Peter Jackson will be making “The Hobbit” and its sequel! This was confirmed today via a press release from New Line that reads as follows:
Los Angeles, CA (Tuesday, December 18, 2007) Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson; Harry Sloan, Chairman and CEO, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM); Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne, Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs of New Line Cinema have jointly announced today that they have entered into the following series of agreements:
* MGM and New Line will co-finance and co-distribute two films, “The Hobbit” and a sequel to “The Hobbit.” New Line will distribute in North America and MGM will distribute internationally.
* Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will serve as Executive Producers of two films based on “The Hobbit.” New Line will manage the production of the films, which will be shot simultaneously.
* Peter Jackson and New Line have settled all litigation relating to the “Lord of the Rings” (LOTR) Trilogy.
If I didn’t have a sprained ankle, I’d be jumping up and down in pure glee. They’re saying that we’ll maybe see “The Hobbit” as early as 2010 and the sequel the year after. It doesn’t really matter when they’re out to me; all I give a shit about is that this doesn’t turn into some stale rehash. But I don’t that will be the case since PJ and FW is onboard.
What I’ll really be looking forward to finding out what the sequel is about…
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Most likely it’s a matter of having chopped the book into two parts. I really don’t see Jackson agreeing to inventing a new story set after it, so that’s the only likely explanation. The line “Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will serve as Executive Producers of two films based on “The Hobbit.” ” seems to indicate this rather strongly as well.
As to the content… well, far be it from me to presume, but I’d say that somewhere between the Misty Mountains and the Vale would seem likely.
Hee, I’m suddenly envisioning “The Hobbit: There” and “The Hobbit: And Back Again” being the two movies. XD
Oh, and thanks for the NiceNews.
18. December 2007 @ 12:24 ( Permalink )
Yeah, I saw that, but I also read that PJ’s probably gonna meld some of the early plot about Gandalf and the White Council as well as some info on Sauron.
18. December 2007 @ 23:50 ( Permalink )
Ah, so it is likely to have such elements as Gandalf’s visit to Dol Goldur, some appearances of Galadriel and Saruman, and maybe some of the dwarves’ backstory with Smaug, then?
19. December 2007 @ 04:56 ( Permalink )
As much as I can gather, yeah. We’ll probably get to see the White Council’s battle with the Necromancer (Sauron) in Mirkwood as one of the climaxes in, probably, the first film, and the last film should be pretty obvious.
19. December 2007 @ 10:42 ( Permalink )
Ah, that makes much with the sense. Come to think of it, Mirkwood, the Elven Court and the Lonely Mountain could probably make a fine movie.
19. December 2007 @ 10:53 ( Permalink )
Fine movie(s), we hope
19. December 2007 @ 11:16 ( Permalink )
Yeah, but I meant, the second one, if they cut away from Bilbo and his hoodlums before the entrance to Mirkwood.
19. December 2007 @ 12:16 ( Permalink )
I’m too lazy to write this again, so I’ll just copy/paste it from Loki’s blog:
“About the whole “sequel” thing…
We talked about this a bit over at Tolkiens.net a few months back, and some suggested (possibly even claimed that they had it from good sources) that bits and pieces of the Lord of the Rings appendices would be added to The Hobbit, because New Line and that bunch owned the rights for that, too, and wanted to wring as much money from the franchise as thy could. And they don’t have the rights to The Silmarilion or any of that stuff, so they take what they have. In light of this, it was claimed, New Line and their gang would start the movie with something like Gandalf meeting Thorin in an inn somewhere in the far west of Eriador, possibly in the Blue Mountains (it’s been a few years since I read “On Dwarves”, so bear over with me for not being able to pin-point this event), and then move the movie on from there, with an explanation of why the fock Gandalf — who watchers by now knew a hell of a lot better than people did when they read The Hobbit for the first time — wanted the Dwarves and Bilbo to go to Erebor in the first place.
Sounds neat, eh?
Personally, though, I’d started the movie in the same way Tolkien did — by presenting Hobbits and the Shire, possibly with an Ian McKellen voice-over. Then I’d proceed with the movie, and perhaps throw in an expositionary scene in Rivendell. Stretch thing to three hours, and let the movie end with Bilbo bursting out from the Misty Mountains caves, or perhaps the arrival at Beorn. This way, you’d have a bit of travel and a bit of action in each movie, with either the duel against Gollum or the attack of the Goblins and Wargs as the dramatic climax in the first movie.
As for Peter Jackson… meh. He’ll do okay, I guess.”
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The mentioning here of Dol Guldur and that whole sub-plot sounds likely, too, but they might have some problems finding source material for it as they aren’t allowed to touch any of the “apocryph” stuff… :\
19. December 2007 @ 14:12 ( Permalink )