Hobbit Diaries

THE RUSSIAN HOBBIT

The first real attempt to turn Professor Tolkien’s book into a film took place in St. Petersburg Studios, with a budget that ran not even close into the millions. 

So... the question is my big JRRT fans... Have you ever seen this version of the Hobbit... Rather interesting...

St. Petersburg residents have long since known what has remained a secret from the rest of Europe: in 1985, director Vladimir Latyshev adapted Tolkien’s book for Leningrad Television, under the title “The Fairytale Journey of Mr. Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit.” Back then, the crew had neither the budget nor the equipment that the New Zealand filmmaker has.

Bilbo Baggins's adventure to the Lonely Mountain had quite a few twists and turns along the way.

The catch? It's a Russian-language film, shot in 1984 on a budget that looks like it was just a smudge less than the $150 million Oscar-winner Jackson is supposedly spending on his film. The JRR Tolkien novel has an interesting Soviet history. It was first published in the country in 1976 with some locally-sourced illustrations, and went through a number of reprints over the years.