Philippa Boyens: Del Toro's 'Hobbit' would have been 'amazing'

"There and Back Again" is the subtitle of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," and it would certainly serve handily for a biography of many of those involved in taking the book to film, though none perhaps as well as Philippa Boyens. Asked one day in 1997 if, as a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, she might have any interest in helping out friends and fellow New Zealanders Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh adapt "The Lord of the Rings" for film, Boyens, a former teacher and then executive director of the New Zealand Writers Guild, shrugged and said, "Sure, why not?" "I figured it would last a couple of weeks," she says now, laughing at the memory, "maybe a month." Instead she, like so many Tolkien characters, was swept away on a life-changing adventure, down roads long and sometimes perilous. Fifteen years later, she is an Oscar-winning screenwriter and producer, part of one of the most successful collaborations in film history and proof that a third wheel (Walsh and Jackson are also life partners) is a good thing to have if you're going to wander over terrain as varied as the "Lord of the Rings" franchise, "King Kong," "The Lovely Bones" and now "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," which arrives in theaters Friday.

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