Peter Jackson to produce The Hobbit & Sequel (Director for both announced)

[logan82]

My guess is that they will break it up either right after they get captured, or when they arrive at Beorn's house.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Beorn get cut much like Tom Bombadil did.

[DuWayne Steurer]

My guess is that they will break it up either right after they get captured, or when they arrive at Beorn's house.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Beorn get cut much like Tom Bombadil did.

If they split the Hobbit into 2 movies, they'll almost have to leave Beorn in, just to fill out the time. Bombadil got cut because of the time restraint required to squeeze over 1,000 pages into three 3 hour movies. Assuming the Hobbit is 2 hours in 2 halves, you have 4 hours or so to show a 250 page book.

 

[colbyjack]

Marking myself as a bit of a LOTR nerd here, but he's age 50 in the Hobbit, which is still relatively young (according to Tolkien) for that race, and of course, 111 during the birthday party in Fellowship.

 

I know 50 isn't old for a Hobbit, but they clearly pointed out that he looked younger than what he should have for his 111th birthday and that the ring had slowed his aging. This was brought up in the movie as well when Gandalf said something to the effect that Bilbo hadn't aged a day (implying since he first met him, so over the course of those 61 years).

 

The two movie part of this is interesting. A big part of me wants to see them keep The Hobbit to one movie, since they kept each of the three LOTR books as it's own movie, even if a few parts got pushed from one movie to the next.

 

However it's not that big of a stretch really. The Hobbit had a completely different tone that the LOTR did, and the movies clearly spent more time detailing the battle scenes than the book did (the battle of Helm's Deep seemed like a couple of pages, while the movie took a good hour to portray the events). To keep the Hobbit light-hearted (as it reads) without the heavy implciations of the ring that the LOTR did, and not looking like a movie depicting battle after battle (like The Two Towers and The Return of the King), it may need to be stretched out over two installments. From the trolls to the orcs to Gollum to the orcs again to the eagles to Beorn to Mirkwood to the spiders to the wood elves to laketown to the Lonely Mountain to Smog and then the final battle...that's a lot going on.

 

And I'm sure they will want to add a little at the end in an attempt to bridge Bilbo and Frodo.

 

While the time contraints were huge no doubt, I think Tom Bombadil would have been an extremely hard person and overall concept to convey in the movies. Beorn isn't nearly as complicated nor as overly cosmic as Tom was, even if he is probably the easiest part of the book to cut out should it come to that.

[logan82]

I am still a little bitter about Bombadil getting cut along with Frodo's whole plan of moving and sneaking off into the forest. The trip to Bree seemed really abrupt compared to the book. Also hated the raising of the Shire getting cut as it showed how the Hobbits had become more serious and less like children.

[Katuluu]

I never really understood the love for Tom Bombadil, at least in the course of Fellowship. It's 100 pages of horrible singing that has little to do with the actual narrative. In the grander scope of things, sure, he's an important character, but their is no way to make his section theatrical.

 

And the latest X-men movie did a pretty impressive job of de-aging Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan with CGI effects. I can only imagine the technology has only gotten more sound. It shouldn't be too much of a stretch to expect that Ian Holm could still be cast as Bilbo.

[berniebrewer4life]

My guess is that they will break it up either right after they get captured, or when they arrive at Beorn's house.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Beorn get cut much like Tom Bombadil did.

I would hope not, as he played a vital role in the battle of the 5 armies. Of course, it wouldn't shock me either if they cut him.

[logan82]

I would hope not, as he played a vital role in the battle of the 5 armies. Of course, it wouldn't shock me either if they cut him.

Yes he did, but it is easy enough for somebody else to be written into a role or have things changed around. Lorien archers at the battle of Helms Deep come to mind. Also the point at which Aragorn recieves Narsil reforged. Tom Bombadil getting cut was a minor annoyance. I was more upset with the very abrupt travel to Bree.

http://movies.ign.com/articles/842/842098p1.html

[Katuluu]

The director of The Hobbit and its sequel has been named. And the winner is ....

[berniebrewer4life]

I think he'll do a good job.

[logan82]

Looks like Peter Jackson is still involved as executive producer. I would be skeptical if Jackson isn't involved only because I see The Hobbit as part of the LOTR series and prefer continuity.

 

http://movies.ign.com/articles/847/847937p1.html

[igor67]

At the Mountains of Madness is also on that directors list of projects. I don't like modern horror movies, but if that one is faithful to the book it could be very good.

[logan82]

Just an update I found. Not much more than speculation and they are planning on releasing the first movie in 2010.

 

http://stars.ign.com/articles/853/853169p1.html

[saget]

Del Torro is an amazing director. Pan's Labyrinth is just a ridiculously great movie. The Orphanage was so insanely suspensful I wanted to puke.

 

I can't wait for this.

[Team Canada]

Of course, this is all meaningless until New Line hands over the cash to the Tolkien estate. Cripes, it's almost like they *want* people to sue them. Do they not realize these movies have and will make a bajillion truckloads of money?