *so* heavily abridged. Even the Martin Shaw one beats Inglis imho. I would recommend people to listen to the Bluefax 'dramatized reading' on YouTube. Quite a remarkable unabridged amateur production (I have no connection to it lol) and mimicry of the film actors' performances. It makes make you think that filming the book 'as is' would actually work!
 
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