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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 have visions of furries lined up for the audition.
"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."
Thanks but no thanks.
There is a war going on for your mind.
Oh jeez, MORE walking?!?!?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
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
Oh joy, another visually stunning film with a disjointed script, mixing Tolkien's brilliant timeless dialog with flat modern drivel penned by Fran Walsh. And the sequel... that's just going to be visually stunning with drivel for plot and dialog.
It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't screw up the plot and dialog so badly. Ugh.
... like Jar Jar Binksarrim of the water people. And Elrond will have an affair with Galadriel. That's right, as soon as we fully Americanize this story, we will have a real winner here, folks.
Imagine buying the White Album and finding Green Day tracks spliced in to 'fill in' what The Beatles meant to do.
I don't think I'll see either of them out of principle.
... like Jar Jar Binksarrim of the water people. And Elrond will have an affair with Galadriel. That's right, as soon as we fully Americanize this story, we will have a real winner here, folks.
Sorry, that was only the first draft. Now, Bilbo is a time-traveling immortal who joins with a hip new Gandalf to save Middle-Earth's ozone layer.
Then, they break dance!
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."
A sequel NOT written by Tolkien? Ew. How about instead another prequel taken from The Silmarillion? That would be full of awesome, almost guaranteed to win several internets.
I'm in favor of the sequel. In all due reverence to Tolkien, there are other authors on this planet who have done well with fantasy works. In fact every single work of modern fantasy is derivative from Tolkien's works, and if you've ever enjoyed any of them, there's a distinct risk you'll enjoy this, too.
What's more, since you haven't read this particular book, you're probably less likely to be underwhelmed by it. You can't compare the dialog to a book which doesn't exist.
Finally, I think it absolutely vital for fantasy, and all fiction everywhere, to move beyond reverence for certain works. Somehow humanity managed to move beyond Shakespeare, creating new-ish works which we prefer to his, and I believe we can move beyond Tolkien. I also feel that making a new work in that same setting can be a catalyst for that evolution.
I'm also a strong proponent of 'Lucas' Law' wherein we can democratically remove an author's control over a project if they cease to contribute to society. Introduce one too many Jar-Jar-Binks-types and the people put a referendum on the ballot to put your work into the public domain...
Tolkien's work should be eligible for this transition as well, because nothing new is coming out of it. Or nothing was, until this sequel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silmarillion
duh
it will be hard to nail tolkien's tone in a made up "middle movie". even if it isn't "studio committee of frat boys"ed to death, lotr fundamentalist fanboys will eviscerate it. they can deal with no tom bombadil, since its a story line that's so out of touch with the rest of lotr that it can safely be surgically removed, but whatever they do with the rumored necromancer plotline for this "middle movie" they better be damn respectful to the world of lotr:
http://www.storyscape.net/hobbit_necromancer.html
as an aside, i always thought a good jumping off point for lotr fanfiction/ hollywood exploitation would be an examination of the blue wizards:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Wizards
so little is sketched by tolkien of them and the world to the east of mordor they went too, that it could make for some great lotr-type stories without stepping on any middle earth toes or the fanboys who guard the mythology's continuity
it could have an east asian or russian mythology theme, keeping in touch with all those maps that overlay mordor with either germany, transylvania, or the middle east
and maybe we would get more oliphants! ;-P
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Well, I read *The Hobbit* to my son when he was in 2nd grade. After I read the last word on the last page, the instant I set the book down he said, "Can we read *The Hobbit 2* next?"
Poor kid. That's just how I feel.
*The Hobbit* is greatly underestimated by even Tolkien fans, who pooh-pooh it because it's not LotR. The tone of the story is a bit condescending at first, something that Tolkien himself expressed dissatisfaction with in later years, but as in LotR there's a lot going on under the surface of *The Hobbit*. It's a story well worth serious study. Achieving that in story so readable and enjoyable on a superficial level is a tremendous achievement.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Tolkien wrote dialogue? I thought his books were fantasy travelogues: descriptions of places, leaving places, walking through places, and arriving at other places. I don't remember much in the way of dialogue. I just remember lots of walking. Oh, and maybe a few spiders and a dragon or something.
You see, in order to have 'brilliant timeless dialogue' your characters have to have interesting motivations. The Hobbit was a classic adventure story, which quite simply does not lend itself to interesting motivations or dialogue. The only relevant motivation in an adventure story is "We've got to achieve The Thing!" and the dialogue boils down to"Have we achieved The Thing? No? How do we achieve The Thing? Ah, we need to (go somewhere/get something/kill someone/help someone/destroy something). Let's do that now!" repeated until the answer to the first question is "Yes! We have achieved The Thing!"
The Hobbit, and Tolkien's other works are nice stories, and amazing for their time, but don't try to make them into something they aren't. "Visually stunning" was exactly what Tolkien was going for, otherwise the books wouldn't read like a travelogue.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
...and create something new, genius. Something that would require a little more effort, something that would have a little more risk because it lacked an installed fan base. Something without a fuckin' elf.
I love the book, but I don't think it's a good idea for someone else to try making a sequel.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Yup, she bought the level 80 expansion and left her guildies behind.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Can we get Tim Burton to direct, and make it a franchise reboot?
I can see it now: the hobbits living in an advanced society not unlike 21st century Europe undergo a genetic mutation as the result of exposure to radioactive volcanic ash. One of the hobbits becomes Lord Sauron, who proceeds to rise up and conquer the lands, forming an oppressive kingdom where he removes and monopolizes all modern technology. Society within that first generation regresses to a 10th-century-style existence. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Starbuck, an astronaut who crashed on some faraway planet, helped the hobbits form a rag tag resistance group comprised of wookies, psychlo, and griffins, stumble across a cache of F-35 Lightning fighters, and although they have never seen so much as a flashlight or even matches, over the course of two weeks, become expert fighter pilots. Did I mention these F-35 Lightnings were not what they appeared, but are actually transformers, and in the bunker-style hangar they came across, there was a large semi. Well, the transformers were remaining covert to try to learn what all these strange creatures were up to since the creatures showed a barely perceptible spark of conscious thought. Optimus Prime took pity and he and his brothers revealed their true nature to the rag tag team. They agree to help the hobbits, psychlo, wookies, and griffins wage war to overthrow Sauron. The battle was quick and decisive.
Now for the Tim Burton twist ending: Glinda, the good witch told Lieutenant Starbuck "sorry man, but you have to go home now. I'll service you first." She gives him a BJ and tells him all he needs to do is to play the hokey pokey then he will be swiftly transported home. He does the hokey pokey, except he put is left foot in when he should have put in his right foot, so he landed in a parallel universe where the Earth is now ruled by giant tarantulas.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
I think the siege of Gondolin out of the Silmarillion would make a hell of a movie, as would the part where Morgoth & Ungoliant destroy the trees. Man, I need a life. I also agree that, given the right writing, the sequel they're planning could be decent.
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
Groucho Marx
I would like to second the idea of movies being created based on tales from The Silmarillion. There was a lot of cool stuff in there.
I have a bad feeling about this...
I'll third that, it'll save me the agony of reading The Silmarillion