Seventeen years have passed since Peter Jackson approached Miramax about bringing one of his favorite JRR Tolkien tales The Hobbit to the big screen.
Speaking to the Dominion Post‘s Lenna Tailor Peter Jackson and Philippa Boyens speculate that the delay, during which they went on to shoot three wildly successful movies based on Tolkien Lord of the Rings, might have been for the best.
Jackson: “I remember in 1995 I made the first call to [Miramax’s] Harvey Weinstein and said we were interested in doing The Hobbit. The idea was, if it was successful, we would do Lord of the Rings. But Harvey said the rights were in a very complicated state — however, Lord of the Rings was potentially available. It’s strange how that call 17 years ago was the beginning of this whole process.”
“It was fate that we did Lord of the Rings first because it has made for a better Hobbit,” adds writer-producer Philippa Boyens. “It would’ve been a very different film if we’d gone the other way around. Maybe fate was also waiting for Martin [Freeman] to play Bilbo at exactly the right time and age.”
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During the San Diego Comic-con Andy Serkis spoke extensively about his portrayal of the character Gollum. In doing so, he made some startlingly specific comments about the character’s age.
Here, TORn guest writer Elpidha Lirgalad examines the implications, and reaches some very interesting conclusions about what it could mean for the Hobbit trilogy. These views are her own, and do not necessarily represent those of TheOneRing.net or its staff.
WARNING: Spoilers and speculation!
How old is PJ’s Gollum? And what could that mean?
A guest post by Elpidha Lirgalad
Ever since the release of Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001, some eagle-eyed fans have been asking why it appears that no time passes at all between Bilbo’s 111th birthday party and Frodo’s departure from the Shire. Continue reading “Greenbooks guest post: how old is PJ’s Gollum?”
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Andy Serkis says Martin Freeman was unpredictable on the set of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
Serkis insists Martin is “brilliant” at being directed, but he also enjoyed putting his own stamp on the character of Bilbo Baggins in the adventure movie.
Serkis -– who made his directorial debut as a second unit helmer in the film — said: “You just don’t know what you are going to get. Yet he’s brilliant at taking direction. There’s a rhythm that one works with Martin. He likes to try it his way and then you start saying, ‘What about this?’ When he gets it, it’s gold. And it’s so totally Bilbo.”
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Andy Serkis who’s new to directing was honored to be asked to be
the second unit director on The Hobbit (and he does a good job as we have seen through out Peter Jacksons video blogs). Peter Jackson gave Andy Serkis filmmaking tips and acted as a mentor. contactmusic.com quoting from EMPIRE magazine:
Serkis explained: ‘‘He would watch form his set, call: ‘No, no, it’s not working. Just bail out of the shot.’ He was mentoring me. ”There were different ways we worked. We’d set up entire sequences, or he’d start a scene and I would finish it if there wasn’t time.”
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Earlier this week, Empire revealed two new stills from The Hobbit to coincide with their multi-page Hobbit feature for the September 2012 issue of their magazine that focuses on Riddles in the Dark.
Now we have a super-high resolution version of the cover, and of the still that shows Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis performing the Riddles scenes — with Serkis wearing his mo-cap suit. If you prefer your pictures BIG (a couple thousand pixels wide), you’ll want to run and grab these right now.
Thanks to everyone who gave us the heads-up on this.
[TORn super-res gallery] [TORn’s First Look]
One of our very favorite magazines, EMPIRE Magazine, is publishing their ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ edition tomorrow, and they have exclusively shared a few excerpts with us here at TheOneRing.net. This special edition of the magazine will feature a detailing of their set visit in New Zealand, with a special focus on Gollum and Bilbo’s ‘Riddles in the Dark’ sequence.
The excerpt below features Martin Freeman (Bilbo) and Andy Serkis (Gollum) talking about bringing their characters and this memorable sequence from book to screen. For those of you who can’t pick up a copy of the magazine locally, check out the iPad edition. The US iPad edition of EMPIRE will be released tomorrow via the iTunes store, and it is a complete steal for only $20/yr, $1.99/mo or $4.99 an issue. EMPIRE is one of the best entertainment magazines out there and have always treated Tolkien fans to some amazing content. Make sure to pick up your copy! [iPad Editon] [iTunes] [EMPIRE Online]
Continue reading “TheOneRing.net Exclusive first look at EMPIRE’s ‘Hobbit Edition’”
