Official The Hobbit thread

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So I gusse WB's Mandatory 3D Tentpole policy will aply to this film as well?
that sort of depresses me.
 
Saw this and thought it might be a bit new


Director del Toro to give 'Hobbit' new look
March 22, 2010, 3:53 AM EST
HONG KONG (AP) -- One of Peter Jackson's frequent collaborators says the "Lord of the Rings" director passed the torch to Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro to give the trilogy's two-part prequel, "The Hobbit," a fresh look.
After the huge success of the "Rings" series, Jackson is now working on adapting the J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy novel that takes place before the trilogy. But this time the Oscar-winning New Zealand filmmaker is producing and working on the script, relinquishing directing duties to Del Toro, whose credits include "Pan's Labyrinth" and the two "Hellboy" movies.
Longtime Jackson collaborator, art designer Richard Taylor, says he thinks his friend gave up the director's chair "probably because he's spent so long in Middle Earth ... and probably felt a director such as Guillermo could bring something passionate and unique and original and new to the content for the sake of the fans," referring to the imaginary world where the novels are set.
"It's an absolute delight to be working with Guillermo del Toro. We've all enjoyed his craft as seen in 'Pan's Labyrinth' and the 'Hellboy' movies. His unique aesthetic and storytelling style brings a lovely aesthetic to the world and one we're enjoying being part of," Taylor told The Associated Press on Monday in Hong Kong, where he is attending a digital entertainment conference at the technology park Cyberport.
The Weta Workshop president said his team has started designing the landscape and characters in "The Hobbit," but that he was unclear when shooting on the New Line Cinema production will start in New Zealand.
"We're just patiently waiting for it to begin. It's been in early development for a while. I'm sure it will get going some time soon," Taylor said.
He said he will stick to a consistent look for the main characters that appear in both the "Rings" series and "The Hobbit."
Taylor, who also won Oscars for his work on the "Rings" series, said he doesn't know if "The Hobbit" will be released in 3-D, but said the Weta team will take advantage of technological advancements since the first trilogy.
"Like any film, there will be an effort to utilize the tools that are available to us today to achieve visual images that will excite and intrigue an audience as we did try 10 years ago."
 
Goddamnit.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/debtholders_fight_lowball_mgm_bids_1WNQXDjYsu6TdOiExael4L

Honestly, I've about 90% given up on these movies happening within a year. I know that sounds overly pessimistic, but these constant delays are starting to get to my head. MGM might as well just throw in the towel and declare bankruptcy. Time Warner is leading the bid with $1.5 billion dollars. I highly doubt they're going to get something better than that.

And now MGM is apparently asking its creditors if they can hold off paying debts until the middle of May. First January, then March 31st, and now May.

I should probably just not think about these films for another six months, and then come back and see what's going on then.
 
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I'm conviced these movies are never going to come about...okay, I'm sure they will be Ian Mckellan will be dead by the time they start filming.
 
FilmNerdJamie said:
Hobbit's Chances of Hitting 2012 Get Smaller
Click to expand...


Well everything depends on MGM"s sale. As long as that isn't finalised , Hobbit won't move into production.
Surely the insiders at the studios would know just how far things are coming along with the MGM sale. Is WB's going to buy the entire company , is MGM going to split with several studios buying the rights to properties ( WB & Hobbit and Sony or god forbid Fox with Bond) or is MGM going to manage another delay.
Ideally some sort of pre-production could begin as long as the deals aren't finalised because they can commence shooting pretty quickly.
But with each month of nothing happening , chances are getting smaller and smaller of seeing hobbit in december of 2012.
 
I SEE SPIDEY said:
I'm conviced these movies are never going to come about...okay, I'm sure they will be Ian Mckellan will be dead by the time they start filming.
Click to expand...


They could get James Cameron to help WETA build a photorealistic CG creation of Ian McKellan and use sounds to voice the character , just like southpark used CHef's voices in the episide where they killed him off.

*whisper* Riddles in the dark * LOUD voice* BILBO BAGGINS !!!!!!*
 
Christmas 2011 went out the window quite a ways back. At this point, I think 2012 is a goner too.
 
How long is production expected to last? If they start filming at the end of 2010 they should wrap filming at the end of 2011, then they have a full year of post-production on the first Hobbit for December 2012.

Or will they need more than 2 years?
 
The plan is apparently the same as the original Rings trilogy - 13-15 month shoot in New Zealand.
 
so they will spend the same time filming 2 movies like they did 10 years for 3 movies? :)
 
Okay. The MGM ******** aside, I don't see how 2012 is unrealistic at this point. Even if they don't start shooting until December of this year, they would wrap up principal photography in February 2011, leaving nine months for post-production work for a December 2012 release. More than enough time, especially for just Film One.

As pessimistic as I'm becoming, I would HOPE that the MGM issue will be resolved by the end of the summer. At this rate, MGM will have no choice but to declare bankruptcy, since the lenders aren't taking the offers put on the table. So we would have to wait out the period when MGM's shares are bought out.

But 2012 is improbable at this point? I would hardly say that.
 
Boom said:
Okay. The MGM ******** aside, I don't see how 2012 is unrealistic at this point. Even if they don't start shooting until December of this year, they would wrap up principal photography in February 2011, leaving nine months for post-production work for a December 2012 release. More than enough time, especially for just Film One.

As pessimistic as I'm becoming, I would HOPE that the MGM issue will be resolved by the end of the summer. At this rate, MGM will have no choice but to declare bankruptcy, since the lenders aren't taking the offers put on the table. So we would have to wait out the period when MGM's shares are bought out.

But 2012 is improbable at this point? I would hardly say that.
Click to expand...

9 months is a very tight schedule post prod. schedule. The shots can be delivered but only if more then one VFX studio is attached to the project. The question is if Peter Jackson will allow that. I think that WB wouldn't argue with PJ and co. preferring to let WETA do all the VFX shots.

Secondly don't forget that we will see the Hobbit movies in 3-d. Although we haven't heard official words from the important people ( PJ , GDT , WB) saying that Hobbit will be in 3-d , all signs point out to that. WHich means that WETA would have to take more time to finish the shots . And we don't know if they are going for a 3-d shoot ( which i assume is what PJ would want) or a 2-d shoot later on converted to 3-d ( which may be what WB wants because of the cost as well as time spent on post.)

Take Avatar for example. Although Hobbit won't be as complex as Avatar , it'll have it's fair share of massive VFX shots. Initially WETA was going to be the sole VFX vendor for Avatar but Cameron late 2008 Cameron saw that WETA wouldn't be able to handle all the VFX shots. I need to read Cinefex again for the exact details but if i'm not mistaken WETA started work on Avatar in oct of 2008 once the live-action shoot was finished ( mo-cap was done before the live-action shoot). Jan 2009 Cameron gave other shots of Avatar to ILM , Framestore , BUF and other studios. By end of oct 2009 everyone had to deliver their shots ( which they did) . This was ( i think) because it takes a month or so to convert an entire movie to the IMAX format.

So if WETA is going to be the sole VFX vendor on Avatar , they will need a year or so per movie regardless of the 3-d / 2-d format.
You can apply the Avatar timeline for Hobbit meaning that for the first movie , they would need to deliver their final shots in late oct of 2012. And so going back ,the live action shoot would need to finish in oct of 2011. The shoot will take around a year so the shooting would need to start in oct of 2010. But the question if the cast is finalised by that time. Right now only the cast from the LOTR movies is confirmed ( MCkellen , Serkis , WEaving ). The other roles still need to be cast as well as sets need to be built.
 
Click on the link for pics

http://marketsaw.blogspot.com/
Exclusive: Photo Of New Weta Sound Stages Nearing Completion AND THE HOBBIT Coverage Kicks Off!!
Jim here. I am officially starting MarketSaw coverage on THE HOBBIT as of right NOW. :-)

There seems to be enough activity to warrant scaling up spy activities for our readers and may I say the wait has been arduous! WAIT NO MORE. lol.

I heard back from one of my better sources connected with THE HOBBIT and it seems that because the movie is not going to be 2D (which would have had a July'ish start), it will be ramping up in the November time frame as more prep is needed for S3D. This is not just from my source either - this is the word from the film community, set people and vfx folks. Another reason for the delay is obviously the financial issues with MGM (TORn has a good recent article on this) - but 3D is adding a level of complexity that is being addressed.

The project itself is EXTREMELY quiet right now - to get this information out was very difficult. The cone of silence is definitely been lowered over this project and justifiably so; the world is holding its breath for more Middle-earth news.

That said, we can start talking about a couple of things. Construction is well underway: Sound stages AND Hobbiton. Amazing that there is no official green light as of yet on this thing because there is definitely money being spent!

The new sound stages on the film lot are almost finished and it looks like two large rooms under one roof with the potential of connecting the two.

One of our intrepid spies managed a shot of the exterior of the buildings.

Are we sure they are part of the lot? Yes! Walls are being torn down and they are creating ramps to the central parking lot and production buildings on the opposite side.

One can almost imagine the giant green screens eventually being positioned within to help create the dragon Smaug interacting with our adventuresome hobbits.

And what about Hobbiton? TORn has some great shots of how Hobbiton is being groomed for action! Check out one of the shots here and click on over to TORn for the rest.

Apparently a team of 60 have started work breaking new ground on Hobbit holes. Seems we may be able to actually enter these ones as they are significantly larger that the originals.

Keep it right here on MarketSaw as we activate our embedded assets in Wellywood :-) It is time to cover THE HOBBIT!!
Click to expand...
 
Jeez... 2012 is in question now? That's well over two years away. But yeah with this 3-D timeline that matrix pointed out, I could see it being a little tight. And if that's the plan, best do it right or not do it at all. Still a ways away. I am sure they will start filming by November.
 
i think right now, we shouldn't jump to conclusions because I think there would be fuel to the fire if they actually announced a real release date THEN delayed it.

Right now, I think 2012 is perfectly reasonable. Maybe not Summer, but at least winter.

Right now, it's just a mess. I'll admit to that.
 
Octoberist said:
i think right now, we shouldn't jump to conclusions because I think there would be fuel to the fire if they actually announced a real release date THEN delayed it.

Right now, I think 2012 is perfectly reasonable. Maybe not Summer, but at least winter.

Right now, it's just a mess. I'll admit to that.
Click to expand...

WB won't release it in the summer. The movies were planned for a december release date and i'm thinking that WB will stick to that.
Holidays coupled with the fact that all 3 LOTR movies performed extremely well in the december months. Considering that Hobbit can hit 1 billion WW ( with or without 3-d) , WB would be smart not to release Hobbit in the summer months when competition is fierce.
 
FaT_tONle said:
Jeez... 2012 is in question now? That's well over two years away. But yeah with this 3-D timeline that matrix pointed out, I could see it being a little tight. And if that's the plan, best do it right or not do it at all. Still a ways away. I am sure they will start filming by November.
Click to expand...

If it was just one movie being made , i could see easily making a 2012 release. Hell they might even hit a dec 2011 release.
But because both movies are being shot back to back and only after shooting is finished will GDT & WETA start work on post of the first movie , they won't be able to hit 2011.

If sets are being built as we speak , i guess that the deal with MGM will be settled with in the coming months. Sets are being build and casting should be happening as we speak. It depends when exactly they are going to start shooting the movie. If they can manage a oct-dec 2010 start , they may have enough time to get the first movie out in theaters by dec 2012.

Also there is one more reason why you won't see Hobbit in 2011
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
Currently slated for an october 2011 release in europe and dec 2011 in the states. Just like with Avatar , WETA is doing majority of the VFX shots. A project like Tin Tin or Avatar is so huge that the studio can't afford handling more projects. Pretty much everyone at WETA is doing the VFX.
It was the same when the LOTR movies were being made.

Once WETA is done with Tin Tin ( which i think is around aug-sep 2011) , they can start work on Hobbit. So right now a dec 2012 release date is still possible.
 
So... pissed off... right... now... :cmad:

Seriously though, things finally start moving forward on this: we get a director, screen-writers, a comment here and there from McKellan, GDT, or PJ stating how well things are going, and this happens! And from what I just read on TORn, the creditors have just granted another 45-day extension to MGM!

To me that just seems to be prolonging the suffering of a dying horse. Let it go already, either take an offer, or declare bankruptcy. Because I don't think there's much of a chance of saving the studio, contrary to what some people at MGM think, apparently.





:argh:
 
what make me so mad was that MGM FOUGHT so hard to get the rights to Hobbit. And when they got it, they're like "Crap, we gonna go bankrupt!"
 
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