The Hobbit

I know, weird that I have two blog posts so close together. :P

Anyway, there's a whole lot of news about The Hobbit movie kicking around lately. Peter Jackson's settled his lawsuit with New Line Cinema (which had to do with him or his employees not getting their due share of the profits from the Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition) so they can now go ahead and do the movie. I'm quite thankful that they were smart enough to realize that fans were not going to go for a Hobbit movie if PJ wasn't involved, and waited until he could be. Anyway, now that they've got the go-ahead, there's a lot of speculation about details.

PJ will be producing the movie, though not directing, and from what I've read he'll have some say in what happens as far as script goes, and some creative input. So even though I'd like it if he were directing, this is the next best thing, and I don't think it's a possibility anyway because he's already committed to other movies.

Who WILL be directing is still a tad up in the air. There's an article here that says Guillermo del Toro is a definite possibility, which looks promising to me. Quote: 'An ill-chosen director for "Hobbit" could put billions of dollars at stake for New Line and MGM and could turn off an audience that encompasses millions of passionate readers, Tolkien fans and obsessive geeks.' Um, yes. Obsessive geek over here. So we know they're being careful with who they choose.

Ian McKellen as Gandalf? Yes. Article here. Not having him as Gandalf would be as bad or worse as having no PJ. Another plus.

Hugo Weaving as Elrond? Not as imperative, but still important. I haven't seen any confirmation of his role, but it's probably still open because nothing's been said.

Andy Serkis as Gollum? Come on, they have to. Nobody does Gollum like Andy Serkis, that's a no-brainer.

And the big question. Bilbo? The actor who played Bilbo in LotR, Ian Holm, is out of the question in my mind. He's perfect, but he's also 87 years old. In The Hobbit, Bilbo's hardly old. He's middle-aged, but he's quite an active little hobbit. Goes bounding around after goblins and giant spiders and whatnot. So much as I don't like the idea, a different Bilbo is probably better than a different Gandalf.

All that said, depending on when the Writers' Guild of America goes off strike, they'll start on a script, and I think filming is tentatively set for 2009, one film to be released in 2010 and one in 2011. Oh, and that's the other thing. According to most articles on the subject, the project is for two back-to-back films - one of The Hobbit, and another as a link between The Hobbit and LotR. I'm a little skeptical of this idea. Who would they have as a main character? Tolkien didn't write a *ton* for that period. I think I'd like a two-part Hobbit movie better. But I guess we'll see. Anyway, I'm kinda thinking I'd like it if they filmed in 2009 or 2010, cause I'd be eighteen, and I'm sure they need extras for a movie like this. I could hop on a plane to New Zealand and oblige, I'm sure. Hehe.

~Sil