Official The Hobbit thread

[Raiden]

I'm glad they will start shooting The Hobbit before McKellan gets too old to play Gandalf.

 

[Octoberist]

I'm gonna head out and buy the book today.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I haven't read the book since 5th grade. I don't want to read it before the film. Or if I do, it should be soon. I don't want to go in freshly reading it and comparing it.

And personally, I always preferred the LOTR films over the books anyway. The books are excellent, but the movies hit me harder emotionally.

 

[Thundarr]

I always thought they should've started with The Hobbit. Though I'm not complaining about the other movies coming out first mind you, I just thought that The Hobbit would make an awsome live action movie and would be a great way to test the waters for the other three (could you imagine if Fellowship Of The Ring totally bombed?).

Someone wrote earlier that they don't want the scenes with Smaug to look like Dragonheart. I don't know why, I love that movie and think the CGI was awsome. Of course the design for the dragon would be totally different, much fiercer looking. But the CGI technology would be right about the same.

And can someone please tell me why a book that's half the size of any of the three parts of LOTR can be made into a two parter, while each third of LOTR gets its own movie? I don't find it upsetting, just confusing. I mean it makes sense from a business standpoint (twice the movies, twice the profit), but how can they drag out the story into two movies?

 

[kedrell]

^I believe they are using the stuff in the appendices to fill it out.

 

[Darth Rockwell]

They are going to deal with what Gandalf kept dissapearing to do while the company of 13 made their way to the lonely Mountain.

 

[matrix_ghost]

so how will WETA do the effects for Hobbit and TinTin?

They will be able to handle that. No one is going exclude WETA from this , not after all the work they did on the LOTR movies. TIn Tin is complex but nowhere near complex ( and big) as Avatar IMO. I also think that WETA has already begun work on on TIn Tin .

 

[Scarlet Spider]

Cameron mentioned at Comic-Con that he had seen some of Weta's designs for The Hobbit:

Before the recorder was turned on there was some small talk about how awesome Weta is. Cameron mentioned that he’d seen some of their design work on THE HOBBIT (his exact words were that it was “the ****”) and that it really is the original trilogy world created by Weta and Peter Jackson, but with a slight influence of Guillermo del Toro’s style. Cameron said the two styles mix perfectly together.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/41920

 

[matrix_ghost]

Yeah tha's the models that WETA workship is working on.
There was a interview at ( i think) at EMPIRE , where GDJ and PJ were interviewed about the Hobbit. THey mentioned that models were already being created by the guys at WETA workshop and that (jokingly) GDJ and PJ would fight for the models they'd like to keep.

 

[david icke]

WETA is doing the effect again so the answer to the question is what did you think of the Wogs and Eagles? Did they look fake or take you out of LOTR? I trust those behind this movie.I always like the Hobbit more then the other books.

Those creatures didn't talk though. I think the reason people are bringing up Dragonheart as opposed to say , Reign of Fire, is because the dragon talked there.
I have only seen the trailer for Dragonheart, but one problem I felt it had was that it had a very recognisable voice doing the Dragon in Sean Connery. That's the same problem with the Dragon in the tv show Merlin, that one has John Hurt voicing it, too recognisable to adults, you just think 'Sean connery' or 'John Hurt' as opposed to dragon.
Also, they just do their own straight voices, there's no trying to sound like a creature, as if they are hired for their famous voices that bring some kind of gravitas instead of their acting skills, acting skills that should be used to create a voice that doesn't sound human, as well as all the other usual stuff.
So even for kids who don't know these guys it's crap, as they don't attempt to do a creature type voice.

For Smaug they need a bit of creature in there in the voice. The guy who did the voice for General Grievous in ROTS was one of the sound engineers, as long as they are good it doesn't matter if they are unknown.
No-one said anything about problems with how the dragon would look so I'm guessing this is the problem they are worried about.

 

[Thundarr]

Those creatures didn't talk though. I think the reason people are bringing up Dragonheart as opposed to say , Reign of Fire, is because the dragon talked there.
I have only seen the trailer for Dragonheart, but one problem I felt it had was that it had a very recognisable voice doing the Dragon in Sean Connery. That's the same problem with the Dragon in the tv show Merlin, that one has John Hurt voicing it, too recognisable to adults, you just think 'Sean connery' or 'John Hurt' as opposed to dragon.
Also, they just do their own straight voices, there's no trying to sound like a creature, as if they are hired for their famous voices that bring some kind of gravitas instead of their acting skills, acting skills that should be used to create a voice that doesn't sound human, as well as all the other usual stuff.
So even for kids who don't know these guys it's crap, as they don't attempt to do a creature type voice.

For Smaug they need a bit of creature in there in the voice. The guy who did the voice for General Grievous in ROTS was one of the sound engineers, as long as they are good it doesn't matter if they are unknown.
No-one said anything about problems with how the dragon would look so I'm guessing this is the problem they are worried about.

That's possible. All they wrote in their posts was "I don't want The Hobbit to be like Dragonheart". They didn't specify why. I didn't think there was anything wrong with the voices used in the Dragonheart movies, D&D II, etc, but that's my opinion.

 

[david icke]

That's possible. All they wrote in their posts was "I don't want The Hobbit to be like Dragonheart". They didn't specify why. I didn't think there was anything wrong with the voices used in the Dragonheart movies, D&D II, etc, but that's my opinion.

There's nothing really 'wrong' about them using straight human voices, but it's just that Smaug is a great character and I'd want them to aim a bit higher to achieve an otherworldly effect.
Take Tiamat from the D&D cartoon, now that's an otherworldly dragon voice. Not the kind of voice I'd want for Smaug but an example of voice acting combined with some effects that came together very well. At least I assume there is some effects on that voice, bit of echo and who knows what.

 

[terry78]

They need to add persona to Smaug, because he's described as being somewhat greedy, on top of things, and has a dry sense of humor. Also, he likes riddles and proving people wrong...before he eats them.

 

[Silver Knight]

When do they start filming?

 

[Doctor Jones]

I can really see Smaug as being something else on film. Even better if done the right way. A real greedy and pompous and dangerous personality.

 

[Thundarr]

There's nothing really 'wrong' about them using straight human voices, but it's just that Smaug is a great character and I'd want them to aim a bit higher to achieve an otherworldly effect.
Take Tiamat from the D&D cartoon, now that's an otherworldly dragon voice. Not the kind of voice I'd want for Smaug but an example of voice acting combined with some effects that came together very well. At least I assume there is some effects on that voice, bit of echo and who knows what.

Maybe James Earl Jones with a Tiamat type echo added to his voice to make it sound more "otherworldly"?

 

[david icke]

Maybe James Earl Jones with a Tiamat type echo added to his voice to make it sound more "otherworldly"?

Personally I wouldn't choose JEJ due to overfamiliarity, but maybe, just someone with a good voice who doesn't mind it being tweaked with effects, although if they can great vocal performance out of someone that doesn't need sfx that's fine too.
and yeah, as folk have said, they need to get his personality right.

Pertaining to your earlier question about the book's length being spread over two movies...I haven't read the book in years, but read it over and over agin when I was a kid, so going by that memory bank situation I would say that there is quite a few things in the book that are just a few sentences or paragraphs that take place of a long period of time that could be expanded upon well in the movie.

Like when the dwaves are taken capture in 'barrels out of bondage(?)' and it's said that Bilbo has been sneaking around for months in the place where they are held, trying to figure out a way of escape.
Also, I'd like them to take their time with the travelling through the forest, you need to feel totally hungry during that sequence.
Stuff like the battle of the 3(?)armies at the end too, that's pretty quickly skimmed over in the book but will take up a lot of time onscreen too.
There will have to be lots of dialoge created for scenes that re mainly descriptive in the book, like when the dwarves all congregate at Bilbo's home. So, I mean, from smallish scenes in the book there will be lots of charterisation needed to be added for a movie.
edit: As Kendrall said they are using appendice stuff. But, I don't know how much, at first they said they were going to create a whole movie out of that kind of thing to bridge the LOTR to the Hobbit, but then they said that wasn't the idea they were going with after all.
I think with what needs to be added there's two movies in the Hobbit, better that than rushed through in one.

Really looking forward to it, I only read the 1st LOTR book, I much preferred the Hobbit, my favourite book when I was a kid.

 

[regwec]

Did anyone here listen to the BBC radio play of LOTR when they were tiny?

I remember it with great affection. I always thought that the actor who voiced Saruman was brilliant, but sounded like Smaug to me. Probably dead now, though.

Oh and Robert Stevens as Aragorn > Viggo Mortensteineninestenson.

 

[kedrell]

I always like whoever voiced Smaug in the Rankin & Bass cartoon. Very good job by him, especially when Smaug is going over the litany of his attributes in order to intimidate Bilbo into revealing himself. But I guess the score during that point added quite a bit to it as well. I always loved that scene.

 

[Silver Knight]

Can anyone tell me when filming starts.

 

[Octoberist]

spring 2010.

 

[Electrix]

Can anyone tell me when filming starts.

Ian McKellen said he'll start in New Zealand next March and will be there for most of 2010.

 

[matrix_ghost]

EXCLUSIVE DETAILS: MGM Makes Phone Plea To Bondholders To Stay Alive; Both 'Hobbit' And James Bond In Peril; Bondholders Tell Studio To Go Bankrupt; MGM Calls That Worst Possible Outcome

The call was for the benefit of the lenders, and MGM management made the presentation along with Stephen F Cooper, that Zolfo Cooper restructure specialist. MGM made a desperate plea for money because the studio had missed its numbers and was going to be out of funds very soon. "The implication was that it's teetering on bankruptcy," one source told me. MGM said it needed $20M in short-term cash flow to cover overhead, and an additional $150 million to get through the end of year and continue funding its projects, and to start Peter Jackson's Hobbit.

I know that Newline/WB were going to co-finance Hobbitt with MGM and MGM handling the distribution in foreign markets.
It'll be interesting to see if WB is going to fully finance the project.

Hell if they can manage to make superman returns and inception for 200 million , i don't see why they can't make both hobbitt movies for 300 million. Matrix 2 and 3 combined cost 300 million.

 

[Armored Avenger]

I know that Newline/WB were going to co-finance Hobbitt with MGM and MGM handling the distribution in foreign markets.
It'll be interesting to see if WB is going to fully finance the project.

Hell if they can manage to make superman returns and inception for 200 million , i don't see why they can't make both hobbitt movies for 300 million. Matrix 2 and 3 combined cost 300 million.

If MGM do lose the ability to help finance The Hobbit movies, I think WB will fully finance them. They are guaranteed to make loads at the box office and in DVD/Blu-Ray sales and are likely to be among (if not the) highest grossing movies of 2011 and 2012.

 

[dark_b]

i think WB will be happy if they get 100& of the profit.