Adaptation Reviews Episodes

Julia Golding and Tolkien experts Jacob Rennaker and Paula Kalamaras hosted the second exclusive Readathon livestream event on completion of our latest Readathon, featuring The Silmarillion. Our participants tested their Tolkien knowledge in our quiz, we looked back at the past few weeks of our Readathon, and we announced our December Readathon topic! Watch now to find out what we'll be reading next. Visit https://oxfordcentreforfantasy.org/mythmakers

Listen to this past weekend's livestream hosted by Julia Golding and Tolkien experts Jacob Rennaker and Paula Kalamaras as they discuss the reaction to The Rings of Power series. We discussed various talking points and questions, including: What was the overall reaction to The Rings of Power? Was it worth watching/making? Did the creatives do a good job adapting the material they were given? And what do you think we'll see next season? Watch to see our reaction and review. For more information ...

Best place to be a weaver

Best place to go into exile

Best place to go into exile

Join us for our first reactions to the Amazon Prime The Rings of Power series. It's useful to orientate ourselves at the start of a series so Julia Golding takes us through what the four ages of Tolkien and where the Second Age fits. She then outlines the headline differences between the Tolkien material and how they've adapted it - suited to a general listener. Next, we go on to our discussion under three main headings of story, performance and creative realisation. Stay tuned for our rating. A...

Best place to be a maker of rings of power

A Special Event

Best Place To Be A Fantastic Beast

Guest Jacob Rennaker

Rescued By Ruby - Netflix

Guest Jacob Rennaker

Guest Jacob Rennaker

Special guest Paula Kalamaras

With Julia Golding

Spiderman No Way home ended the year with over $1 billion at the box office and has joined the top ten highest-grossing films. In this episode (contains spoilers), Julia Golding is joined by Ed, our resident Marvel fan at the centre, to discuss all things Spidey. Where did Spiderman the film come from? We go back in time to look at the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield films, discussing what went wrong with the Amazing Spiderman series. They then look at the Tom Holland trilogy and discuss the t...

With Julia Golding

What was it like to be behind the scenes as the very first Star Wars films were made? What was it like to be in the room to hear John Williams' soundtrack for the first time? What were the differences working with George Lucas and James Cameron (Avatar)? And what Starwars memorabilia has our special guest got saved up for his retirement - and on which planet will that be? In this special edition of Mythmakers with a friend of the Oxford Centre for Fantasy, Joe Gallagher, we discuss the last half...

Do you not know who Prince Imrahil is? Or Erkenbrand? Then you've seen the film but not read the book. In this episode, we talk about why you really must go back to the book to get the war. Do you have views on what has been left out by the film adaptation of LotR? Starting with the fine details left out of the Peter Jackson movies, we visit our favourite missing characters - Erkenbrand, the Grey Company, Beregond and Bergil, Prince Imrahil. Tolkien deserves to be taken seriously as a war writer...

Big news for Tolkien fans is Andy Serkis has just released with Harper Collins and on Audible an unabridged version of The Lord of the Rings. In this episode, Juia Golding reviews the recording, comparing it to the BBC dramatised version (1981) and the Robert Inglis reading (1990). Which has the best songs? Who dares to dip into the appendices? Is there a rival to Andy's Gollum? Julia concludes with recommendations as to which might suit you and your listening needs. Visit https://oxfordcentref...

Julia Golding is joined by Ed Saunders, fantasy enthusiast, to discuss the recent big fantasy adaptations. What did The Witcher get right in its first series, what did The Mandalorian excel at, and where did Game of Thrones go wrong with the last season's story arc after a strong start. Is having a lockdown secret script a problem for creatives when it comes to testing story instincts? How are the writers going to climb the Everest that is the Amazon Prime Tolkien series? (Good luck guys!) In th...

Excited for the Tolkien TV series made by Amazon Prime? Content remains secret but we know that it is to be set in the Second Age, the time of the forging of the Rings of Power and Numenor. In the first livestream from the Oxford Centre for Fantasy, we take a look at the possibilities, offering a one-stop guide to what you might want to know. Join writers, Julia Golding and Paula Kalamaras, and filmmaker, Tai Truesdell, as they discuss what sources the programme makers can draw on, the main stor...