Letter 204a

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Letter 204a
Recipient	Rayner Unwin
Date	13 December 1957
Subject(s)	Letter from Forrest J. Ackerman given to Tolkien by Unwin, Ronn Cobb, the Morton Grady Zimmerman adaptation of Lord of the Rings

Letter 204a is a letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien and published in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: Revised and Expanded edition.

Summary

Tolkien had been sent a letter written by Forrest J. Ackerman to Rayner Unwin. Tolkien discusses his previous assessment of Ackerman being correct and also his appreciation of the work of cartoonist Ronn Cobb. Tolkien indicating that the artwork of an adaptation could not make up for deficiencies in script-writing. He also asked the question if the proposed adaptation would be a silent film and that if not, the dialogue of The Lord of the Rings should be closely followed. Tolkien's main criticism of the project was that he believed the script-writer (presumably Morton Grady Zimmerman) would alter the narrative in ways that would not be good for the adaptation.