HOBBIT CONFIRMED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Wetanut]

At any rate, I went back over there, found that of course they have a forum for the Hobbit movie, and lo and behold - there were people posting for the first time in several years, - like me - all coming back so that we could once again anticipate, argue and laugh while we wait for the Hobbit. Names I hadn't seen in ages. A community reuniting. It was great!

Exactly! Was noticing the same thing. Some of our previous members are coming out of hiatus .... on numerous forums. Good to see them back -- have missed them (heck, even Fubeca has put aside online gaming just for a bit ) I always believed that this was eventually going to happen once all the huffing and puffing between the parties stopped (whether New Line was involved or not) but I was starting to despair that it would happen in my lifetime. (During the wait for ROTK release, I remember thinking "Please let me stay healthy and alive for me to see the final part of the trilogy." I'm getting that same feeling again lol)

 

[Nazgurl]

WetaNut, I did the same thing - "Just let me live until the last EE is released". Now I have to start all over - I need to survive until at least 2011 - and better make in 2013 just in case it takes a year longer, then the EE for this one is released!

 

[fool_of_a_took!]

One thing that has me worried is that I got hooked onto Tolkien because of The Hobbit, and how it was geared towards kids. That means, I'd like to see The Hobbit retain its childlike story-telling. They can transition the 2nd movie as a teenager growing into adulthood and put a more serious twist to it. That way, young kids could watch The Hobbit, and then the 2nd film can be ratcheted up to a Pg-13 rating. And then, LOTR can be the adult version.

Agree. Kid friendly, but not too kiddish.

Gonna re-read it again soon.

 

[The Josh]

I'm hoping that there will be some kind of special showing someday with all the movies. Start it at like 6am and end it at like 6am the next morning.

 

[Nazgurl]

And I thought the Trilogy Tuesday showing of all three LoTR films was long! I don't think I could sit through 5 films altogether, no matter how much I love them!
(well, I could do it if I were watching them at home; at least there I could stop and start whenever I wanted).

 

[The Josh]

And I thought the Trilogy Tuesday showing of all three LoTR films was long! I don't think I could sit through 5 films altogether, no matter how much I love them!
(well, I could do it if I were watching them at home; at least there I could stop and start whenever I wanted).

That was a long but fun day as would all 5. I'm so in for that if it happens.

 

[JohnyBoo]

My excitement for LOTR has been renewed by this announcement. I have spent two days at theonering.net reading up on the news. It feels so comforting and familiar, I just wish Peter was directing. I hope I won't be disappointed. I also have my fingers crossed for good health, lol.

 

[WrathofSauron]

Weird some of us are hoping we don't croak it before its gets released, now is that passion or madness? Whatever I just can't wait to be going along to the cinema again with that excitement and feeling I had for three Xmases in a row!!

 

[Anzik]

Call me cautiously pessimistic, but after Richard Harris died before Harry Potter was finished, some of our LOTR cast is up there in age. I'm hoping they all stay very healthy for a long time.

 

[Adoptedscot]

Words cannot express how exciting this news is so i'll let the pictures do it........

 

[KAOSINLA]

It's been a long time coming!!! Finally some fuel for the fire!!!

 

[Captain Faramir]

The Middle Earth we saw in the films is far too beautiful to be left behind with ROTK. One of the biggest holes in modern film is cinema that is also art, that entertains but also edifies. The LOTR trilogy does it so completely that I can only fear lest The Hobbit fail to reach that same standard. I can only hope that The Hobbit is equally breathtaking, even if the locations are less grand and more rustic than Minas Tirith or Lothlorien. The only problem is, so many people were vital to the production--if Weta, PJ, McKellen and Shore, heck all of the guys aren't a part of it then we're all screwed.

 

[Khev]

Of course I hope that The Hobbit movie is great, but as far as I'm concerned we've already seen perfect Middle-Earth movies, we already have the classic Hobbit cartoon, and we got a [very] condensed version of the story in the FOTR prologue. So anything they do at this point is just gravy.

The Hobbit book was different in tone than the LOTR, so a part of me doesn't even mind if PJ let's someone else direct. I'm sure Gore Verbinski could make a sweet prologue to LOTR.

 

[fool_of_a_took!]

I think we'll see most of the same people back. Mainly due to their love of the product.

And the huge payday and media attention wont hurt either.

 

[Darklord Dave]

There was an article in Variety last week talking about Raimi's next picture which will be a horror movie he wrote. The article then went on to say that he would then be moving on to the Hobbit.

Now this could just be Variety picking up the internet rumors and running with it - that happens a lot. But I thought it worth mentioning.

 

[pixletwin]

I'd be OK with Raimi as director and PJ producing.

 

[drjedisith]

GUILLERMO DEL TORO!!

 

[wofford29]

Raimi is a terrible choice. A pray he doesn't get the chance to ruin another franchise. Del Toro would be a good pick, as would somebody like Alfonso Cuaron.

 

[Atom Hues]

Man, I hate finding threads late..... stoopit Christmas! Stoopit deadlines!!

A few thoughts....

I think it's jumping the gun to ASSUME that the second HOBBIT film will be all new material. I personally think what is going to happen is, THE HOBBIT will be told, as the book begins & ends, over the course of the two films. THE HOBBIT will be cut in twain, as they say, and things like the White Council and Gandalf B&E-ing into Dol Goldur will be expanded to fill out the films.

As for the White Council & Dol Goldur/Necromancer stuff not being essential, well, it is and it isn't.

Tolkein didn't write about them in THE HOBBIT, but there are bits of them in other books. Many things from the LOTR films were culled from the Appendices and other writings. Aragorn & Arwen's romance, for one.

As for what Tolkein did & didn't bother writing being the determining factor, please bear in mind that the Death of Boromir, arguably one of the most powerful moments in the films, was never in the books. Boromir dies, "offscreen" as it were, in between the FELLOWSHIP and TWO TOWERS books. So, there ARE precedents...

As for whether or not we really NEED the White Council and and Dol Goldur stuff, my tiny vote is "yes". Gandalf is a major character in THE HOBBIT. When Bilbo and the dwarves get to Mirkwood Forest, Gandalf (apparently) heartlessly abandons them, only to show up in a deus ex machina style at the Battle of Five Armies finale. In a children's book, it's OK to overlook this, but I think that in a major motion picture, audiences will sit and wonder "Why did Gandalf leave? Why isn't he staying with them?" I think that it's kind of vital to make sure that the audience knows WHY kind old Gandalf the Grey just lets the little guys go into the Worst Forest in Middle-Earth with nothing more than a "I have pressing business south! Cya! Wouldn't want to be ya!"

Finally, THE HOBBIT has always been a film that has going to be made. It's a fact. The LOTR films made TOO MUCH MONEY for THE HOBBIT to not ever see the big screen; too much money is to be made.

So, seeing as how THE HOBBIT is an inevitability, I think that Jackson's involvement is a sign for optimism. If THE HOBBIT was going ahead WITHOUT Peter, Fran, and the rest, I think we'd all have a lot more to be worried about.

C'mon! Come out of the Bitter Barn and play in the hay! We all get to go back to Middle-Earth soon!

 

[Atom Hues]

AND, just so no one thinks I'm a pollyanna.... I DON'T think the Jackson films were perfect. I love 95% of them to death, and the other 5% really, really bothers me....

I find Gimli to be an increasingly annoying character by the third film. He's great in FELLOWSHIP, Comedy Relief in TWO TOWERS, and I feel his presence actually has a frikkin' drag factor in RETURN OF THE KING. The Paths of the Dead is one of the creepiest passages in the books, and Gimli's goofy schtick in the film helps reduce the Paths to a Scooby-Doo level of scariness.

I was crushed by the design of the Witch-King. Eowyn battling the Witch-King on the Fields of Pelennor is probably my all-time favorite moment in ANY of the LOTR books. And when we get there, the Witch-King isn't a creepy ghost in armor, with no head, just an iron crown floating above to glwoing red eyes, he's a giant action figure of a design.

That's just to show that I'm not a slavish fan.

Yay! THE HOBBIT is coming!