WETA held a fansite chat with Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro about their plans for the upcoming hobbit movies, and I found it a fairly gripping read. I've not paid that much attention to the ongoing legal wrangles about the remaining LotR film, but apparently New Line has resolved their issues with PJ, and he's going to writing and executive producing the Hobbit films, while del Toro, best known for Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth, is going to direct and assist on the script.
They're shooting two movies back to back, but apparently it's not the hobbit turned into two films; it's the Hobbit and a second film that takes place somewhere during the 50 years between the time of the Hobbit and the time when the LotR trilogy begins. I'm not sure how well that will work; I thought the Hobbit had plenty of material for two movies, but it wouldn't work well as two films since there aren't any natural break points halfway through. As I recall, about 80% of book's content takes place leading up to the dragon action, which begins amazingly but ends fairly quickly, leaving the 15-20% of the story feeling like an extended-epilogue as it details the war of the 3 (4?) races.
I guess they can get that all into one long movie, with a four and a half hour extended edition DVD to follow. I have no idea what the second movie is about then, other than being something else they can film at the same time and use as a way to save $ on costs and give us mouth-breathing fans something irrelevant to anticipate. It's not as if talented writers couldn't invent some more cool stuff in the Tolkien world; JRR himself created a great fictional realm, but the actual plot events and characterization and narrative flow of the novels are far from his strong points. That's why the initial trilogy of films is so much more satisfying than the novels, since all the good points in the plot were retained, tons of filler was shaved off, the characters were made stronger and more believable and human, and the narrative structure was tweaked to enhance the drama and suspense. And almost all of the group singalongs around campfires were deleted.
I just wonder if the fans will be as accepting of "Bilbo's further adventures." Probably, since I doubt 10% of the people who paid money to see LotR actually ever read the novels. It's just that that 10% makes up about 93% of the fans who care enough to follow and write about this process online. (This blog post = case in point.) So the lunatic fringe, early adapter, fan boys (and girls) will be out in even more force for the Hobbit films than for your usual scifi/fantasy geekfest.
Anyway, a couple of
quotes from the chat, which is as interesting as it is poorly formatted.
PJ on the filming schedule:
At this point in time the plan is to write for the rest of this year and start early conceptual designs. 2009 will be dedicated to pre-production on both movies and 2010 will be the year we shoot both films back to back. Post production follows one film at a time with The Hobbit being released Dec 2011, and F2 release Dec 2012. That is the schedule in about as much detail as we have ourselves at the moment.
GdT on the design of Smaug:
Smaug should not be "the Dragon in the Hobbit movie" as if it was just "another" creature in a Bestiary. Smaug should be "The DRAGON" for all movies past and present. The shadow he cast and the greed he comes to embody- the "need to own" casts its long shadow and creates a thematic / dramatic continuity of sorts that articulates the story throughout-
In that respect, Smaug the CHARACTER is as important, if not more important, than the design. The character will emerge from the writing- and in that the Magnificent arrogance, intelligence, sophistication and greed of Smaug shine through-
...One of the main mistakes with talking dragons is to shape the mouth like a snub Simian one in order to achieve a dubious lip-synch. .. A point which eluded me particularly in Eragon, since their link is a psychic one.
To me, Smaug is the perfect example of a great creature defined by its look and design, yes, but also, very importantly, by his movement and -One little hint- its environment - Think about it... the way he is scaled, moves and is lit, limited or enhanced by his location, weather conditions, light conditions, time of the year, etc. That's all I can say without spoilers but, if you keep this curious little summary you'll realize several years form now that those things I had in my mind ever since doodling the character as a kid had solidified waaay before starting the shoot of the film.
There's some other stuff in the chat about the world setting and the theme, which interested me as a writer and creator. They talk about how the world is much less dark and under the shadow at the time of the Hobbit than it is 50 years later when Sauron has returned. They also talk about how in PJ's trilogy the monsters were made more monstrous. The wargs didn't talk, the troll just grunted and slobbered, the eagles were just noble animals, etc. In Tolkien's version the animals and monsters all had human intelligence, and they talked to each other and to the humans, had their own agendas and priorities, etc.
GdT is planning to return to that style in The Hobbit, which, combined with a generally lighter, more jovial, less doom and gloom mood, could be a rather jarring change from what most of us grew used to in the LotR trilogy. After seeing Pan's Labyrinth I'm confident that there's no danger of GdT turning it into some sort of Disney-fied happy world of singing trees and birdies, but it'll definitely be interesting to see his take on things.
While I loved the LotR trilogy, I'm excited to see how a director of very different sensibilities takes on the Hobbit. And, I must admit that the way PJ's
King Kong turned out, overstuffed and overbusy and underwhelming, helps me come to this conclusion. Maybe he was briefly ruined by success and an unlimited budget, and maybe he got the excesses and absurdities out of his system with
King Kong, but I'm a little afraid of how PJ might handle the interactions of all those dwarves and hobbits and goblins and elves and wolves and other things, given the "too much is never enough" CGI spectacle he wrought in
King Kong.
Labels: guillermo del toro, movies, peter jackson
