Official The Hobbit thread

[Boom]

With the exception of Hobbiton and Rivendell, all of the locations in The Hobbit are new. I really don't think there will be a continuity issue if they move the production elsewhere.

 

[Marx]

Boom's Kermit avvy is how I feel about this finally getting greenlighted.

 

[Passdom]

With the exception of Hobbiton and Rivendell, all of the locations in The Hobbit are new. I really don't think there will be a continuity issue if they move the production elsewhere.

Rivendell was a set + green screen + miniatures + matte paintings, so either way, it makes no difference whatsoever where its shot.

Hobbiton however I can't see retaining the same feel if its not shot where LOTRs Hobbiton was...

 

[night0205]

The will keep continuity... but I want it filmed in NZ. Period.

 

[Passdom]

Actually, I just thought of something...

Won't the movie being shot elsewhere actually be really bad, aside from the locations?

I mean, Weta Workshop is in New Zealand. Won't it be an absolutely massive amount of work to constantly ship stuff from NZ to wherever the film is being shot? And of course coordination will suffer as PJ wont be able to visit the Workshop whever he wants...

Weta digital isn't much of a problem as Jackson can interact with them long distance to check up on their work...

 

[corby]

I find it crazy that the LOTR trilogy was made brilliantly and yet a simple prequel has had so much trouble getting started.

LOTR wasn't without troubles either. Peter was trying to get it greenlit as early as 1995.

 

[Boom]

In an interview, Simon Pegg is asked about his Hollywood friends. He brings up Martin Freeman. Think what you will.

Martin’s the anti-me: a soul aficionado and a vinyl junkie – absolutely not a resident of the geek universe. Not the type of person who will relish the attention he’ll get for being Bilbo Baggins. Ha!”

Interview: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/oct/17/simon-pegg-interview

 

[night0205]

Actually, I just thought of something...

Won't the movie being shot elsewhere actually be really bad, aside from the locations?

I mean, Weta Workshop is in New Zealand. Won't it be an absolutely massive amount of work to constantly ship stuff from NZ to wherever the film is being shot? And of course coordination will suffer as PJ wont be able to visit the Workshop whever he wants...

Weta digital isn't much of a problem as Jackson can interact with them long distance to check up on their work...

That's the norm for making a movie. Believe it or not, Weta has worked on dozens of movies that were not filmed in New Zealand.

 

[the amazing fro]

Finally this is getting going. I think the hobbit was the first proper novel I ever read and personally I think it can top the LOTR (the books of which I could never finish. I always get to the rivendell scene before I seriously contemplate suicide).

Don't want to jinx it though. It may be greenlit but its still on shaky ground. Anything goes wrong and it could mean curtains.

 

[Jackasscoley15]

I can't wait to see the interior of Erebor and Smaug laying on it's treasures. I'm positive it's going to blow us away.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I can't wait to see Smaug. And Laketown! Man, I already loved the design from the videgame. But just think what it will look like on film. Mirkwood will be awesome.

I forget sometimes how many great locations there are in the Hobbit.

 

[Boom]

Which video game?

 

[:eek:]

LOTR wasn't without troubles either. Peter was trying to get it greenlit as early as 1995.

I think there were quite a few movie companies that said no to the project claiming that fantasy-movies can't be successful. I wonder how they feel today. Probably the same way the book companies who refused J.K. Rowling feels...

 

[Doctor Jones]

Which video game?

This one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit_(2003_video_game)

It's actually a very fun game. And very challenging as well. The puzzles are a mind **** from what I remember. But the design of everything is wonderful.

 

[RaZaTrOn]

I haven't posted on this thread but I am a huge fan of the LotR universe. I absolutely adore The Hobbit/LotR/The Silmarillion/Unfinished Tales etc.

I am so happy that this has finally gotten the green light and I cannot wait to see this on the big screen, especially the battle of the five armies. Reason being is I want chills just like when the horns of Rohan sounded at the battle of Pelennor!

I think i'm equally excited to see the 2nd 'Hobbit' film. I wonder what it will be called?
I hope that we get some of the old actors back for the second film if they decide to detail anything regarding the original Fellowship.

 

[regwec]

Rivendell was a set + green screen + miniatures + matte paintings, so either way, it makes no difference whatsoever where its shot.

Hobbiton however I can't see retaining the same feel if its not shot where LOTRs Hobbiton was...

If you watch some of the interviews with PJ found on the DVDs, you will note that he explains that the English-ish pastoral countryside of The Shire was the only setting which he found extremely difficult to match in New Zealand.

Northern and central Europe, however, is full of it.

I find it surprising that no one ever points out how mismatched some of the New Zealand locations were to their Middle Earth counterparts. For instance, the prairie land of Rohan appears to be massively hilly, and Aragorn finds a huge gauge to fall off. That makes no sense at all for a culture which is effectively the Anglo-Saxons with massed cavalry. The rich farmland, groves and vineyards of Gondor are turned into yet another bleak, mountain-ringed plateau; five minutes walk from the gates of Mordor. Furthermore, the "ancient forest" setting of Fangorn was effectively an outdoor set, because PJ could find no equivalent in New Zealand.

New Zealand is a beautiful country with some stunning vistas, but not all of them are appropriate to The Hobbit. Hungary, England or even Canada could offer a competitive alternative.

 

[Boom]

Rohan, I believe, also had rich green grass - with it growing up to the knees of a mounted rider in some places.

 

[regwec]

Right. The whole point of Rohan is that it was a flat plain of lush grassland that could support several thousand-head of horse. It shouldn't feature massive rocky precipices.

Nor should Gondor be a barren wasteland that lacks the agrarian economy needed to support the towering city state that sits in its middle. Where are Gondor's fields, woods, farms and villages?

 

[Boom]

And the massive wall that encloses Pelennor Fields?

That was a great part in the book, when Mordor's forces break through the wall at night, and start setting fire to the villages.

 

[regwec]

...while in the movie, Gondor is Minas Tirith, which sits on the opposite side of a small dry plain to the Gates of Mordor, just across from the ruins of Osgiliath. You have a fine memory, Boom!

 

[Solidus]

Though it worked for the movie, I remember I never envisioned Rohan like that for the many years prior to the film when I read the books.

That and Gondor was suppose to be a rich farm land area, and it was odd that it was barren. But they were small things that did not bug me in a big way.

EDIT: I figured the "barren" landscape of the fields were done more for an SFX reason then anything. I mean that battle was mainly just CGI, and probably adding more too it would have been expensive and too much. That is one reason I figure it was like that in the realm of Gondor. However Rohan was like that simply like regwec said there were no suitable areas to film a Rohan like place in NZ.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I think people need to just get over those tiny details. New Zealand was a very convenient shooting location for them. It saved them money too.

 

[Boom]

I have an idea for Smaug.

What if they went a similar route to the Angel of Death in Hellboy 2, and had Smaug's voice be a fusion of a male and female voice. It would give Smaug an otherworldly, inhuman, and androgynous quality.

 

[Solidus]

They were not big deals, but they were some what big details. That would be like making Tatooine an grass filled area. There are big differences. Are they big deals? No, not at all I still love the movies to death, it was just some things yes saved them money, but they were different from the book is all we are saying. I don't think anyone here was saying it was "bad" because they did so but the details were quite different of what the books gave us.

 

[Solidus]

I have an idea for Smaug.

What if they went a similar route as the Angel of Death in Hellboy 2, and had Smaug's voice be a fusion of a male and female voice. It would give Smaug an otherworldly, inhuman, and androgynous quality.

Yea that's a great idea, but I think though otherworldly, there needs to be a "gruff" ness to it. I just always heard that when Smaug talked, in my own little mind.