I can’t express how excited I was when I heard they were making The Lord of the Rings into a bona fide film. I had suffered (and enjoyed) through the Rankin-Bass and Bakshi versions in my childhood, and had always hoped something great might come of Tolkien’s trilogy beyond cooky songs and scary vibrato. In 2001 I saw The Fellowship of the Ring in theatres in Washington, DC. Of course I loved it. Frankly, I’d never seen anything so remarkable on film. Anyway, I saw all the films, and loved them. Cried, laughed, etc. Tolkien has a very special place in my life, for many reasons. (My husband and I…