Three film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings have been made. The first was The Lord of the Rings, by animatorRalph Bakshi, the first part of what was originally intended to be a two-part adaptation of the story. The second, The Return of the King, was a television special by Rankin-Bass. The third was director Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, released in three installments as ', ', and '. ', a prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy featuring some of the same characters, was released on 12 December 2012, directed by Peter Jackson. ' was released on 13 December 2013 and the final installment, ', was released on 11 December 2014. A previous animated adaptation of The Hobbit exists, and was directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr. Previous attempts to adapt the works were made by Walt Disney, William Snyder, Forrest J. Ackerman, Denis O'Dell, Peter Shaffer, John Boorman and George Lucas. These attempts resulted in some unproduced concept art and scripts, original fantasy films like Excalibur and Willow, as well as an animated short of The Hobbit.
Television
A Swedish live action television film, Sagan om ringen, inspired by the music album Music Inspired by Lord of the Rings by Bo Hansson was broadcast in 1971. A Finnish live action television miniseries, Hobitit, was broadcast in 1993 based on the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. A live-action TV special of The Hobbit was produced in the USSR in 1985, a pilot for an animated Hobbit series in 1991, and a live-action adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring, since lost. , Amazon Studios is in production on The Lord of the Rings, a multi-season television series set before the events of the films.
Stage
Several musical theatre adaptations have been made based on The Lord of the Rings. Full-length productions of each of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King were staged in Cincinnati, Ohio. Lifeline Theatre in Chicago, Illinois, produced individual plays of each of the three books over various years in the 1990s. In 2006, a large-scale three-and-a-half-hour The Lord of the Rings musical was produced in Toronto. The expensive production lost money and closed six months later and, after some cutting and rewriting, began performances in London on 9 May 2007 and was a success with audiences, closing on 19 July 2008. A musical parody of The Fellowship of the Ring, titled Fellowship! ran in LA for a stint at two separate occasions, coming back 3 years after its debut for a number of shows in the summer of 2009.
Generally, Library of Congress recordings are only available to the blind and physically handicapped.
1967 (Livingston Gilbert)
The Library of Congress recorded an unabridged version of The Lord of the Rings in 1967, narrated by Livingston Gilbert, on vinyl media. This version was taken out of circulation at the time of the recording of the 1978 version and is no longer offered for checkout to Library of Congress patrons. Reference numbers were TB 03367, TB 03369, and TB 03368.
1978 (Norman Barrs)
The Library of Congress recorded a second unabridged version of The Lord of the Rings in 1978, narrated by Norman Barrs, on 4-track tape media. This version was taken out of circulation at the time of the recording of the 1999 version and is no longer offered for checkout to Library of Congress patrons. Reference numbers were RC 10975, RC 10976, and RC 10977.
1999 (David Palmer)
The Library of Congress recorded a third unabridged version of The Lord of the Rings, A trip to Mordor in 1999, narrated by David Palmer, on 4-track tape media. This version is also available on the new digital players provided for Library of Congress patrons. Reference numbers are RC 47486 / DB 47486, RC 47487 / DB 47487, and RC 47488 / DB 47488.
In 1990, Australian actor Rob Inglis read/performed an unabridged version for Recorded Books in their New York studio. While not strictly a dramatisation, Inglis created voices for all of the characters. And along with project producer Claudia Howard, he created music for all of the songs, which he performed. The project took six weeks to record, plus preparation time. A year later he recorded an audio version of The Hobbit.
In 1955 and 1956, the BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings, a 12-part radio adaptation of the story. Tolkien disparaged this dramatisation, referring to the portrayal of Tom Bombadil as "dreadful" and complaining bitterly about several other aspects.
WBAI radio adaptation
In the early 1960s radio station WBAI-FM, New York, broadcast a short adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, with music. This version, which had not been authorized by Tolkien, was later suppressed by his legal representatives.
A 1979 dramatization of The Lord of the Rings was broadcast in the United States. The series was produced by The Mind's Eye, a small theater company that specialized in audio adaptations of popular works, and which also produced a six-hour adaptation of The Hobbit.
1981 BBC radio play
In 1981 the BBC broadcast The Lord of the Rings, an ambitious dramatisation in 26 half-hour instalments. It starred Ian Holm as Frodo Baggins, Bill Nighy as Sam Gamgee, and Michael Hordern as Gandalf.
1992 German radio play
In 1992 the German radio stations SDR and WDR broadcast Der Herr der Ringe, a 30-episode adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.
In 2001, 2002 and 2003, the three volumes of the Lord of the Rings were adapted into three annual series of fully cast radio plays. Each series consisted of six episodes. The character of Bilbo Baggins served as the narrator. The eighteen episodes were produced and broadcast as a co-production between the public broadcaster Slovak Radio and the private broadcaster Rádio Twist.
