The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

I'm kind of sceptical now. I can see The Hobbit as being two films, but three? I'm curious to see if this is just a cash-grab or not. The Silmarillion is something I can see being made into three films.

'The Hobbit' now set to be a trilogy | Film & TV News | NME.COM

Re: The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

I'd rather a trilogy to space some of the story out rather than cut out possibly important parts or rush through some aspects in order to stick to a set time limit, but I'm also a little skeptical about it being a useless cash-grab. I don't know how they'll establish when/where each movie begins and ends in relation to the books, but if it works better than squishing a lot of stuff into two 3-hour movies, then I'm all for it.

EDIT: The first movie of the trilogy is set to be released to theaters in December, with the second (and what was supposed to be final installment) set for December 2013. I'm curious to know how this planned third movie will fit into this series. Seems a little late to be adding a third movie to the series.

Re: The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

Maybe the third movie is just three hours of the siege.

Re: The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

^Now that is a movie I'd love to watch.

Re: The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

The Silmarillion is unfilmable. I'd simultaneously applaud and boycott any director that would make the effort.

I guess it's not totally implausible for The Hobbit to fit into three films, if they included everything that occurs in the book. Although we are extremely skeptical.

Re: The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

Seems a bit late indeed. Ofcourse the number one priority should be to tell the story (without it getting too longwinded and dull). :rofl:

Re: The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

Heard about this earlier today from a friend, and I share all of your scepticism. Unless I am mistaken, the Hobbit Book is about half the size of the other three books. Each of the other three books was told in a single film, now they're going to produce a book/film combo that is half the story from one of the older films and stretch it into three films?

Either they're dragging the entire story out here, or they're going to be adding scenes that aren't mentioned in the books at all. In regards to the surprise 3rd film, I would expect that they'll either move Hobbit #2 into June '13 and Hobbit #3 into the December '13 slot, or, more than likely they'll have Hobbit #2 in December '13 and Hobbit #3 in December '14.

As for how they've got three films from filming for two. It's a fair bet that they've simply reduced the time of the individual films. Say they've got six hours worth of film which they were going to have as two three-hour films, they'll have instead opted to go for three two-hour films.

I have faith in the producers, developers and cast 'cause they done such a great job with the LotR Trilogy, though my scepticism remains.

Re: The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

Each film is going to be coming out in December; 2012, 2013, and the finale in 2014. Same thing happened with the other three LOTR films. It is very weird though, as the Hobbit is no where near the size as some of the other books, which they did a very good job squeezing into one film each.

Re: The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

I know Wikipedia isn't exactly known to be correct all of the time, but:Looks like they're bringing the third film to an earlier release date.

Apparently too, there are a few scenes to be included that aren't in the books at all. Heck, Evangeline Lilly (Kate from LOST) is set to play the part of an Elven women who isn't in any of the books, so I figure they're going to be adding a few scenes of their own to make these three films worthwhile.

It wouldn't surprise me either if the third film doesn't focus so much on the hobbit tale, but more a bridge between the hobbit story and that of the LotR's trilogy. There is (I believe) a significant gap between the two tales, one that they could easily fill in if they're going freelance with the script.

Re: The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

Three movies out of 310 pages, nice. Peter Jackson says it will have some of the LOTR trilogy's extra material, which allows them to tell the 'full Hobbit story'. Whatever that is, seems like moneygrubbing and lessening the hype for the first one.

But he has been very accurate when portraying the other books so maybe he can pull it off.

Re: The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

A lot of the material is supposed to be stuff that is mentioned in the Appendices and story of LotR, or in Unfinished Tales, but is never seen (or really pointed out) in Hobbit. I can definitely see there being enough material. You can start the story in a wider context -

Smaug is too dangerous if he decides to ally with Sauron, Gandalf needs a way to get rid of him, meets Thorin, meets Bilbo, sets up the company. Then the part you see in the book begins. Gandalf leaves, he goes and visits the White Council about Sauron's growing power. Switch back to book material; Gandalf disappears again, we see his investigation of Dol Guldur and some questions about the Ring. More book stuff, then we see the final destruction of Dol Guldur (tied in with the Mirkwood elves) and the beginning of Saruman's corruption. (very vague I know, I haven't even read Unfinished Tales yet).

Obviously the actual "Hobbit story" takes center stage but there's a lot of context to fit in if you want a good connection with the other three movies.

And we also know that Jackson was trying to characterize the Dwarves more than they were in the book. You can watch some of the production videos and see how they put some personality in each one. So instead of covering days or weeks in a matter of a few sentences like in the books, we can use it to learn about each character and their nuances.

EDIT: Yay! Just noticed my signature is relevant again

Re: The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

Not too keen on the 3 films idea, 2 was long enough 3 just seems a cash grab in my eyes. They were able to do 3 LOTR books in 3 films, long films. Why not just make 2 long films? Because they want another box office cash flow.

Don't get me wrong it could work out amazing, keep very much to the book but maybe add in their own ideas as well. Similar to the previous films but with more scenes from the book.

This is one thing I am really looking forward to. For some reason Dwarves always have been my favourite 'mythical race' in terms of Elves, Orcs etc. I think it has something to do with how industrial efficient they are; I almost relate to it. Plus they are bad ass and Scottish people always make me laugh, especially how they make them proper hard nuts too.

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There are Gandalfs tales that were only toched upon during the book. Gandalf went to deal with the Necromancer and there is the battle of Dol Guldur that also was supposed to happen around that time.
There is a ton of things that could be expanded on that is mentioned in passing in the book that I would love to see.
I am pretty excited about this news tbh as I was expecting to see all that is in the book with a lot some minor additions but now it looks like they are going all out and that will be fantastic.

Re: The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

When it comes down to it, whatever their intentions and however they decide to make the film and who to cast etc.

As long as it's a good watch who the hell cares?

Re: The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

Whilst this is true, you have potentially just killed a perfectly good conversation. =p

Re: The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

I was wondering how they were going to make into 3 movies as well. I mean, 2 movies is definitely easy. The Hobbit is nothing from action to action basically through the entire book. But I read that they're also adding in stuff from the Appendices, which explains using 3 movies. I'm actually thrilled about this. I don't want to have to wait for all 3, but turning it into a trilogy and using the appendices means that nothing will be left out and I will get to see/learn things about characters that I wouldn't have gotten to otherwise ^_^

Re: The Hobbit - Now a Trilogy
 

You do realize that there is a lot of non-action in this film too, don't you? Unless I'm mistaken, there is only one truly large-scale battle in the entire book. Hardly action-fuelled.

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By "action" I didn't necessarily mean "battle". They are not one in the same. I simply meant that from the beginning of the book, to the end of the book, there is always something interesting going on. Never really a dull moment may have been a better way to phrase it, perhaps.

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I stand corrected. :)

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Haha :P It's actually one of the things I love about The Hobbit. Especially in comparison to LotR, which I feel tends to start dragging at some points.

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Very true, LOTR does drag on in some places (although people who haven't read the books probably won't agree). I can think of a few places where The Hobbit is slow, but the majority of it is fast paced but detailed.

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Yeah like the 6 endings in ROTK