Last year, Andy Serkis performed an eleven hour marathon reading of The Hobbit on YouTube to raise money for COVID relief efforts. Harper Collins, being an intelligent publisher, then paid him to perform a new, polished version of the book on audio. Serkis proved as capable of performing Bilbo and Gandalf and the rest as he is at voicing Gollum, and the recording was (and is) a success.
Immediately upon finishing listening to this version, I wanted Andy Serkis to read The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now–he is! Harper Collins is producing the series which will be available in September. Like the books, it will be a three part series. If you are in the UK, you can go pre-order The Fellowship of the Ring now. If you are in the United States, that is not yet possible, for reasons that probably make sense in the publishing world.
If, like me, you are still fans of Rob Inglis’ more measured version, don’t worry. His version of The Hobbit, is still very much available. There’s no reason to think the Lord of the Rings will be any different. I still listen to his version sometimes just to hear him valiantly sing all the songs.
Of course, in the Tolkien world, Serkis is most famous for his Gollum, so without further ado, we present:
This news comes via The Tolkien page on Facebook and from The Bookseller.
