LOTR Blog.com

Hobbit Delayed Until 2012?

admin — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:16:35 +0000

A piece by Eric Snider details how MGM’s financial woes are delaying the production of the Peter Jackson produced Benicio Del Toro directed The Hobbit movie(s). Jackson and Fran Walsh wrote the script and commented during the Lovely Bones release interviews it was finished. Fans await casting for Bilbo. But the movies may not see the light of theaters until 2012?

It’s been more than two years since Middle Earth president Peter Jackson announced that he would produce a big-screen version of The Hobbit, and yet our cinemas are still alarmingly free of short, hairy-footed adventurers (Ben Stiller notwithstanding). What gives? Since Jackson and co-writer/director Guillermo Del Toro are turning J.R.R. Tolkien’s one book into two movies, you’d expect the problem to be the screenplay. But according to fansite The One Ring, the script is fine. The trouble can be summed up in three letters: MGM.

MGM owns distribution rights to The Hobbit and has partnered with Warner Bros. to get the films made. But MGM is also a few billion dollars in debt and is up for sale, which makes it difficult to get major projects like a two-part Hobbit movie off the ground. No one wants to embark on something huge when, in a few months, MGM and all its properties could be owned by someone else, or out of business entirely. You don’t want a lot of uncertainty when you’re doing something that’s gonna cost a couple hundred million dollars.

Calling the information “rock solid” and citing an “absolutely reliable (anonymous) source,” The One Ring reports that MGM’s money woes are the major cause for the delay in production. “At this stage we are all working and hoping for the best case scenario,” the source said. “Without a doubt, the MGM situation carries great importance.”

So when will the movies get made? Not until MGM gets sorted out. A few studios have bid on it (including Time Warner, which owns Warner Bros., which would make things a lot easier), but at this point MGM’s debt-holders appear likely to reject the offers. Getting the first film done in time for a late 2011 release is possible but unlikely; right now 2012 seems like the earliest — a full nine years after the third Lord of the Rings movie. As in all things, I blame the fat hobbit.

[Via The Playlist.]

PJ interviews re: Avatar, Hobbit, Bones & More

admin — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:07:12 +0000

The London (UK) Telegraph interview Sir Peter Jackson, The New Zealand MFP. With a wealth of about $450 personal millions, Jackson has been busy. He says he may stop by the Hobbit to throw his hand in. He’s been making his Lovely Bones, to varied reviews. Jackson says he turned down having the nearby Wellington airport named after him, for fear his children would be traumatized walking through an airport named for their father.

Hobbit Casting Update

admin — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:05:52 +0000

Who would make the better Hobbit? Rumors for casting have incldued Daniel Radcliffe, David Tennant, Tobey Maguire, and James MacEvoy. Each already belongs to a franchise: Dr. Who, Spider Man, Harry Potter, or Mr. Tumnus? Who will play Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit?

Santa Monica LOTR screening marathon

admin — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:45:54 +0000

Want a killer marathon of all your favorite LOTR films? If you happene to have all day Next Saturday, look no farther than Santa Monica for the ultimate movie experience, all 3 Jackson films in one day. The screenings for LOTR trifecta happen at the Aero theater at 1328 Montana Avenue at 14th Street in Santa Monica, CA.

Bring your lembas!

Saturday, February 6 – 12:00 PM (Noon) THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING,Warner Bros., 208 min. Director Peter Jackson adapts J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy. The world’s future rests on the fate of the One Ring, which has been lost for centuries. Powerful forces are unrelenting in their search for it. With Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen. Enjoy the entire epic with back-to-back marathon screenings, including extended versions of I and II. Breaks for Hobbit snacks and Middle Earth rituals are built into the schedule.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS, 2002, Warner Bros., 223 min. Dir. Peter Jackson. Approximate start time 4:00 PM.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING, 2003, Warner Bros., 201 min. Dir. Peter Jackson. Approximate start time 8:15 PM.

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Aragorn’s Quest

admin — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:19:30 +0000

Gamers anxiously await Aragorn’s Quest, the big new game release. Users can take part in some of Aragorn’s greatest quests from the Lord Of The Rings trilogy of films. Playing first person archer as Aragorn, users will wield a sword, shield, bow and spear in the battlefield. of course, Aragorn as the future king will lead armies through Middle-earth.

Players can switch between spear and sword to take out enemies when riding on horseback. Also an option is to battle with a friend in a co-op mode which features Gandalf.

LOTR Parody Site

admin — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:16:45 +0000

Got LOTR Parody? It doesn’t get more satiric than the Malaysian LOTR site filled with mockumentary LOTR characters Minadoc Bendiduck and Petergrin Tuk-Tuk the hobbits. Frodo “Backpains” journeys to Sauron whose has problems of his own. The Vitch King of Klangmar asserts his power over Mackragorn. The Bloggits journey to Bumi Tengah with the help of Gandaiz the Purple!

Hobbitpedia

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:54:21 +0000

The Hobbit movie slated for 2011 already has its own Wikipedia page. “Originally, both parts would have served as separate films. The first would have adapted The Hobbit and the second would have bridged the gap between this and The Lord of the Rings. Now it is the director’s intention to split and expand the narrative of The Hobbit over two parts of a singular film”.

Maguire/McEvoy as Bilbo?

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:49:03 +0000

Rumors, denials and heated counter denials have surrounded Hollywood the past few weeks, hobbit style. Informers and insiders have been trying to pin down who has been cast as Hobbit thief and dragon wrangler Bilbo in Sir Peter Jackson’s the Hobbit duo of new LOTR films. Jackson is casting the Hobbit now after completing the Lovely Bones now in theaters.

LOTR Auteur Jackson knighted in NZ

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 06:45:26 +0000

Peter Jackson, the Oscar-winning film director, has been made a knight in the first New Zealand honours list since the country reinstated the title. New Zealand has Jackson to thank for a robust economy during the LOTR years.

Sir Peter, whose final Lord of the Rings film Return of the King won best Picture and Best Director, mapped 17 Oscars for his Lord of the Rings trilogy. Jackson was made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

He said that the honour was an “incredible moment”.

“I didn’t think anything would surpass the 2004 Academy Awards, but I was wrong,” he said. Jackson has slimmed considerably in the interim years since the LOTR completion.

The film-maker, whose latest movie The Lovely Bones is already a box office hit after being released on Boxing Day, is one of five New Zealanders to become knights or dames in the honours list.

Sir Peter was made a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002.

More Del Toro Hobbitvision

admin — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:00:42 +0000

Del Toro and Jackson have a positive working relationship, where they will compromise on disagreements to the benefit of the film.^[16] Del Toro believes he will be able to shoot all of the films himself,^[38] although Jackson noted he had similar hopes for filming all of his trilogy, and has offered to help as second unit director. Del Toro will shoot the films in the trilogy’s 2.35:1 aspect ratio, rather than his signature 1.85:1 ratio.^[16] He hopes to collaborate again with cinematographer Guillermo Navarro.^[28] Del Toro shares Jackson’s passion for scale models and background paintings,^[39] though he wants to increase the use of animatronics; “We really want to take the state-of-the-art animatronics and take a leap ten years into the future with the technology we will develop for the creatures in the movie. We have every intention to do for animatronics and special effects what the other films did for virtual reality.”^[20] Spectral Motion (Hellboy, Fantastic Four) are among those Del Toro wants to work with again.^[28] Some characters will be created by mixing computer-generated imagery with animatronics, and some will solely be created with animatronics or animation. Gollum will be entirely digital again, as Del Toro noted “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?”^[39]

Del Toro and Jackson considered the sudden introduction to Bard the Bowman and Bilbo being unconscious during the Battle of the Five Armies to be “less cinematic moments” reminiscent of the novel’s more “fairy tale world” than The Lord of the Rings, which they would change to make The Hobbit feel more like the trilogy.

However, Del Toro considered some of these moments like Bilbo waking up to find the battle is over iconic and would require the “fairy tale logic [to] work as is”.