Jackson’s Hobbit becomes a trilogy
Lord of the Rings Director Peter Jackson has revealed that his next work, a film adaptation of The Hobbit, will span three films. The adaptation had previously been pencilled in as two flicks. Jackson took to Facebook to announce the extension, arguing that editing of the first film has yielded the insight that: “We were …
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hmm
Peter Jackson is a polarizing figure. Yes as director of LOTR he hit out of the park but remember he was the director of King Kong (groan) also.
Re: hmm
Wow I never realized how many people liked King Kong based on imdb, rotten tomatoes, etc reviews. NM guess I am in the minority then.
Re: hmm
He also hit "Bad Taste" out of the park (for those who haven't seem Jackson's first masterpiece, the scene involving a sheep and a rocket launcher is pure cinematic gold :-) - more enjoyable than LOTR for my money anyday!
Re: hmm
Bad Taste is indeed magnificent. I liked the brains best. The sheep was pretty funny.
His next project, IIRC, was a Muppets parody called "Meet the Feebles." The student 'paper I worked on at the time interviewed him and asked if he would like to work with puppets again. His answer was yes he would, but puppets have said they won't work HIM again.
Here all week ....
Re: hmm
Meet the Feebles is one of the most disgusting, perverse films ever made. I am continually amazed watching him churn out things like Lord of the Rings that this is the same person. He also did the film Beautiful Creatures with a young Kate Winslet, which was a very nice film. To me, he seems to have done his entire career backwards - starting off with extraordinary works of off the wall genius and descending into mainstream blockbusters.
Meet the Feebles is the film that features a walrus driving a car out of a whale's anus, a sex scene between a weasel and a sheep and a fox in silver top hat and tales performing a song and dance routine that begins with the lyrics - "You may think it rather odd of me, that I so enjoy the act of Sodomy".
Peter Jackson - what happened to you?
Re: hmm
Sure it is. It also happens to be one of the funniest things ever put on film.
Re: hmm
who could forget Braindead !
Seriously if you've watched it, you'll never forget it.
Sparkling dialog such as 'your mother ate my dog' and featuring the kickboxing priest who 'kicks ass for the lord', along with the Nazi morgue assistant ...
an unbelievable film.
I wonder why...
...they didn't manage to get the 'Scouring of the Shire' section into the LOTR, then?
Re: I wonder why...
The ending of LOTR narked me. Most of it was spot on (couple of important bits cut out but nothing changed) except for the ending. Why change the ending?
Re: I wonder why...
Or Tom Bombadil... but maybe Jackson will work him in to this series of films.
I always loved Bad Taste, and was thrilled when I heard it was PJ who was to be directing LOTR. I think he did a very good job.
Re: I wonder why...
The only way in which Tom Bombadil should be involved should probably involve a sheep and a rocket launcher... not one of Tolkein's better characters.
Re: I wonder why...
That was 3 films for 3 long books... each longer than The Hobbit.
On the one hand I'm sad it'll span 3 years to see all the films, on the other it would be nice for a change to see a proper, deep film version that pleases fans - provided they get the extra info from real books and don't just make up a backstory they like.
Maybe I'll wait until all 3 are out and watch them together.
Re: I wonder why...
Don't get too enthused: he's clearly incorporating an entirely new set of substories alongside the main Hobbit one, so how much of each he uses is unclear.
I think six hours would be enough to do The Hobbit a lot of justice, but nine hours means he's planning a lot of new material.
Re: I wonder why...Tom Bombadil
No thank you, i'd rather French kiss Ja Ja Binks.
Too much padding?
How can they manage to turn a 300 page novel into films running six to eight hours?
(Anyone want to bet that any of the three parts will run less than two hours?)
My favourite Jackson film is "Forgotten Silver", followed by "Meet The Feebles".
Re: Too much padding?
Precisely. LOTR itself of course needed to be a trilogy - it would have been impossible to give it anything like the proper treatment otherwise. Indeed, the extended cut justified itself IMHO, artistically as well as commercially. However, stretching The Hobbit (a novel that I am very fond of BTW) to three films is no more than a very shabby piece of commercial exploitation without the faintest tinge of artistic merit. The novel is a little jewel in it's own right and deserves to be treated as such.
Re: Too much padding?
I expect Thorin will be sitting on a rock and singing about gold a lot.
Re: "singing about gold a lot." Oh please don't. Otherwise the bugger will make..........
.........."Hobbit the Musical" after he has released the director's cut of all three episodes of this one!
Re: Too much padding?
I loved that game but always wanted to hit Thorin when he did that.
Re: Too much padding?
The game was, on the whole, more enjoyable if the opening went like this.
* Gandalf opens the round green door.
> Close door and break door
* You strike the round green door. The round green door is broken. Gandalf goes East.
> Open Chest
* You open the chest. Thorin says, "Hurry up."
> Say to Thorin "Climb into chest"
* Thorin climbs into the chest
> Close chest
Then you can get on with the rest of the game without Thorin, which involves either a lot of luck in the Goblin's dungeon and encountering Gandalf there, or else skipping the Goblin's dungeon entirely and relying on a weird bug I can no longer reproduce to get away from the Wood Elves. I also sometimes entertained myself killing Elrond after he gave me lunch, and wandering around until Gandalf arrived at which point I give him "Dead Elrond". Gandalf replies "What's this?"
Re: Too much padding?
I believe the way they are going to manage it is to run the scenes in real time.
There's going to be a lot of pony riding in these three.
Re: Too much padding?
Can't remember if it was the MSX or C64 version but do remember it taking ages to load. About 400 on the tape counter I think. Gave me time to go outside and smash some imaginary dwarves to bits before returning to the house and not long after :-
>Cleave Gandalf's skull
Fond memories.
Re: Too much padding?
On the Spectrum if I tried that I got something like "Gandalf is too strong for you. Gandalf cleaves your skull. You are dead. You have completed 0.0% of this adventure."
You could try "Cleave Gandalfs skull with sword" but I think the same happened.
"I am Born."
I think I'll wait for the prequel to 'The Hobbit,' and see all four episodes in order.
Re: "I am Born."
I think you'll find that'll be the "Silmarillion", and will run to over 100 episodes :-)
Re: that'll be the "Silmarillion"
With Harry Lloyd as Melkor and his iterations.
Bring it on.
"The studio said can we make more money and the answer was an unreserved yes.”
Yes my preciousssss, it is a very difficult decision: Do we want to please the public or make more money ?????
Hollywood short of ideas
3 films? Christ, it's going to be dull.
Longer wait for Dambusters then?
if he's frolicking in MIddle Earth for longer
Longer wait for Dambusters then? lets hope so
To change the subject entirely....
You *cannot* have a Dambusters film without Nigger the dog.
I don't care if it's a bad word to some people, but it's the dog bloody name!
Re: Longer wait for Dambusters then? lets hope so
"I don't care if it's a bad word to some people, but it's the dog bloody name!"
You saying you don't think it's a bad word?....
"You saying you don't think it's a bad word?...."
Whether he is or not, he's right. Bowdlerising history in the name of political correctness is both obscene and stupid. Those who do not recall history are condemned to repeat it.
Re: Longer wait for Dambusters then? lets hope so
@Steven Davison "To some people" - colours firmly nailed to the mast there!
Re: "You saying you don't think it's a bad word?...."
All history is bowdlerised in the name of political correctness.
Re: "You saying you don't think it's a bad word?...."
I think the bigger problem is making all the crews American and moving the dams to Iran
Inventive
“We know how much of the story of Bilbo Baggins, the Wizard Gandalf, the Dwarves of Erebor, the rise of the Necromancer, and the Battle of Dol Guldur will remain untold if we do not take this chance,”
What Battle of Dol Guldur is that, then? Perhaps the one that DOESNT appear in "The Hobbit" book?
Re: Inventive
There are quite a few authentic story elements buried in such books as "Unfinished Tales"
Some would say they should stay buried. I have my doubts about the effects.
Re: Inventive
It's the one Gandalf goes off to fight with the White Council: remember when he disappears off from Bilbo and the Dwarfs in Mirkwood?
Listed in Appendix B of LoTR.
Re: Inventive
There's a whole timeline of events which appeared in other books (IIRC there's one at the back of LOTR and then there are books like Unfinished Tales), plenty of material to drag out into three films.
Re: Inventive
Including, very relevantly, Gandalf's flashback in the Appendices to LotR about how the Quest for Erebor started in the first place - a meeting between him and Thorin in Bree. I imagine they'll whack that thing in there, probably at the opening of the third film, since putting it in too early would change the feel of the whole thing a bit.
Their original plan was to use a lot of the material about Aragorn's relationship with Arwen, and his hunt for Gollum, but apparently decided not to.
I still agree with the guy above who said it'll be dull. Each film we can bet will run to over two hours, and no matter how much they throw in from the Appendices it'll either entirely lose coherence, or it'll be horribly padded - and most likely both. Three films is just too much.
Where's the ambition?
Three films? Amateurs. That's nearly 100 pages a film. They've just made a full film of The Very Hungry Caterpillar which has only about 20 pages and very little dialogue in, and no CGI battle sequences whatsoever.
Peter Jackson is seriously underselling himself and his 'vision' - by that yardstick he should be able to screw at least 20 or 30 films out of The Hobbit.
The sooner Martin Freeman hangs up his prosthetic ears and feet and escapes back to make the third series of Sherlock the better.
A cinematic first
Wow. No director's ever milked a Hobbit (on anything like this scale) before.
Re: A cinematic first
And the Oscar for Most Unwanted Mental Image goes to...
Peter Jackson seems to be creating a school of cinema where the only criteria (criterion?) for the next film is it must be longer than the previous one.
of course it has to be three films.
and you can imagine how this epic idea for three films came about. and its all very reasonabla if you think about it. the piutch probably went along the lines of .....
Peter baby, we really need 3 films, You need at least an hour for bilbo to have flashbacks to explain his undying love for [insert current flavour of the month starlets name here] and the backstory of why they are no longer together.
Then at least 30 minutes in the second film where the go off on a side quest and bolbo is finally reunited with her, even though he thought she had died.
And of course we have to have that really big section about the forbidden love between gandalf and whats her name... the pointy eared chick from lord of the rings....because the audience are desperate to learn more about that.
Oh and about another 30 minutes to recap how golumn found the ring in case they missed it in lord of the rings.
And we have to get strider into the film, cause we have a bucket load of strider action figures that never sold when return of the kind came out and we could really do with the extra cash.
And how about we sneak in a few scenes with legolas, cause chicks REALLY dug orlando bloom in lotr, and you know, we can put his picture on all three films posters to lurte them in , even if he's only in it for 5 minutes. plus you know, we can sell some of those legolas for men aftershaves we could shift when the orginal films came out.
oh and as a last minute surprise is there any way we can get jack sparrow into the story, cause I know he wasnt originally in the hobbit, but like putting him into a movie is box office gold baby, and we can explain it as he's actually gandlafs second cousin or the likes.
So peter how about it, we doing a trilogy or what?
Re: of course it has to be three films.
Isn't Jackson one of the few directors who gets to call the shots and tell Hollywood "I'm doing it how I damn well want"?
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