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Filming For The Hobbit Begins In July
krou writes "Sir Ian McKellen has revealed that filming for The Hobbit and its sequel is scheduled to begin in July, and will take approximately a year to complete. Casting is now 'taking place in LA, London and New York,' and [director Guillermo] Del Toro is already 'living in Wellington, close to the Jacksons and the studio in Miramar.' Apparently the script is still being worked on, and 'the first draft is crammed with old and new friends, again on a quest in Middle-earth.' The planned sequel to The Hobbit is to be an original story not written by Tolkien, covering the 60 years between The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings."
I commented on the post in the Firehose after I submitted it, but the summary should've said "... is scheduled to begin in July ..." instead of June.
'If Christ had tweeted the sermon on the mount, it might have lasted until nightfall.' - John Perry Barlow
Sounds like the filler episodes in anime, when they've already make all the current manga into anime, but want to make more anime something anyway. And we all know how great those are.
For those of you not familiar with anime, that last part was sarcasm. Filler episodes are utterly craptastic. In that case, because the story continues on as if nothing significant happened in the time the filler is showing, any plot or character development has to be disposable. Nothing happens.
Same thing here. What could happen in the sequel to the hobbit? Spoiler: none of the characters that are in lord of the rings will die in the prequel, wheras any characters they introduce will die before the events in lord of the rings or will have to come up with some reason they're insignificant for lord of the rings.
I think the news article is wrong/has outdated information. See http://www.aintitcool.com/node/41848