The first authorized adaptation of Rise of the Isitari was a Broadway musical titled "Trials of a Young Wizard" which was greatly disliked and cancelled more than a year later, as the book was barely suitable for music. Tolkien Industries would later sign a contract with DC Comics to produce an eight-part Limited Edition Comic Version of the book, which were later collected and published as a graphic novel. The first silver-screen adaptation of the book was an ABC television special called The Tales of Middle Earth, loosely based off of Rise of the Isitari and acting as a "fictional biography" of Gandalf Olorin. Tolkien Industries later signed a contract with Peter Jackson and Christopher Nolan to create a movie based on the book, and it was released on Christmas Day, upon request of the a