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.”
Ringer Kellyduck sends us this link to what appears to be a substantial partial transcript of the press conference the Hobbit crew gave at Comic-Con last weekend.
I don’t think this is the entire press conference, but it is certainly a substantial part. We also now have some partial video too. (Sorry folks, I know you all want it to see it, but there’s still no showreel footage.)
At the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con, Peter Jackson — joined by The Hobbit cast members Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis, Ian McKellen, and Richard Armitage — said there are other parts of Tolkien’s stories he’d like to be able to tell. Sitting down for a small press conference after the Hall H presentation, Jackson talked about his hopes for shooting more footage. Along with his cast, Jackson discussed revisiting the world he brought to the screen in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, technological advances, and the 48 frames per second debate.
Choice quote from Martin Freeman: I was struck by just how emotional people were talking about the film, talking about anticipating the film. With each question came a preamble about what the previous films have meant in people’s lives. So all cliches aside, it’s a really nice thing to be part of something that actually touches people, genuinely touches people. It’s quite a lovely thing.
MrCere breaking in here. I was planning to report this whole press conference but real life, travel and DragonCon have prevented it and now this transcript is here, so anything I write seems less useful to readers now. The transcript isn’t word-for-word, it has removed the “uhms” and a similar words so the quotes are cleaned up, but it is accurate and easier to read this way. The questions are much more cleaned up. For example: The first one was mine and I said I would love to hear the response from the panel about Hall H, especially from those who were there for the first time. Martin Freeman spoke up, answered then the moderator moved on. (I especially wanted to also hear from Richard Armitage since we talked about things like Comic-Con while in New Zealand but sadly the moment was lost.) Anyway, I didn’t listen to the whole recording but it seems complete to me. Oh, but I do have some photos after the break.
So over the last 24 to 48 hours, there’s only been about half a billion articles posted across the interwebs about the Hall H presentation. Then add an equal number of video interviews that Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen and Richard Armitage have been doing about The Hobbit.
Talk about feast or famine!
So without further ado, here’s a round-up of the latest ones, and a bit of a summary for many of the articles to help you decide what to read or watch.
Bootnote: big props to everyone who has been sending in links to spymaster at theonering dot net — you’re all ace! And be sure to drop us a line if you think you have a scoop about the production — we’d love to hear from you!
In case you don’t have much bandwidth, or can’t get to Youtube for whatever reason, here’s a complete transcript of the Hobbitcon Q&A from Hall H. Quick warning: it does have some swearing at the end when Andy Serkis shows off his Gollum voice for the audience. And it does contain some spoilers. Some great answers from Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage to questions about the prosthetic gear, from Peter Jackson about how the Extended Edition process works, and some interesting stuff from Philippa Boyens about Galadriel.
Thanks to the swift typing skills of Barliman’s chat regular Jenniearcheo in putting this together! Also, if you want to view another version of the panel in higher quality, head here. The video quality is better and it has the last three minutes of the panel that was not in the previous version we saw. However, it’s from further back in the hall so the sound suffers a touch. Thanks to Elpidha for the find! (more…)
Here’s a recording of the Q&A panel from Hall H. Please note that it does not include the showreel footage — it is only the question and answer session.
Still we very strongly suggest you go watch the thing right away. Because if you wait, it might well go the way of the very cool Andy Serkis video snippet that we posted earlier!
Barliman’s chat regular dwnfalofnumenor snapped these really nice shots of all the panellists for the Hobbit presentation in Hall H today.
Nothing spoilery at all, just some really nice captures of Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Richard Armitage and Elijah Wood all chatting away happily!
Looks like as well as hosting a big presentation in Hall H that Peter Jackson and his minions have been busy little bees and spent the day doing a bunch of interviews.
So without further ado, here’s a round-up of interview links to visit on Youtube:
Well, the long wait is over. Peter brought 12 and a half minutes of Hobbit goodness to Comic-Con’s Hall H today, and blew everyone’s minds.
To say the event zoomed past at an overwhelming pace would be an understatement too big to describe. We’re digesting everything we’ve seen and will continue to update as we work through the impressions and information that roared past. Read on for a quick summary and a massive pile of spoilers! (more…)
Earlier today, Entertainment Weekly chatted with Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, Richard Armitage, Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis in their VIP suite. It’s a really cool interview and there’s some great stuff in there, particularly from Boyens and Freeman. Maybe a few spoilers! Go check it out while you’re waiting for our Hobbitcon panel wrap-up! (We’re working on it right now!)
Comic-Con 2012 kicks off on Thursday and is expected to attract more than 125,000 people. Elijah Wood, reprising his Frodo Baggins for The Hobbit, will be back there this year — a decade after he accompanied director Peter Jackson to promote Fellowship of the Ring.
Wood told Reuters: “The scale of The Hobbit is larger, the anticipation is potentially greater, everything feels a little bit bigger. For so long, people didn’t think there would be a film, so the fact that there is finally, people have been anticipating this for a long time.”
Reuters says the studio will finally show extended film clips [my emphasis] at Comic-Con. Jackson is expected to turn out to meet fans and answer questions. Thanks to Ringer Elpidha for the heads-up on the article.
There is just one week until Comic Con 2012 starts with Preview Night on Wednesday, July 11. But aside from the TORn panel and WB’s panel for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, you may be wondering what else there is for a Hobbit fan to do. The Official SDCC website has put up schedules for panels, autograph sessions, films and portfolio reviews (aspiring artists, please take note). So here is your handy, dandy TORn guide to all things Hobbit and Lord of the Rings related at comic con this year (after the break)
SAN DIEGO – Warner Bros. today announced what has been suspected and rumored: the studio is bringing “The Hobbit,” to the San Diego Comic-Con in a big way. Most surprising is just how big as director Peter Jackson, producer and co-screenwriter Philippa Boyens, actor and director Andy Serkis along with featured actors Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen and Richard Armitage are all expected at the Saturday, July 14 Comic-Con panel hosted by Warner Bros. The film sharing the three-hour slot with “The Hobbit,” is none other than “Hobbit” co-writer Guillermo del Toro‘s “Pacific Rim.” The director is also expected to be in attendance. TheOneRing.net’s team of 13 staffers (a lucky 13 that works nicely with the source material) will be reporting from the scene as much as possible, bringing the emotions, news, photos, video and quotes to the online audience.
The studio has been relatively quiet on the publicity front considering the budget and cultural size of the two films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” (celebrating its 75th anniversary in print this year) releasing a single trailer, a series of character photos and letting Peter Jackson’s own production diaries on his Facebook page function as pre-film publicity. That seems to be changing in a single moment as WB drops an atomic bomb of Middle-earth star power at the central event of the popular-culture calendar. (more…)
Seventeen years have passed since Peter Jackson approached Miramax about bringing one of his favorite JRR Tolkien tales The Hobbit to the big screen.
Ringer Kellyduck sends us this link to what appears to be a substantial partial transcript of the press conference the Hobbit crew gave at Comic-Con last weekend.
So over the last 24 to 48 hours, there’s only been about half a billion articles posted across the interwebs about the Hall H presentation. Then add an equal number of video interviews that Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen and Richard Armitage have been doing about The Hobbit.
In case you don’t have much bandwidth, or can’t get to Youtube for whatever reason, here’s a complete transcript of the Hobbitcon Q&A from Hall H. Quick warning: it does have some swearing at the end when Andy Serkis shows off his Gollum voice for the audience. And it does contain some 
Looks like as well as hosting a big presentation in Hall H that Peter Jackson and his minions have been busy little bees and spent the day doing a bunch of interviews. 
Well, the long wait is over. Peter brought 12 and a half minutes of Hobbit goodness to Comic-Con’s Hall H today, and blew everyone’s minds.
Comic-Con 2012 kicks off on Thursday and is expected to attract more than 125,000 people. Elijah Wood, reprising his Frodo Baggins for The Hobbit, will be back there this year — a decade after he accompanied director Peter Jackson to promote Fellowship of the Ring.
