Adaptations
Saruman has appeared in film, audio and stage adaptations of The Lord of the Rings. BBC Radio produced the first adaptation in 1956, which has not survived. Tolkien was apparently disappointed by it.
In Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, which corresponds to The Fellowship of the Ring and part of The Two Towers, Saruman is voiced by Fraser Kerr. He has only one major scene—his attempt to persuade Gandalf to join him. He appears again briefly before the battle of Helm's Deep, speaking to his army. The character is dressed in red and is called 'Saruman' and 'Aruman' at different points. Smith and Matthews suggest that the use of 'Aruman' was intended to avoid confusion with 'Sauron'. The 1980 Rankin/Bass TV animated version of The Return of the King begins roughly where Bakshi's film ends but does not include Saruman's character.
BBC Radio's second adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, from 1981, presents Saruman much as in the books. Smith and Matthews report Peter Howell's performance as Saruman as "brilliantly ambiguous, drifting from mellifluous to almost bestially savage from moment to moment without either mood seeming to contradict the other".
Saruman is played by Matti Pellonpää in the 1993 television miniseries Hobitit that was produced and aired by Finnish broadcaster Yle.
In Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), Saruman is significantly more active in the first two films than in their equivalent books, and he appears in several scenes that are not depicted in Tolkien's work. In the films, Saruman is depicted presenting himself outright as a servant of Sauron. Smith and Matthews suggest that Saruman's role is built up as a substitute for Sauron—the story's primary antagonist—who never appears directly in the book. Jackson confirms this view in the commentary to the DVD. They also suggest that having secured veteran British horror actor Christopher Lee to play Saruman, it made sense to make greater use of his star status. Despite this increased role in the first two films, the scenes involving Saruman that were shot for use in the third film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, were not used in the cinematic release, a decision which "shocked" Lee. Jackson reasoned that it would be anticlimactic to show Saruman's fate in the second movie (after the Battle of Helm's Deep) and too retrospective for it to be in the third one. The cut scenes end with Saruman falling to his death from the top of Orthanc after being stabbed by Wormtongue and include material from the chapter The Scouring of the Shire. They are included at the start of the Extended Edition DVD release of the film.
In Jackson's adaptation of the prequel, The Hobbit, Lee reprises his role as Saruman the White, even though Saruman does not appear in the novel. He is shown meeting with Gandalf, Galadriel and Elrond in Rivendell and speaking with them about the mysterious Necromancer encountered by Radagast the Brown.
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