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Big New Hobbit Update Straight from Guillermo del Toro!

by Alex Billington
April 17, 2009
Source: Empire

In the upcoming 20th anniversary issue of Empire, the Brits have another big announcement to make, this time from Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson about the very highly anticipated The Hobbit. "We've decided to have The Hobbit span the two movies, including the White Council and the comings and goings of Gandalf to Dol Guldur," del Toro reveals. It was originally announced in late 2006 that The Hobbit would become two movies, however the story contained within the book would be adapted solely into the first movie itself, and a "bridge" story to span the LOTR gap would be written specifically for the second movie.

It was an idea that a lot of hardcore J.R.R. Tolkien fans were not very fond of, but of course, that was an early decision and del Toro and Jackson seem to have changed their minds. "We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie," Jackson said. "The essential brief was to do The Hobbit, and it allows us to make The Hobbit in a little more style, if you like, of the [LOTR] trilogy." Does this mean we might even see a trilogy, with that extra bridge movie still thrown in for good measure (and triple the earnings)? I highly doubt it, but if you're a big LOTR fan and still want to be hopeful, then go right ahead.

This is great news for those who were upset at their original plan, and even better news for those of who just want to see The Hobbit adapted as perfectly as possible. Although, this means we probably won't see the return of Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn or other characters that were rumored to potentially appear in that bridge, since it would introduce a few of our Lord of the Rings friends. Oh well, it's all for the better, right?

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Related categories: Hype, Movie News, Opinions

Dave Lister, J.M.C.

That sounds fine. You can't go wrong when you stick to the source material.
Scott McHenry

Yes! This is good news. This is going to be awesome!
http://rtgmediaphiles.blogspot.com Dan W

Yea I agree. This sounds better than the original idea
Tristan

@1 According to Watchmen you seem to be wrong.
Darunia

"It wasn't an idea that a lot of hardcore J.R.R. Tolkien fans were not very fond of it" So they weren't not found of it, which means they were ok with it?
Darunia

Oh and the hobbits suck. LOTR was cool because of many things, but the Hobbits weren't it.
http://www.firstshowing.net Alex Billington

Whoa, sorry Darunia, fixed that mistake, a bit of grammatical confusion... You don't like Hobbits? LOTR was entirely about Hobbits, how can you not like them?!
DoomCanoe

oh hells yeah
robotron

E p i c ! please make the movies soon xD
L

There is plenty of side notes and story jotted down to have a movie constructed around it as the foundation.
elessar

This is fine with me, although I would have liked to see what the bridge film would have looked like. I remember Dol Guldur (the former hideout for Sauron's minions before he returned to Mordor), but I've never been clear on what the White Council was or who was on it. Could anyone lend me some info on this?
Greedo the Rodian

The only thing I can't really imagine.... The original LOTR trilogy set up the Hobbit village in about half an hour, which was pretty sufficient exposition. I'm just guessing Smaug would be necessary for the first movie, and that was the big climax of the book. But it gets a tad boring after that. The journey home. And some of the scenes (like a hobbit being captured by orcs) were already done in LOTR.
bassbin

as long as del toros making it it will FAIL like all his other movies...whats the point in even doing the hobbit with a crappy director. told you so.
PJ H

I have so much faith in these two men. @ 13. your insane
Bizzaro

I thought "The Hobbit" was only a small book, so how would that span into two 3 hour films. I was actually excited to see what happens between the story of "The Hobbit" and "The Fellowship Of The Ring". Oh well, at least we are getting the chance to see middle-earth again.
Silver

i just want it to end with Boromir going to the fellowship so even after all the triumphs in the Hobbit and the bridge there will still be a more "realistic" non-Hollywood ending
Dave Lister, J.M.C.

@ #4: I liked Watchmen,(even if the box office numbers don't agree with me) so I don't see how your assertion invalidates my point. Jackson and company stuck very close to Tolkien's source material, on the LOTR films. They did make some omissions as well as some slight changes; but overall they stayed true to the story that Tolkien originally wrote. The comparrison of LOTR/ Hobbit to Watchmen is apples and oranges.
Andrew

Look people, this is Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro, two of the greatest directors living today. It would be foolish to doubt them for even a second.
http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/4120/sppunx06oa5.jpg Crapola

I'm pretty excited for this, I reckon if they changed it too much it would be bad, but Jackson and Del Toro are two of my favourite directors and I loved the original LOTR films, so get rolling!
http://www.andreascliment.com Andreas

If I interpret Jackson and Del Toro correctly, it sounds more like they are making two movies with the story of The Hobbit AND other material from Tolkien's works about Middle Earth spanning both instead of making the first movie all about the story in The Hobbit. They changed some of the story structure in the Rings books too to make it work better on film. Some things in the Two Towers book is in the Return of the King movie and vice versa.
Sean

Oh, if only Michel Gondry had gotten this...then we could have a man in suit as the dragon, and cloth and cardboard EFX. It could be super awesome. I expect to love the one they're making, though.
theJoker

The runtime will be 4:30 hours for the short film, 5:15 the directors cut, they will make 4 films and an extension to 6 films telling a lot of stories very amusings... AH! for blue-ray, they also have extra material!!!!!
theJoker

... and they want to put something about a gigant monkey.... like at 1:15 of the first film...
Darunia

@ Alex Billington Well i don't like the hobbits because they were so boring in the movie, and the frodo and sam story was such a pain to watch, and then they kept crying, and they kept being like having these broromance with each other, and it became weird. Ok so maybe the other two hobbits were actually kind fun, but the main duo was just the worst part of the whole trilogy. And i love the trilogy, i have the extended special editions, i see the trilogy every year at least once, and i just love the World of Men vs Sauron, i love Aragorn and his story, Viggo Mortensen rocks, and the unlikely duo of Legolas and Grimli was just awesome. I loved the epic style, i loved the world of middle earth, the NAzgul are just freaking awesome. I only really dislike 2 things about the trilogy, the ending, was badly handled, went on forever and felt weird, and Frodo and Sam. I know that Frodo is the Ring bearer, and Sam is his loyal friend, but their story is by far the least interesting part of the adventure.
zetsu

@ 13 you are talking shit man,del toro is fucking great director (hellboy,hellboy 2 & pan's labyrinth are fucking good movies)so i can't wait for these films,they should be visually stunning and hopefully well written.
bltzie

#25, If you want to state that Del Toro is a "fucking great director" , I wouldn't use Hellboy & Hellboy 2 as an example of his work...
geneguru

@26 people are free to express there opinions and i agree with 25 that the hellboy films are actually good films. Its hard to get to the same standard as the LOTR again as they are one of the greatest trilogys of all time. Just respect the hellboy films for what they are. i think anyone would be foolish to think he's not a great director after seeing the LOTR trilogy. what other examples would you use to show del toro is a great director?
bltzie

"i think anyone would be foolish to think he's not a great director after seeing the LOTR trilogy" woah woah dude, who are we talking about here, Del Toro or Peter Jackson? oh and Pan's Labyrinth
Lana

I love the complaining about hobbits. Didn't like any of the hobbit-related stuff in LotR etc etc. But if they'd, maybe, read The Hobbit, they'd realize there's even less hobbits than LotR. There's the beginning and end of the novel/movie which like LotR will have scenes in the Shire. But for the majority of The Hobbits it's about Bilbo. So that's ONE hobbit... Gandalf, and about 10 dwarfs. And you throw in some bad guy trolls and orcs/goblins and spiders and dragons. And some elfs and a were-bear and some humans. Believe me it'll be even more about everyone else but the hobbit than LotR was.
http://Firstshowing.net The_Phantom

I really do hope that this movie turns out good. I trust Guillermo del Toro to a certain extent. I just hope that Peter Jackson helps out more than he can. I know that he's helping with the screenplay and WETA are in on this, so his animation should be better then ever.
Danjer047

In my humble opinion, Del Toro relies too heavily on effects and not enough on story. The first Hellboy was a good movie because it had the effects AND the story. Hellboy 2 was nowhere near as good, in my opinion, because it was all effects and hardly any story. There was no sense of danger and the people in the city were only threatened when the giant monster thing came in but that wasn't even that big of a deal. The only way that The Hobbit will be anywhere near as great as the LOTR trilogy is if Peter Jackson has a large hand in it. I just wish that he would make these rather than Del Toro. Del Toro needs to stick to making movies like Pan's Labyrinth. He should focus on movies that are truly amazing at weaving effects and stories together. Hopefully, with these movies, the creatures and effects will feel more like a part of the world rather than something that is merely meant to wow the audience. I think that many directors are falling into this rut. They think that making their movies in 3D will somehow make them more successful or better. These movies probably won't be in 3D and so at least that is a bit of a relief. Del Toro is a great director and has great vision but I just hope he follows the source material and is careful with his design/SFX decisions.
bassbin

thank you no 31. indeed del toro is wavering and cannot match jacksons creative but simpler approach to story line. as del toro has had some success with comic book movies the sad fact is no one goes to his movies cos he makes them-come on. its just silly effects and fake underworld people at the moment. if this is to get him some clout then it will be jacksons doing...