So someone posted this earlier...
kzer_za wrote:
So that being said, what might have gotten Christopher Tolkien to sign on to this? A few possibilities:
- Someone is manipulating Christopher in dementia and old age.
- Chris has handed licensing decisions over to someone else in the Estate and is stepping aside to let them make the decision here even if he disagrees.
- After declining decades of opportunities to cash in on the legendarium by licensing the Silmarillion or with official fan fiction (mostly writing obtuse academic tomes about his father's work instead), Christopher has decided to focus on the money and take the $250 million. This seems odd for someone in his 90s, but maybe he's concerned about his great-grandchildren? Who knows.
- The contract has provisions for strong creative roles to people who Christopher absolutely trusts.
I certainly hope it's not 1 (and since he just published Beren and Lúthien, his mind is probably still good). 4 is the best-case scenario but some combination of 2 and 3 is probably more likely. Anyway, the fact that the Estate was directly involved gives me a little reason for hope. But not too much.

With Simon helping, I guess 4 might be at least partly true. How good is Chris and Simon’s relationship? Was the fallout between Christopher and Simon over his cameo in the RotK film exaggerrated, or was that another Tolkien?
Still keeping my expectations in check, but feeling less dismissive of it now.