THE HOBBIT (2012/2013): News, Rumors, Pics Till Release

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Skywalker, Mar 21, 2011.

  1. Angel4576

    Angel4576 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 3, 2001
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    If done right, it could be genius. If it's done wrong then it'll be a train-wreck.

    PJ seems far more at home with Tolkien's material than he did with KK so I doubt he'll make that mistake again.

    On the one hand I'm skeptical about stretching what should be a simple story too thin. On the other, if he does it right then we'll have six great movies instead of five.
     
  2. Relayer1

    Relayer1 Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 21, 2011
    Location:
    The Black Country, England
    With the appendices, there's plenty of material, especially with how sparse The Hobbit is on some events. It's just down to how well it's done.

    Money is certainly an issue - for a relatively small extra outlay they get 3 x '£250 mill' films rather than two. I have no problem with that if they're good, After all, I don't think we'll be going back to Middle Earth again after this...
     
  3. The Mirrorball Man

    The Mirrorball Man Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 18, 1999
    Location:
    Switzerland
    No really, stop it with the Appendices. Please. There's certainly not "plenty of material" to find there. Just a quick recap:

    Appendix A deals with the fall of Numenor, the history of Arnor, Gondor and Rohan, and the tale of Aragorn and Arwen. Not much here that could be used in The Hobbit.


    Appendix B is a short chronology. That's what Peter Jackson is likely to use to expand his story, but again, there's not much there that ties directly to the narrative. The only elements which could be used deal with the Necromancer, Dol Guldur, the Gladden Fields and Thrain.


    Appendix C is a list of hobbit family trees. Nothing to use there.


    Appendix D is about different Middle Earth calendars. Nothing to use there.

    Appendix E is basically Tolkien's notes on writing and spelling. Nothing to use there.

    Appendix F deals with languages and translation. Nothing to use there.


    In addition to that, I guess Peter Jackson could use the material he hasn't used for his Lord of the Rings movies: Tom Bombadil, the Barrow-Downs and the Scouring of the Shire.
     
  4. Klaus

    Klaus Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 14, 2003
    Location:
    Beach condo, Bay of Eldamar
    The argument is that there's "plenty" to use given the way a few short scenes in the book can be longer on film... i.e. the fight in the Chamber of Mazarbul from FotR, which was one of the action highlights of the trilogy, is half a page in the book.
     
  5. nvek86

    nvek86 Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    May 25, 2005
  6. Agenda

    Agenda Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2009
    The Lord of the Rings: 1157 pages and 3 movies.

    The Hobbit: 300 pages...and 3 movies? :shrug:
     
  7. Captain Craig

    Captain Craig Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 7, 2003
    Location:
    Nashville,TN
    ^^^^
    This smells of blatant attempt at cash grab. I sense lots of created from scratch material to pad these pages of screenplay. Will the Tolkien loyalists be up for this much "creative liberty"?
    They expect the audience to blindly show up. Is treating your audience as silly blind sheep that smart?
     
  8. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2005
    Since most of the audience are silly blind sheep (who aren't especially familiar with Tolkien's books), I think it's very smart to treat them as such.
     
  9. Out Of My Vulcan Mind

    Out Of My Vulcan Mind Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2002
    Location:
    Wherever you go, there you are.
    TheOneRing.net reports that New Line has registered another potential title:

    The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies

    Edit to add: whoops, just noticed someone already posted this. Carry on then. :)
     
  10. SalvorHardin

    SalvorHardin Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2008
    Location:
    Star's End
    Each of the Lotr movies is 3 hours long or more, if you take into account the extended editions.
    No one says each Hobbit movie is going to be that long.
     
  11. Klaus

    Klaus Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 14, 2003
    Location:
    Beach condo, Bay of Eldamar
    It comes down to how much you trust PJ I guess... I'm on board with the vast majority of the decisions he made in LotR, so I'm going to proceed on the assumption that this will also be done appropriately until given evidence otherwise.
    But I'm less panicky/cynical than some... :p
     
  12. SalvorHardin

    SalvorHardin Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2008
    Location:
    Star's End
    :bolian:
     
  13. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 31, 2002
    Location:
    UK
    Well it won't be totally from scratch as Jackson has said since way back when that they'd be staying with Gandalf when he's off on his own in Dol Gulder (sp?) or meeting with the White Council. These events come straight from Tolkien and I think the LOTR trilogy screenwriting team have more than proven they're capable of adapting, expanding and even condensing Tolkien's material in a respectful and faithfully manner.

    ...Still, while I'm more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, I had a hard enough time seeing how a two part telling of 'The Hobbit' could be structured, never mind a three parter.

    I mean where would the break points be? What could serve as good climaxes for parts one and two? I suppose the escape from the Goblin King could be a good place end part one. It'd put 'Riddles in the Dark' fairly late in the first film, which can't be a bad thing. That still leaves you with the problem of what to do with the middle part (always the problem with a trilogy.) I suppose escaping from the elves would be a logical place (they do a lot of escaping in this book, no?) but that would also mean they spend almost the whole film in Mirkwood.

    Of course Part of it all depends on where the balance of the "new" material will be placed. Will it be evenly dispersed or will most of it be jammed into parts 2 & 3? Perhaps what they have in mind for part two is to keep the action with Gandalf with the climax being the routing of the Necromancer while Bilbo and the Dwarves are relegated to the b-story (like Merry & Pippin and Frodo, Sam & Gollum in tTT.)

    Indeed, they're no strangers to moving things around to craft a film. In Two Towers they used Helm's Deep as an extended climax where in the book it was a very brief chapter (with a much less desperate tone I might add) and it came from about half way through the book. Then of course in RotK they spend about an hour filling in the material from the tale end of tTT book, completely hack out the scorching of the shire (completely understandable IMO) and reduce Tom Bombadil's chapter to a single line and give it to tree beard...then cut it out of the theatrical cut.

    ...bottom line: while on the surface it seems like a fairly mercenary move, I think Jackson and co have earned the benefit of the doubt.
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2012
  14. Agenda

    Agenda Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2009
    Trust me, I've been trying to take that into account, but even if the movies are only 2 hours long, it's still crazy.
     
  15. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 20, 2000
    Location:
    Lost in a temporal and spatial anomaly
    That's an excellent analysis of what could be. I hope you're right (but I think I've made it pretty clear how much I hope it's a bridging film of some kind)...

    Damn. Killed that excitement before it could get started. :(
     
  16. mswood

    mswood Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2002
    Location:
    9th level of Hell
    Yeah three films that Jackson would have loved to release longer. The fact that it's 11 hours for three films tells you ech is close to two full films.

    And huge chunks of the books weren't shown ( some with good reason) the other just to keep it were he could to one film. Remember this was a make it or break it event for the studio just getting three films approved was extremely difficult.

    Done today they probably would have actually done more.
     
  17. mswood

    mswood Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2002
    Location:
    9th level of Hell
    No and he is well paid, but he has also ( with Kong) helped finance it out of his pocket to get the type of film he wanted (heard between ten and twenty million he fronted universal).

    That's hardly the act of someone who picks projects just to earn a paycheck.
     
  18. InklingStar

    InklingStar Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jul 14, 2003
    This worries me. The very best parts of Jackson's LotR were when he stuck with Tolkien's story and dialogue. Very few scenes that are straight from the books failed, while very few scenes that were added by Jackson, Walsh, and Boyens really worked. (With notable exceptions - Boromir's death, for example.)

    To add in the Dol Guldur stuff, they were already going to have to create quite a few scenes and dialogue out of thin air. To fill out a third movie they will have to write even more. That worries me.
     
  19. Saul

    Saul Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2002
    Location:
    東京
    Maybe the Orc and Dwarf War will be included? If you are sticking in indexed stuff that's something I would put in. But all the extras from LOTRs would mean the film would have to jump around a bit.
     
  20. Magellan

    Magellan Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2010
    This has really killed my excitement for these movies. Two was already stretching it. It just isn't a long book. I can only explain this with Peter Jackson's gratuitous use of slow motion to create false drama.