Sceptical publisher thrilled as fantasy world comes to life

By MIKE HOULAHAN

Having lived her life for the Lord Of The Rings, writer and publisher Jane Johnson admits she wasn't at all sure when she took a call from a New Zealander wanting to turn "her" books into a film.

At the time Johnson was Rings author J R R Tolkien's publisher. A life-long fan, she had seen proposals to film the stories come and go and fully expected Peter Jackson's proposal to go the same way.

"I just didn't think special effects were up to it, I just didn't imagine anybody would have the scope of imagination to take it on and make a good job of it. I'd seen so many attempts to buy the rights fall through for various complicated financial reasons and didn't expect it to happen."

Johnson had become Tolkien's publisher in the mid 1980s and had overseen a revamp of the look of the venerable fantasy classic. The overhaul included commissioning watercolour artists John Howe and Alan Lee to create new cover pictures for the books.

Lee's vision of Middle Earth was what Jackson wanted to use as the template for his movies, so Johnson supplied his contact details. She still didn't expect the movies to be made, and remained sceptical Jackson could do justice to the epic fantasy classics.

"I remember the first time I knew it was really going to work," Johnson says.

"I was sitting in a very small screening cinema in Soho, London, in June 2000, when they'd released about 20 minutes of footage, and it wasn't consecutive footage. It was bits of pieces of the hobbits on the road, the Prancing Pony, Black Riders, the Buckleberry ferry, and it was just fantastic. I just sat there and cried."

Soon after Johnson came to New Zealand and visited the production on location. She went to Queenstown, went on set, "and it was like walking into Middle Earth".

While Johnson is no longer in charge of Tolkien's works, she has retained a close association with the books and the subsequent movies. Under her pen name of Jude Fisher, Johnson has written a visual companion to each of the films.

Despite having been an editor and publisher for years and an established fantasy writer in her own right, paring her literary hero's words down to match Jackson's movies was a major challenge, she says.

"It's basically a picture book with a few extended captions and people think 'That's an easy thing to do'. Actually, it's incredibly complicated," Johnson says.

"They go into production about eight months before the movie comes out so you don't actually know what's going into it at that point. A lot of the imagery is restricted so your first choices don't necessarily go in either. There's always a been a view not everybody has read the books so you can't give too much of the story away.

"When you actually get down to paraphrasing there's a line to walk between Tolkien's prose and the voice of the movie itself. It's not easy."

One of the strangest things for Johnson about the Rings phenomenon has been seeing Tolkien's works -- "that weird stuff siphoned off to the back of the shop" -- suddenly become a mainstream fixture.

One of the saddest things, in contrast, has been that other fantasy and science fiction authors -- she has published works by the likes of David Eddings, Raymond Feist, Robin Hobb, George R R Martin and Kim Stanley Robinson -- have by and large failed to enjoy a spin-off effect.

"Coming up to the 90s you could publish any SF or fantasy novel in Britain and sell 20,000 copies in paperback, no problem. Which means there's an audience, I know there's an audience.

"Since that time it's been marginalised and marginalised and marginalised, the focus on the top 10 selling titles has shoved it off to one side. Also, because it's not aspirational and people aren't proud to be seen reading it or promoting it, we're finding it very hard to publish effectively in this area, which is a very sad thing."

Johnson has a personal interest in the future of fantasy writing, having recently used her Jude Fisher pen name to create her own fantasy trilogy. Her books are produced by another publishing chain, which recently axed its science fiction inprint; Fisher and a few other authors were absorbed into the main publishing list.

"I obviously was only in it for the money," Johnson laughs.

"You have to love it and you have to feel compelled to write it. I've committed myself to three enormous fantasy novels, which has taken five years writing time. It wasn't the greatest career move, but it's the most satisfying thing I've ever done.

"These are big stories. Fantasy is the heartland of our morals system, our imagery, the symbolism that underlies every story ever made, comes out of myth and legend and fantasy. I've never understood why the general reader doesn't understand this, because it's a metaphor, and it's bigger metaphors than most general areas of fiction actually deal with."

Sorcery Rising and Wild Magic -- the first two volumes of the Fool's Gold trilogy -- are already out. On this visit Johnson has taken a few days off at Bethells Beach, near Auckland, pushing the third and final volume -- Rose Of The World -- out beyond the 500- page mark.

"I'm at page 543 at the moment and going strong. I'm damn well going to stick it at three. I'm determined to because I've edited so many authors who expanded and expanded their stories. I have a lot to fit into this last volume but I'm determined to do it... the idea of it going on and on is too painful and I'm a very impatient person. It's got to be wrapped up."

* The first two visual guides to The Lord Of The Rings are available now, with the third being released after Monday's movie premiere. The first two volumes of Jude Fisher's Fool's Gold trilogy are also available now.

- NZPA

* It's a Lord of the Rings weekend at nzherald.co.nz. Join us throughout this weekend for updates from Wellington as the city prepares to host Monday's world premiere of Part 3 in the Rings trilogy: The Return of the King.

Herald Feature: Lord of the Rings

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