Hobbit Movie

[lorien]

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TiggerBear wrote:
I swipped this off the HP thread.
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HPSeeker post
I know there are a lot of Lord of the Rings fans on this board (I certainly am) and thought I'd post this in case anyone's interested:

Chat about THE HOBBIT with Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro live on May 24 (May 25 in Australia/NZ).

With the beginning of pre-production on The Hobbit in sight, Executive Producer Peter Jackson and Director Guillermo del Toro will answer fan questions during a one hour live web chat.

Fans with an interest in The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings should visit http://www.wetanz.com/party/ to submit questions in advance. Peter and Guillermo will select and answer the 20 most common questions.

To register for the live chat, visit http://www.wetanz.com/party/register/.
: Donna

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Here are the times schedule

Weta are excited to be hosting this one-hour live online chat on our website
www.wetaNZ.com. Please check the start time for your time zone below:

Los Angeles (Pacific) - Saturday, 24 May 1:00 p.m.
New York (Eastern) - Saturday, 24 May 4:00 p.m.
London - Saturday, 24 May 9:00 p.m.
Paris, Berlin, Rome - Saturday, 24 May 10:00 p.m.
Sydney - Sunday, 25 May 6:00 a.m.
Wellington, Auckland - Sunday, 25 May 8:00 am

[oldBPLstackden…]

Good Morning, Everyone...

looks like I missed my chance to put my two cents in for PJ and Del Toro. I wonder how many people tried to get in on that little "chat"? - Fifty Thousand, maybe? I don't think my question would have been numbered amongst the "twenty most common" anyway... I'm assuming the transcripts of the "discussion" are still available at that website? I'm going to take a look...   Ardo 

[oldBPLstackden…]

Well, that turned out to not be as easy as I assumed it would be  ( coming up with any transcripts  of the discussions ) - I got nada. --- I wonder if they revealed who is going to play Bilbo's part?

I've realized that some of my favorite choices are probably sort of "past it", I'm afraid... For Bilbo, I guess they are going to need a youngish actor with a certain amount of stamina, vigor and athleticism required for the role...         Ardo

[macross]

I would have prefered Ian Holm, but it seems like that is not going to happen. I dont know about you guys, But I hate when they change actors from a previous film.

[TiggerBear]

Agreed, but Ian Holm was too old for the young Bilbo when the made the LOR movies. I thought that originally it would have been better to use him for old Bilbo and some one else as the young Bilbo. Then they would already have a young Bilbo at their disposal.(shrug)

[macross]

Read some info on the new movies, there are going to be 2 of them the first one is The Hobbit itself, the second is apperntly a retelling but from a different perspective, Maybe the attack of the White Council on the Nercromancer and Dul Guldur. It will connect the new movies to the original trilogy. Like Star Wars did.

[TiggerBear]

(loud groan) ah come on! Not a retched bridge movie!?!

[oldBPLstackden…]

Hi TiggerBear ---

Yes, I thought you knew that already - at least, this is what I understood it to be: that the second movie was supposed to be a "filling in" of the void between where Bilbo's adventures ended and up to the beginning of the War of the Ring story ( that interval period of 60 years or so ) --- One has to wonder how much material will be directly taken from the books ( there is some sketchy material in the Appendices in LOTR covering that interval - in the Chronology - but all the details would be filled in by the movie-script writers, one would have to assume - and although the attack on Dol Guldur makes appealing raw material for special effects and cinematic grandeur - it sounds like in the actual history, the attack didn't really wind up as being all that much of a big deal, as Sauron had already come up with some new plans by that point, and had slipped back into Mordor after abandoning Dol Guldur ) ---

But I think this kind of thing was sort of to be expected ---

LOTR is now officially a new "Franchise" - and, just depending on how much the movie-makers ( and at least inadvertently to the benefit of their commercial allies )  feel they are free to "get away with" ( in the way of their own "inventiveness" ) they will go ahead and do so. ---

The "Sequel to the Prequel" could still stand out as a quality film, depending on just how it is handled, however...         Ardo

[oldBPLstackden…]

I guess, to be more fair to the movie-makers, one could simply just say that they will be allowing themselves even more "Artistic License" than they already used in the making of the LOTR movies... Especially in the making of the "Bridge" movie ...Again, a lot will depend on just how they handle that "License" --- Ardo

[TiggerBear]

Yeah I know I'm being a pessimist. I just don't see it turning out well. Especially given the recent material screen writers are turning out this past decade. I just do not see it living up to the Tolkien standard. It's one thing to rework material already written. Another entirely to make whole cloth in the flavor of.(sigh) Now this just makes even harder to wait.

[macross]

Yeah so true, I mean it starts filming in 2009, that's a good year away. My concern is how faitful the first movie will be to TheHobbit. Already the director Guillermo del Toro has expressed that animals will talk. Something that was missing from the LOTR films, I missed the wargs talking. And Smaug better be the best damn dragon ever on film.

[TiggerBear]

Oh of that I have no doubt. There have been to many good dragons for Smaug not to be a winner. But hey if they screw that up, it won't matter what else they get right. They better hire the Koreans, who have the most practice.

[macross]

Koreans? what do you mean?

[TiggerBear]

Sorry, well allow me to work backward.

Movie "Dragon Wars" teaser was released. I thought the plot was ridiculous, but the 10sec of dragon hide I saw were gorgeous. So I netted the web to find more images. Even I can ignore a bad plot if a movie is too beautiful to miss. Dug up a behind the scenes on the graphic artists and digital animators involved. Turned out was made by a Korean cgi team. Asia's version of Industrial, Lights, and Magic. So I looked up the company. Guess what they've been doing almost exclusively, Dragons. In fact, for the past decade they've had their sticky fingers in every good dragon rendering on screen for the past decade. So I went of a credit roster hunt. Reign of Fire- yes, Dragon wars- yes, Eragon- no, Beowolf- yes but for one week only, ect...

I'm just hoping they use these guys for Smaug.(shrug)

[lorien]

I think it is a done deal and they are using WETA again. For inspiration on LOTR and original prototype drawings to base their animations on they had Alan Lee and John Howe on the payroll and on site. So you might look at their depictions of Smaug for some idea of what Smaug is going to look like and the specials on WETA on the extended versions for how they go about it. I'm looking forward to watching the segment on how they did Gollum if that is on the TTT extra--and I suspect it is.

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TiggerBear wrote:
Sorry, well allow me to work backward.

Movie "Dragon Wars" teaser was released. I thought the plot was ridiculous, but the 10sec of dragon hide I saw were gorgeous. So I netted the web to find more images. Even I can ignore a bad plot if a movie is too beautiful to miss. Dug up a behind the scenes on the graphic artists and digital animators involved. Turned out was made by a Korean cgi team. Asia's version of Industrial, Lights, and Magic. So I looked up the company. Guess what they've been doing almost exclusively, Dragons. In fact, for the past decade they've had their sticky fingers in every good dragon rendering on screen for the past decade. So I went of a credit roster hunt. Reign of Fire- yes, Dragon wars- yes, Eragon- no, Beowolf- yes but for one week only, ect...

I'm just hoping they use these guys for Smaug.(shrug)

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[macross]

Well Weta is a good company I bet they are right now working on that awesome dragon hide. I just hope he looks like the european dragons and not something else.

[TiggerBear]

(nodding) Hopefully.

I keep looking for leaks and previews, but they are keeping this one tight.
A little odd since the leaked the Fellowship 3 years before it's release.

Wondering if this is a bad or good sign.

[lorien]

Here is a bit of amusement for those of you looking for something to do until the Hobbit movie comes out in a few years:

http://www.waitingforbilbo.com/

[Clippership14]

I'm relieved to hear things are underway again for the movies; I just have one major anxiety (aside from the whole director issue). I hope they keep Gollum in his place. He only had a small part in the book and I hope they keep it that way. They went way overboard on turning Gollum into this big player in the LOTR movies (I mean that whole opening saga that starts of ROTK; good grief!) Gollum is popular and I fear that they are going to build too much of him into the new movies.

[TiggerBear]

Well I've got sneak passes for Hellboy 2 tonight. I'll report back how bad or good De Torro job is.