I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I really do. I saw Two Towers twice the day it came out because I was that obsessed and excited. I own all of the extended editions, regular editions, and the BluRay versions of the films. I love the book series and have multiple copies of each novel, and of course one big, bound All-In-One collection. The Hobbit is arguably my favorite book of the four, the one that really excited me for the world that was being built. I’m ecstatic with anticipation for the movie adaptation of The Hobbit to come out, eagerly pinned to my seat watching for more news to come out about it. Via Peter Jackson’s Facebook page:
It is only at the end of a shoot that you finally get the chance to sit down and have a look at the film you have made. Recently Fran, Phil and I did just this when we watched for the first time an early cut of the first movie – and a large chunk of the second. We were really pleased with the way the story was coming together, in particular, the strength of the characters and the cast who have brought them to life. All of which gave rise to a simple question: do we take this chance to tell more of the tale? And the answer from our perspective as the filmmakers, and as fans, was an unreserved ‘yes.’
We know how much of the story of Bilbo Baggins, the Wizard Gandalf, the Dwarves of Erebor, the rise of the Necromancer, and the Battle of Dol Guldur will remain untold if we do not take this chance. The richness of the story of The Hobbit, as well as some of the related material in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, allows us to tell the full story of the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and the part he played in the sometimes dangerous, but at all times exciting, history of Middle-earth.
So, without further ado and on behalf of New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Wingnut Films, and the entire cast and crew of “The Hobbit” films, I’d like to announce that two films will become three.
It has been an unexpected journey indeed, and in the words of Professor Tolkien himself, “a tale that grew in the telling.”
Cheers,
Peter J
That being said, go fuck yourself Peter Jackson. I know I know, I’m jumping the gun here. Making a big deal out of nothing, I haven’t seen a frame yet and maybe what this needs is three movies to tell the whole tale. However, with the way the production, marketing and cashing in of Hollywood films has been going these days, what I deduce the most from this is big budget, huge name series, needlessly padded out (remember how long Harry, Hermione and Ron spent in the fucking woods?) cashing in on multiple entries, in an attempt to bleed fans dry who will do anything for a franchise they love. Of course I’ll be there at midnight, IMAX, 3D for all of the films and probably seem them multiple times as well. God damn myself.
I was really banking on them deciding it will be too hard to do this with contracts and film shoot lengths etc, but it looks like it’s happening anyway.
I’m not down with it.
Fuck it, it’s time to admit to everyone that the Kool-Aid tastes great–I’m pumped for this. If the worst happens and it does feel really padded out, I guarantee that within 3 months of the last film being released on Blu Ray that there will be a fan edit of the “JRR Tolkien’s cut”– one three hour movie. That said, bring on The Battle of Dol Guldur!
The Kool-Aid does taste great, but nothing but Kool-Aid and we’ll all end up fat, diseased and utterly worthless, bones turned to jelly, spending all day sitting down in recliner chairs like in Wall-E…ok that last part doesn’t sound so bad.