Christopher Tolkien has carefully created the last ever book by J.R.R. Tolkien called The Children of Hurin, and the Tolkien estate are retaining the rights to the film version, confident that this may also see the light of day on the big screen.

Tolkien's son carefully wrote the book from his father's manuscripts and he says he tried to do this without applying any editorial viewpoint, he just pulled the manuscripts together and finished the work his father had begun.

According to Reuters through Coming Soon the story is told in a fragmentary style such as The Silmarillion and is much darker than The Hobbit and even The Lord of the Rings.

David Brawn is the Director of HarperCollins, the publishing company behind the Tolkien books, and he fishes with the comment that Hollywood studios are already after the book's rights.

"No one's saying never to a film (but) the film rights are reserved by the estate. We want to see what reaction it gets and then let it run its course."

However it looks like it will be in book form for some time yet, and there's no doubt that The Hobbit will make it to the big screen before this tale does, that means an even longer delay.

It would be interesting to know just how much writing work his son carried out on the book, and how much work would make it his own novel rather than that of his father?