The son of the legendary fantasy writer JRR Tolkien has broken his silence over the eagerly anticipated movie, Lord Of The Rings, insisting that he is not critical of the way film has interpreted his father's classic books.

Christopher Tolkien is one of famous author's three surviving children and owns the rights to his father's literary legacy.

But the writer sold the film rights to his cult fantasy books in 1969 for just £10,000 meaning his family, and those in charge of his estate, were left with no control over how the movies were made.

The film trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson, was shot as one huge project and will be released one by one at the end of each year until 2003.

Starring Sir Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Christopher Lee and Cate Blanchett they cost in excess of £200 million to make.

The Fellowship of the Ring, is the first instalment in the trilogy and will have its worldwide premiere on Monday in London's Leicester Square.

Such is the cult following of the books that experts are predicting the films will be one of the big successes of the year, competing with the massively popular Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Reports had suggested that Christopher Tolkien had been unhappy at the way the films had been made even to the extent that he had fallen out with members of his family over the issue.

But in a statement issued today through his solicitors, he insisted that while he had doubts about the viability of the projects these were personal opinions that he would not express in public.

He said: "My own position is that The Lord Of The Rings is peculiarly unsuitable to transformation into visual dramatic form. On the other hand, I recognise that this is a debatable and complex question of art, and the suggestions that have been made that I 'disapprove' of the films, whatever their cinematic quality, event to the extent of thinking ill of those with whom I may differ, are wholly without foundation. I have never expressed or entertained any such feeling, which I would think altogether inappropriate and wrong-headed."

The Fellowship of the Ring will go on general release on December 19.

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