The Hobbit Movie Feature
Four years later, it was announced that Peter Jackson, the producer of the trilogy, officially had the rights to create two movies based on Tolkien’s best selling work; “The Hobbit.”
“I’m really excited. I’ve been waiting for this since I was a little girl,” said Sophomore Brianna Coulter.
Developments were hard to be heard of in the next three years. Originally, Jackson tried to cast Ian Holm as Bilbo, since he played the character in the trilogy. This turned out to be a problem, seeing as there were many action scenes in the movie, and
Holm was simply too old to take the part.
However, British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), award winner Martin Freeman stated that he had been contacted in 2010 to play the main role of Bilbo Baggins. At the time, he said that due to scheduling conflicts with Sherlock, a BBC show that he starred in, he would be unable to take up the role. Yet only weeks later, information was released that Martin Freeman had taken the role.
“I don’t know much about Martin Freeman,” said Coulter. “But he’ll probably do a great job because the people who make The Lord of the Rings movies know what they’re doing.”
While not all fans share the same sentiments, the general feelings towards this movie were of eager anticipation. After years filming on location, similar to the style of filming seen in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Peter Jackson said that rather than two films, “The Hobbit” would be made into a trilogy as well.
The first would be called, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” and would be released in December of 2012. The second film would be called, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, to be released in December of 2013. The third and final film would be called “The Hobbit: There and Back Again,” which is told to come out it 2014, midyear.
Unfortunately for the creators of the film, the news of three movies was met with mixed reactions. Many people claimed that “The Hobbit” was merely jumping on “the Harry Potter bandwagon” by splitting up the last film, as “Breaking Dawn” and
“Mockingjay” had. Others claimed that Jackson was being greedy, trying to squeeze as much money out of the series as possible.
“It’s a long book, so it’s probably a good idea,” said Sophomore Joey Wachtel.
The most pressing concern, the one that nearly everyone seemed to mention, was the fact that few people believed that a person could turn a 200 page children’s novel into three full length movies. Jackson has protested that there is more than enough plot, and plenty of subtext to fill two hours. On top of this, the producers plan to include much of the unsung prelude to The Lord of the Rings, meetings and battles, all the things that lead up to the award-winning trilogy.
“‘The Hobbit’ was a long book, and although I would have liked to see it all as a movie in one go, it’ll definitely translate better into a film.” Coulter defended.
Despite critics concerns, fans seem to be as excited as ever for more releases in The Lord of the Rings community. Rumors also have spread that Jackson is attempting to attain rights to The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion is a history of Middle Earth, the setting for the fantasy novels. Whether he will get through the Tolkien estate in this lifetime remains to be seen, but rest assured, Jackson is not soon going to give up his throne in among the fans of Lord of the Rings.
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