forum.thehobbit-movie.com

[Smaug]

Here is a good summary on what's going on with The Hobbit right now
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Sic hobbitur ad astra

[Eliana]

This article comfort me not overmuch.

[Finrod Felagund]

Why so Eliana? I haven't had the chance to read it yet

[Eliana]

Read it and weep. There are no easy answers, no easy way out. Seems like a maze of inflated egos and political movie jargon running amuck with the fans' emotional investments... exactly the kind of thing Tolkien hated.
She does a good job of reporting and bringing every bit of pertinent info together, but it's depressing.at least to me. However, there's always hope.

[5 by 5]

I respectfully disagree with this news being depressing. On the contrary, we're going to have these movies made, with Jackson participating in the creation process. This is a lot better than no movies being made and Jackson never returning to Middle Earth. It is odd how personalities and business practices can sometimes be their own worst enemy, considering how guaranteed-bankable this story is and has been.
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So, where are we going?

[TheMisfortuneTeller]

I'd like to add my two-cents worth of agreement with those who find these reports -- mostly about the irrelevant past, anyway -- not at all depressing given the most recent news that these two new movies will now proceed towards appearing on the big theater screen in 2010 and 2011. That sounds like a long time to wait, but the film-makers really only have one year to write the scripts for two movies and only one additional year to film both of them simultaneously. (This almost demands two separate directors.) Then, since a significant portion of both films will involve compositing digital-effects animation, an additional year of post-production work on each seems only realistic given the way fantasy films get made these days. Taking all these facts into consideration, the official announcements we've heard so far sound simply ordinary.

More to the point, the most telling of all the reactions I've read to date involved one fan who "threatened" to only see the movies once if he found them trashy instead of dragging all his relatives to see them fifteen times if they turn out really good. Personally, I don't doubt that two movies "based on" The Hobbit will sell more tons of popcorn and toy-product tie-ins than just one -- perhaps even a vast amount more. I only wonder whether the film-makers will break any new ground in taking Tolkien's work beyond where he left it for others to build upon and improve.
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"If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't" -- Tweedledee

[michel.daw]

I agree, this is not bad news, yet. I think the greatest contribution and innovation will be the same as in LOTR, finding and presenting the story that is hiding inside the tales of Middle Earth. This time, they will have to drag it from more materials than the previous films.

"The Difficult I'll do right now, the Impossible might take a little while."

[pentirr]

In the article I don't get this bit about stuff in the second film: