From between the pages to Hollywood

SINGAPORE (Feb 21): If you’re still not over the Oscars fever quite yet, why not read (or re-read) some award-winning book-to-movie adaptations? Here are our top five favourites.

1) The Lord Of The Rings trilogy: Written between 1937 and 1949, J R R Tolkien’s magnum opus is one of the best-selling books of all time. It is also one of the epics ever written, spawning a whole generation of fantasy fiction for decades to come. The books — The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King — tell of the journey taken by hobbits Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Peregrin Took, and Meriadoc Brandybuck to destroy the One Ring, a symbol of evil by the villain Sauron, who wants to see Middle Earth destroyed. They are joined by companions of the other races of Middle Earth, the fictional world built by Tolkien. It is a classic good versus evil tale of courage, determination and sacrifice that never grows old. The film adaptations, released in 2001, 2002 and 2003 and directed by Peter Jackson, were instant successes and the trilogy is widely agreed as one of the best book-to-film adaptations of all time. The third film, The Return of the King, won the Oscar for Best Picture, alongside numerous other nominations and wins.