The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit cast members, including Ian McKellen and Martin Freeman, are calling on fans to lend their support to a charity organization hoping to purchase the home of J.R.R. Tolkien. The intention is to raise enough funds to turn the property into a literary center dedicated to the late author.
The crowd-funding campaign Project Northmoor was launched on December 2 with the help of Award-winning author Julia Golding, who negotiated a three-month fundraising window with the current owner of the house. Now, McKellen, Freeman, and many more with connections to the Lord of the Rings franchise have appeared in a recently released video asking for donations from fans in order for the project to reach the goal of raising $6 million.
Per Entertainment Weekly, only $5.3 million is needed to purchase the home but the campaign will fund renovations and restore the estate’s garden should $6.1 million be raised. Furthermore, reaching $6.2 million would allow the campaign to fund a scholarship for individuals from low-income backgrounds to attend creative courses and special events at the house. Additional touches could include a hobbit house being placed at the end of the garden with a $6.3 million total while pipe smokers would be able to enjoy Smaug’s lair in the event of $6.45 million being donated. “We cannot achieve this without the support of the worldwide community of Tolkien fans, our fellowship of funders,” said McKellen in the video announcement.
“Unbelievably, considering his importance, there is no center devoted to Tolkien anywhere in the world,” added John Rhys-Davies, who portrayed the dwarf Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. “The vision is to make Tolkien’s house into a literary hub that will inspire new generations of writers, artists, and filmmakers for many years to come.” Among those who joined the aforementioned cast members in the video call was Annie Lennox, who sang the Academy Award-winning song “Into the West” for The Return of the King, Sir Derek Jacobi of 2019’s Tolkien biopic, and Lord of the Rings illustrator John Howe.
Should Tolkein’s home be secured for fans, the campaign aims to offer an authentic experience for guests. “It will be renovated so that the guest can experience what it would have been like to call on the Professor in 1940,” reads the campaign’s official description.
Tolkien’s home isn’t the only iconic dwelling to be put up for sale this past year. As of October 2020, the house used by Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs was listed for $298,500 and had been largely unchanged since it appeared in the horror classic.
The Lord of the Rings films are now available on HBO Max.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
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