The Hobbit (2012/2013)

[Soln]

filiming has started with Jackson in NZ.  First blog of pre-production and filming below.  And no, there was no separate thread yet.  Merge if so.  Otherwise, squee and squee and squee.

http://www.movieweb.com/movie/the-hobbit/start-of-production


Edit: Oh, and Sir Ian is in the clip.  Boasting a fine cap.

[Samwise]

So I just had a look at the cast page.  Lots there to be excited about.  Except...

Were Frodo, Legolas, Saruman, and Galadriel in The Hobbit?  Shit, was Frodo even born yet when Bilbo was off having his adventures?

We're going to be telling the entire story as a series of flashbacks, aren't we.  

[Johny Cee]

So I just had a look at the cast page.  Lots there to be excited about.  Except...

Were Frodo, Legolas, Saruman, and Galadriel in The Hobbit?  Shit, was Frodo even born yet when Bilbo was off having his adventures?

We're going to be telling the entire story as a series of flashbacks, aren't we.  

If I had to guess:

Frodo and old Bilbo will be used as a framing device for telling the story to get viewers up to speed on where and when the story takes place, and to convey some of how Bilbo was feeling.  It might even be necessary, because the narrative voice in The Hobbit was much different from LOTR....  it showed Bilbos transition from out of his depth and almost a burden to the defacto leader and most important character.


Legolas should have been at the Mirkwood palace scenes and the Battle of Five Armies, but he was a later canon addition.  Sticking him in doesn't really mess anything up.


A big part of the plot of The Hobbit is that Gandalf has to leave the party at the beginning of Mirkwood, to race back to Rivendell to make a meeting of the White Council where they decide to go knock on the gates of Dol Guldor.  In the book, this is downplayed.  In the movie, you'll have to illustrate why he can't hang around otherwise it looks like a major plot hole where Gandalf just takes off and abandons the rest.


Okay:

David Tennant as Thandruil and Leonard Nimoy as Smaug?  Yes.  Yes please!

[Slyfeind]

Yes, Frodo will be framing it at the start. Not necessarily a flashback, but probably more of a storytime thing.

And they're going to show Gandalf and the White Council vs. The Necromancer. I think details are still being speculated, but I'm guessing there's probably going to be a Big Zombie Skeleton Fight. (Or maybe they'll show up at Dol Guldor and there'll be nobody there...oooooo.)

[Hawkbit]

The original concept (I don't know if Jackson changed this) was that the two movies would span the story of the Hobbit and the years leading up to LOTR.  I'm not fond of this idea.  The Hobbit alone could comprise two full 3 hour movies, with the journey to Lonely Mountain being the first and the interation with Smaug/Battle of Five Armies comprising the second.  

I can't quite remember from lore, but I think that Legolas and Galadriel are in the same area during this time, though they should not be in Rivendell.  Frodo would not have been alive during the Hobbit, and I have no idea what Saruman was up to.  Ascending to White Wizard, maybe?

[Hawkbit]

Leonard Nimoy as Smaug?  Yes.  Yes please!

Maybe, just maybe, we can get him to sing Bilbo Baggins for us. 

[Johny Cee]

The original concept (I don't know if Jackson changed this) was that the two movies would span the story of the Hobbit and the years leading up to LOTR.  I'm not fond of this idea.  The Hobbit alone could comprise two full 3 hour movies, with the journey to Lonely Mountain being the first and the interation with Smaug/Battle of Five Armies comprising the second.  

I can't quite remember from lore, but I think that Legolas and Galadriel are in the same area during this time, though they should not be in Rivendell.  Frodo would not have been alive during the Hobbit, and I have no idea what Saruman was up to.  Ascending to White Wizard, maybe?

Legolas is Thandruil's son, so he should be in Mirkwood/palace/Battle of Five Armies.

Galadriel was one of the big powers on the White Council, so she would have traveled to Rivendell for that and to bitchslap the Necromancer. 


If the movie was structured like Princess Bride, with old Bilbo narrating the story to Frodo...  I think that would work very, very well.

[Ironwood]

As long as we dispense with the Kissing Parts.

[HaemishM]

Are you saying you don't want to see the smoldering yet doomed passion between Gollum and Bilbo?

[WayAbvPar]

As long as we dispense with the Kissing Parts.

Especially Frodo and Sam.

[Riggswolfe]

For some reason I'm not really excited about this. I'll probably change my tune but well, it's a prequel. Sure, it has the advantage of not being written by George Lucas but it just doesn't do anything for me. Oddly if it'd been released before the LOTR movies I might be more excited. I know, I don't understand it either.

[nurtsi]

Has there been any info on what the shoved-in romance plot is going to be that every big-budget movie must have? I don't remember there being many women in the Hobbit.

[ezrast]

Easy fix. Take a couple of the extraneous dwarves nobody really cares about, like Bofur or Oin, and give them vaginas. Insert hilariously implied dwarven three-way-in-a-barrel after the escape from the elves.

[Tannhauser]

Dol Guldur (Hill of Sorcery) was the hideout of Sauron (minus his ring of course) in southern Mirkwood.  The Wise discovered an evil presence there but left it alone for a thousand years while it corrupted the forest.  See below.  Finally Gandalf went alone to scout the place and Sauron was like "LOL, I'm out bitches" and fled.  Four hundred years later Sauron returned and was like "Whuz up?"  Four hundred years after THAT Gandalf returned (it's implied he went alone) and discovered Sauron was the evil force. Then about one hundred years after THAT, the White Council (led by Saruman) drove Sauron out of Dol Guldur.

Saruman, hoping for Sauron to basically lead him to the ring, in his role as the head of the White Council, delayed and lied to the rest.  He vetoed one assault urged by Gandalf, but one can think that the pressure finally forced him to order the attack on Dol Guldur which drove Sauron to Mordor.  Only a few years later Saruman founded Isengard and started forming his orc army.  Noted for first Diversity Program in Middle Earth.

So Gandalf was central to this as was Galadriel and Celeborn.  The reason Gandalf was so happy during most of The Hobbit?  Saurman told the White Council that the Ring had fallen away to the sea. 

/nerd off

 

[pxib]

For some reason I'm not really excited about this.

I think that's because, while we had only relatively crappy versions of the Lord of the Rings, there's already an acceptable version of the Hobbit.

[MuffinMan]

Meh, all three of those were pretty much on par with each other. I think the animated Hobbit is just the most remembered.

[Merusk]

I've never seen the Rankin-Bass ROTK, but the Rototscoped LOTR is in no way on the same level as The Hobbit.   It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't that great, either.  (Although it did have an awesome soundtrack)  

The Hobbit, on the other hand, was really good and only suffers in a few spots, like the removal of the Bear dude and the horrible Elf & goblin designs.  Those last two I blame more on the shitty fantasy art of the 70's than the movie itself.

[MuffinMan]

I'm excited about the new Hobbit movie but I know I'm going to be annoyed with it. Simply because the Hobbit is not supposed to be a prequel but I'm sure they're going to cram in as many LotR movie references as possible so the viewers can connect the two. So pretty much what Samwise said.

[01101010]

My hope is, that those are very subtle hints at LotR. I get the feeling we are going to see Bilbo's book a lot if it's a story-tell movie.

[Minvaren]

I've never seen the Rankin-Bass ROTK.

Wow, thanks for the fond memories.

Do.  They did it as well as The Hobbit.  Plus the whip song is  .

[Jimbo]

It seemed like the guys who did some of the Hobbit from 1977 did some of the stuff for the movie Heavy Metal, must be the rotoscope style.

[SurfD]

I've never seen the Rankin-Bass ROTK.

Wow, thanks for the fond memories.

Do.  They did it as well as The Hobbit.  Plus the whip song is  .

Was that the same Hobbit that had the Smaug dragon who looked like some kind of mutant cat?

[Ratman_tf]

I've never seen the Rankin-Bass ROTK.

Wow, thanks for the fond memories.

Do.  They did it as well as The Hobbit.  Plus the whip song is  .

Was that the same Hobbit that had the Smaug dragon who looked like some kind of mutant cat?

Yup.

[Ironwood]

Wow.

That's the most retarded Dragon I've ever seen.

[SurfD]

Wow.

That's the most retarded Dragon I've ever seen.

I remember thinking just about the exact same thing.  As far as I can remeber, Gandalf and the Hobbits were the only characters in that movie who i thought were properly desinged.  The elves, dwarves and the dragon all looked nearly pants on head retarded.

[Koyasha]

The elves of Rivendell looked ok, but the forest elves looked ridiculous.  I thought the dwarves weren't too bad either, but I can see where you're coming from on that one.

[Merusk]

As I said.. Fantasy art in the 70s: Total Shit.

[WindupAtheist]

Was this the version of LOTR where they decided that the name Saurman sounded too much like Sauron and changed it to Aruman? Then managed to call him Saruman half the time anyway?

[Arrrgh]

Leonard Nimoy   ...    Smaug (rumored)

[Ironwood]

Yeah, I think Sam rumored it all the way up the top of the page.

I don't want him to be Smaug.  I dislike Galvatron in my Dragon.

[Khaldun]

Ah, the Rankin-Bass ROTK. Been a while. So very, very wrong to hear most of the voice work done by Saturday morning cartoon performers, and the sound effects too. The Eowyn-Witch King scene is completely 

[Johny Cee]

Okay:

David Tennant as Thandruil and Leonard Nimoy as Smaug?  Yes.  Yes please!

I swear to God my avatar creates some kind of perception filter.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Yeah, I think Sam rumored it all the way up the top of the page.

I don't want him to be Smaug.  I dislike Galvatron in my Dragon.

Better than starscream.

[Ironwood]

Ok, I called you Samwise, but in fairness Sam, In Real Life, is in fact a couple of cute wee dingo doggy things, so you can see how I got confused.

[Johny Cee]

I thought Samwise looked like this: