Don't know if this has been announced anywhere or not through other channels, but Andy Serkis said in an interview recently that he's going to be doing an audiobook for the Silmarillion.
Audible
Audio CD
I've lived with the books because I've read the audiobook of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit as a charity thing for the NHS called Hobbitathon, which we did during the pandemic, and actually I'm about to do The Silmarillion, so the world of Tolkien has never left me.
Should be interesting to see how he approaches S, since it doesn't necessarily lend itself to being performed with character voices, it's more of a read-through sort of book. He has the voice(s), obviously.
I enjoyed his Hobbits, less so for Rings which I could never finish tbh. I found his character voices baffling in some cases and badly chosen by all involved.
The Silmarillion needs a majestic voice and of the choices, the Wests are clear winners on that front.
I wonder why they did not use Samuel and Timothy West for this?
I imagine that (at least internationally) they are more likely to generate a bigger buzz and word-of-mouth for the audiobook by having it recorded by Serkis; which will probably lead to more sales.
I've heard that Tolkien audiobooks are selling incredibly well, so I imagine that the publisher feels that a Serkis Silmarillion will follow suit. It definitely will not be to everyone's taste (nothing ever is) but getting many movie/TV fans to buy a Silmarillion audiobook is a win overall I think.
I don't recall ever hearing that Christopher was anti-audiobook - it isn't a dramatization or abridgement/adaptation of Tolkien's words, just a reading.
3993
1737939