The Hobbit - saw it

[Still_Small_Voice]

So someone other than Peter Jackson saw dollar signs and then said, "Three movies my precious!" The three movie series for The Hobbit will not be good unless the other two movies are only about 90 minutes long. I've written off The Hobbit series in my mind. It won't be anywhere near as good as The Lord of the Rings was.

Peter Jackson is not just using the book, The Hobbit, for these movies. He is using The Hobbit, the appendices of the Lord of The Rings books, and I think, some parts of The Silmarillon.

Jackson was first going to make it a 2 part movie. The movie studio insisted it be a trilogy.

[beefche]

Oh, I'm sure Jackson isn't opposed to the money. I was just saying that it wasn't his idea originally to do a trilogy with this movie.

[Guest]

Peter Jackson is not just using the book, The Hobbit, for these movies. He is using The Hobbit, the appendices of the LOTR books, and I think, some parts of The Silmarillon.

Jackson was first going to make it a 2 part movie. The movie studio insisted it be a trilogy.

So someone other than Peter Jackson saw dollar signs and then said, "Three movies my precious!" The three movie series for The Hobbit will not be good unless the other two movies are only about 90 minutes long. I've written off The Hobbit series in my mind. It won't be anywhere near as good as The Lord of the Rings was.

Oh, I'm sure Jackson isn't opposed to the money. I was just saying that it wasn't his idea originally to do a trilogy with this movie.

I'm not sure about that beefche. I could be wrong, of course, but my understanding was that The Hobbit has always been slotted as either one or two movies and it will ONLY cover The Hobbit (the events in that single book). Del Toro (the original director - he also did Hellboy) already had the entire script/sequences and everything. All he needed was for MGM to say here's your budget money, go make it. Jackson was only involved as a consultant of some kind because he didn't feel he can do justice to The Hobbit because he feels it will have to be equal if not top LOTR.

Del Toro quit the project because the movie got delayed and delayed. So Jackson took over. But Jackson wanted the movie to be a seamless part of the LOTR. That was his vision with LOTR - that it wouldn't be three movies, but one movie split into three screenings. He didn't want the sets taken down and rebuilt in-between movies - he wants to shoot the thing all in one body of work, he doesn't want to have 3 separate contracts for the actors, he wants one contract to cover all 3 movies so he will have a lot lesser chance of having actors needing to be replaced. And he wants the movie shot in one period of time so he'll have a lesser chance of actors changing looks (age, size, etc.) in between. That kind of stuff.

He wanted to make The Hobbit fall into that same "One movie" paradigm. So, he introduced the 3rd movie to tie The Hobbit to the LOTR to make all of it one movie. So, as far as Jackson is concerned it's not merely $$$ but for the sake of his artistic vision.

Of course, the movie business is all about $$$. You can't really take that out of the work - so, yes, Jackson would have been thinking of the $$$ as well.

[Anddenex]

Just to clarify my post, when mentioning a trilogy, I wasn't saying that there would be three movies ... I was merely mentioning it wouldn't shock me if they made it into three movies knowing full well zealots like me would watch all three :)

mnm727 - I just read your post. How funny, I didn't know it was a trilogy. I was only hypothesizing how easily they would make it into a trilogy for money, profit.

Interesting, I thought it was only two movies.

[Guest]

Just to clarify my post, when mentioning a trilogy, I wasn't saying that there would be three movies ... I was merely mentioning it wouldn't shock me if they made it into three movies knowing full well zealots like me would watch all three :)

There would be three movies. 1.) Unexpected Journey, 2.) Desolation of Smaug, 3.) There and Back Again.

Uhm, I just realized. I won't have to wait for the 3rd movie for the dragon to get slayed if the titles are any indication.

[Vort]

The dragon dies? Really?

[Guest]

The dragon dies? Really?

I know. Big spoiler. Sorry.

[mnn727]

The dragon dies? Really?

Yeah, a little bird told him

[applepansy]

We just saw the Hobbit on Tuesday. I truly loved how they portrayed Gollum this time. They did more to show the schizophrenia... facial features,voice etc. Truly entertaining.

Love it all. The digital stuff was seamless for me.

[talisyn]

Rivendell was in The Hobbit? I don't recall that..there was an elf city but it was a different group of elves. In fact, it was Legolas' group that Bilbo and co. met up with, wasn't it? Because Legolas was from the deep forest elves..gah I'm such a nerd.

If it ended up with the group looking at Smaug's mountain then they must have met up with Beorn. Was that a good portrayal of the shape-shifter? He was one of my favorite characters.

[Guest]

Rivendell was in The Hobbit? I don't recall that..there was an elf city but it was a different group of elves. In fact, it was Legolas' group that Bilbo and co. met up with, wasn't it? Because Legolas was from the deep forest elves..gah I'm such a nerd.

If it ended up with the group looking at Smaug's mountain then they must have met up with Beorn. Was that a good portrayal of the shape-shifter? He was one of my favorite characters.

Rivendell is in the Hobbit. That's where Gandalf took the dwarves to get more understanding of the map from Elrond. This is just before they had a fight with the goblins and Bilbo got separated from them which led him to Gollum's cave. So, this would be before they meet Beorn. Gandalf and Bilbo also pass by Rivendell on the way back to the Shire.

The movie ended right after they got saved by the eagles the first time so they haven't met Beorn yet. So we will have to wait for the next movie to answer your questions.

The group also meet the Woodland elves - we are introduced to Legolas' dad. But the movie ended before this happened as well.

[talisyn]

I need to find the book again, I didn't remember them ever meeting Elrond. Thanks ^^

[mirkwood]

Skipping to the end of this thread. At what part of the story does this first movie end? You won't ruin anything for me, I've read the book who knows how many times, at least a dozen, probably closer to two dozen.

[Guest kshRox]

Actually, The Hobbit was more Peter Jackson than it is JR Tolkien. :)

I absolutely agree.

I wish they would have just told the story J.R.R. Tolkien wrote rather than the much less whimsical and much more complicated tale they have made up.

[Guest kshRox]

I need to find the book again, I didn't remember them ever meeting Elrond. Thanks ^^

They met Elrond 'down in the valley' but not Galadrial or Saruman and Radagast was only mentioned in reference. The whole sub-plot with the Necromancer is another huge elaboration which does not accurately reflect the book and the Pale Orc is completely a creation of Peter Jackson.

[HoosierGuy]

When this comes out on DVD it should say on the title: Your Three Hour TV Baby Sitter!

Saw this film. Long and made for the money. It's well done but just not much there. Looks like it was made more for the Scyfy/etc... channels.

[mirkwood]

We saw it today. I liked it a lot. Worth my time and money.

[Blackmarch]

Saw it, loved it, and thought it was over far too soon.

The only things i really missed from the video was the singing and the elves being less somber (now by the time of lord of the rings they have good reason to be somber but in the hobbit they were laughing and singing and teasing the dwarves a bit when they were comin' to town).

They met Elrond 'down in the valley' but not Galadrial or Saruman and Radagast was only mentioned in reference. The whole sub-plot with the Necromancer is another huge elaboration which does not accurately reflect the book and the Pale Orc is completely a creation of Peter Jackson.

far as i know the pale orc is total fabrication.... not so with the necromancer.... they took about a paragraph in the book, moved it up in sequence of things and really really flourished it. there are a few hints of other things going on in the book, but you have to have already read lord of the rings and some of the other tolkien stuff to catch them.

[Latter Days Guy]

far as i know the pale orc is total fabrication.... not so with the necromancer.... they took about a paragraph in the book, moved it up in sequence of things and really really flourished it. there are a few hints of other things going on in the book, but you have to have already read lord of the rings and some of the other tolkien stuff to catch them.

Azog is mentioned in the Hobbit, Gandalf mentions him in conversation with Thorin, 'Your grandfather Thrór was killed, you remember, in the mines of Moria by Azog the Goblin,' to which Thorin responds 'Curse his name, yes'. Incidentally, this is the only place that Tolkien refers to Azog as a "goblin"; in the The Lord of the Rings Tolkien describes him as a "great Orc." This is not a discrepancy however, since as far as Tolkien was concerned goblin is merely the English translation of the word orc, not a different type of creature, and in The Hobbit almost always referred to orcs as goblins.

The main sources for info on Azog is in the LOTR's appendices and the Silmirillion.