Often, when a lengthy discussion of the Hobbit films takes place, someone asks “What about the other books? What about material from The Silmarillion, or Unfinished Tales? Will these be adapted to the big screen?”
The answer to this question is a simple one. As it stands, the literary executor of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, his son, Christopher Tolkien, has refused to consider any further licensing of his father’s work for cinematic purposes.
Many fans are quite frustrated by this state of affairs. They know there is interesting material contained in these other sources, such as the well-known “Quest for Erebor.” That one short work alone would illuminate in key ways the motivations and decisions of principal characters in the films. (For the curious, the Quest for Erebor may be found in a shortened form in “Unfinished Tales”, and in a fuller form in the revised edition of Douglas Anderson’s “Annotated Hobbit.”) Continue reading “Concerning Christopher – An Essay on Tolkien’s Son’s Decision to Not Allow Further Cinematic Licensing of His Work”
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“By my beard! You are shorter and wider than last we met.”
-Dwalin to Balin as they meet up for the meeting at Bag End
Yet another one of the statues we saw at Comic-Con 2012 for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was for the character Dwalin. Dwalin joined Thorin, Gandalf, Bilbo, Balin, and Bombur (not yet released). Dwalin went up for sale the same day as his brother Balin, making them the fourth and fifth statues released.
In Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Hobbit, Dwalin was one of the many dwarves of the Lonely Mountain driven into exile by the dragon in the Third Age. Dwalin would join his brother Balin and Thrain in a group who would try to take back Erebor in 2841 of the Third Age. Dwalin would be one of the company who, one hundred years later, joined Thorin in trying to retake Erebor, and was successful in doing so. After the mountain was retaken, Dwalin would go on to be very successful with his brother Balin, and would live to be one of the oldest Dwarfs on record.
PACKAGING
The graphics on the box follow the same pattern we’ve seen with both Thorin and Balin, keeping the now familiar Dwarven design. Per the format we’ve come to know, the front of the box gives you a great shot of Dwalin, graphic work for the title of the movie, and of course the Weta logo. The sides of the box for Dwalin also present a familiar format with different looks at the statue on one side, while the other side of the box presents some of the various products you can get for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, such as the Balin statue, Thorin’s Map, Key to Erebor, and Bilbo’s Contract. The back of the box contains a great story on Dwalin, as well as information regarding details of the character and statue. The styrofoam on the inside is typical with what we’ve come used to getting with these statues, but does have a special compartment for his arms holding his axes.
SCULPTING
Greg Tozer is a name fans of Middle-earth collecting should know, if they own a certain statue of a Dark Lord of Mordor. That’s correct – the massive and awesome statue of Sauron from The Lord of the Rings statue line was created by Greg Tozer and David Tremont (who worked on Barad-Dûr). Dwalin is my favorite looking Dwarf design from The Hobbit, so I was super excited to get this into my collection. As is the case with his brother Balin, the likeness to Graham McTavish’s portrayal of Dwalin is fantastic. Not to be outdone is the work on the outfit of Dwalin; Mr. Tozer did a superb job of sculpting the fine details of the cloth part of his outfit with all the little lines in their place, and the fur of the outfit also wonderfully matches its onscreen counterpart. The leatherwork on the Dwalin statue is also exceptional. You have great detailed work in his chest guard and his belt, which lead into his sheath holding his knife. Dwalin, like any warrior, must have weapons which he takes into battle, and this warrior carries two nasty looking axes. These axes, named Ukhlat and Umraz, have all the Dwarven detail you see on the larger props in the movie, including the names carved into the axes. Any warrior must protect his hands, and Dwalin takes every precaution with two metal guards, which in the right situation could also be used as weapons. Finally, on his back, Dwalin has two holders for his axes, which are also sculpted very well.
PAINT
Dwalin continues the streak of very well painted statues from Weta Workshop. The skin tones use the proper paint mixture to not only make the statue look like a miniature Dwarf but also very like the character appeared on screen. The painting on Dwalin’s outfit is equally good. All the pieces of cloth, fur, and leather look as they should and as they did when we saw them in the movie. One of the great things about the cloth aspects of the paint is the proper green tint, giving homage to the green hood he wears in the book. As with both Thorin and Balin, the metal paint look to his axes makes them very much like used versions of something he’d carry if the statue were real. Much like with those two Dwarves, the Dwarven details of his axes are still there for the world to see. Finally, Dwalin has tattoos in support of his Dwarven heritage. These tattoos are decals, allowing fans to get great clean lines and show no blurring at all on the statue (both his head and on his hands).
Overall
Dwalin retails for $249, and while he is more expensive than his brother Balin, he is still a good deal. As I said earlier in this review, I love the design of Dwalin, from the tattoos and weapons, to just his overall look; he’s freaking cool! So for me, the $249 was easy for that reason alone. He looks great with the other four statues and if you can add him to your collection, I say go for it! Dwalin, like the other statues so far, is an open edition.
SPECIFICATIONS
Dwalin is an open edition statue with a retail price of $249. He’s also instock as of right now, so don’t delay.
Dimensions:
9.8″ x 9.1″ x 5.9″ (H x W x D)
25 cm x 23 cm x 15 cm
Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message Boards, here’s a great way to catch the highlights. Or if you’re new to TORn and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. Watch this space as every weekend we will spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join in the fun! Continue reading “TORN Message Boards Weekly Roundup – January 6 2013”
The news was horrific. Essentially The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was dead on arrival and if not a box office failure at least a disappointment and this on top of less-than-stellar reviews. Maybe Peter Jackson was lost in Middle-earth. Maybe the public and critics were just tired of adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien. Maybe LOTR was lightning in a bottle. Turns out though rumors of the demise of The Hobbit were greatly exaggerated.
I will be dismissed as a website-contributing fanboy of course. I couldn’t possibly have a love for fantasy literature and Tolkien and an appreciation for the fantastic in cinema and still be objective. So decide for yourself if my viewpoint is skewed, but I think I am being objective, I am certainly not the only writer around who has his bare bias showing. It seems clear that some writers were rooting for and proclaiming failure prematurely.
None of this would matter except that bad buzz around a film does affect the film’s earnings. Bad reviews (more on that later) and then bad performance likely convinces casual viewers to stay away. These aren’t presented as opinions but as news with expert analysis.
Don’t believe me about the doom and gloom? I have some samples below:
Weekend Report: ‘Hobbit’ Plummets, Holds Off Slew of Newcomers “Even though it did hold on to the top spot, though, The Hobbit’s performance was underwhelming. The Peter Jackson-directed Lord of the Rings prequel plummeted 57 percent to an estimated $36.7 million for a new total of $149.9 million.”
From: The Numbers.com “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey didn’t hold on as well as predicted falling 56% according to studio estimates to $36.94 million over the weekend for a total of $150.10 million after two. It should get to $250 million in the end, which is a solid number given the film’s production budget. However, it’s not a monster number, and many thought it would be a monster hit. Explaining why this happened will take some time, but the weaker than expected reviews is a good place to start. Another possible reason is just too much hype.”
Another possible explanation is that you, Mr. Writer, were wrong.
The story sounds pretty reasonable, right? Except it isn’t and the sites where they originated, should know better. Folks on message boards were following his lead though, dubbing the film “The Flobbit” or “The Floppit” due to its perceived and inaccurate failures.
Remember those midnight screenings in mid-December that gave The Hobbit the largest ever December opening? That was never going to be duplicated the following weekend. But numbers are numbers right? Well yes, but numbers in perspective are even better numbers.
So Hobbit dropped 56% on the weekend. A plummet? Not when compared to the other top movies of the year. The Avengers dropped 50% and became the biggest blockbuster ever, The Dark Knight Rises dropped 61% (amidst a horrible shooting) The Hunger Games 61%, Skyfall 53% and the last Twilight film 69%. Those are currently the biggest films of 2012 financially. While “plummet” might be dictionary accurate, it is just exactly what could have been expected, especially in the busiest shopping weekend of the year. And for the record, to fully disclose, I liked all of those films save one, so I am not rooting against films financially. So yes, all the box office websites and film news reports should know better but mostly reported that it was disaster for The Hobbit. False.
There is another factor, just as important at work here. It was pre-Christmas weekend and movies perform much differently during that season. Films that open on the holiday work differently than films that open on traditional Fridays. Movie-business wisdom suggests, with a term called “multiples” that a film might make two or three times its opening weekend for the life of the movie. Christmas movies are “guaranteed” to make four times their opening and can hope for five or six times that number. The weekend before a Christmas-Eve Monday was way down at the box office for obvious reasons: People were busy getting ready for the holiday. Grocery stores and malls were packed, megaplexes suffered. Again, box office tracking websites should know better.
Here are some other samples including the first one from the guy who gets on CNN and lots of other places to be the “box office expert” talking head and advertises that widely. Again, I expect experts to know better and he was defending its numbers, call the box office “tough” a little prematurely.
‘The Hobbit’ and Its Tough Box Office Journey “Despite a record-breaking opening, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey experienced a significant 57% drop off in its second week, bringing in an estimated $36.7 million, with an $8,952 per screen average. This brings The Hobbit’s ten-day gross to $149.9 million, tracking about 8% behind The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’s ten-day gross.”
Box office update: ‘The Hobbit’ plummets to $10.2M on Friday “Sure, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey set a December record last weekend when it opened with $84.5 million, but after eight days in theaters, it’s now clear that the Lord of the Rings prequel is running well behind the final LOTR film, The Return of the King, which earned $377.8 in 2003 — without 3D and IMAX surcharges.
“The Hobbit dropped by a huge 73 percent from its first Friday to $10.2 million yesterday, which puts it on pace for a $33 million weekend . . . but The Hobbit is falling much faster, and it will need to hold up remarkably well over the holiday to have a shot at $300 million domestically.”
After 21 days in release the film will sit at $250+ million domestically with two thirds of its audience being from non-U.S. outlets with $514 million, bringing the total to comfortably over $760 million in three weeks.
Disaster averted, $300 million in sight.
After the second weekend and its reports of plummeting, the film finished in third place on Christmas to two movies with Christmas openings: Les Miserables and Django Unchained. More disaster reported. The Hobbit was again “fading fast” and destined to not only wind up a disappointment, but would it force the studios to force Jackson to make shorter films?
Ho-hum. By the weekend, The Hobbit was back on top winning its third weekend in a row while those two films came down off their debut highs. In full disclosure, I liked both of those films a lot too which brings us to another problem.
The reporting of box office totals comes full of Movie X vs. Movie Y drama but is rather ridiculous. Skyfall just passed the $1 billion mark, the 14th film ever to do so worldwide, but it didn’t “win” a chain of incredible weekends. It was an entertaining film with beautiful cinematography that people (including Hobbit viewers) liked and told friends about. I know the competition aspect of movie vs. movie is just too hard to pass up, but it doesn’t work and isn’t fair but it is effective at creating false drama and gets considerable clicks. I don’t attend one movie and see it as a victory over another film I didn’t see. Make all good movies, we will see them all.
While I am complaining, writers also should stop calling The Hobbit part of the LOTR series because it isn’t, and as the Tough Hobbit Journey story above wisely pointed out, it should be thought of as its own series. The Hobbit is also not a prequel, invented after-the-fact, to make more story or explain anything. It stands on its own and did so before there was a LOTR and was written first. Preaching to the choir here, I know.
Here are some examples:
“However, The Hobbit did suffer the biggest second weekend drop (57%) of any movie based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth series.” – IGN
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey once again dominated the overseas box office this weekend, though its noticeable drop suggests it doesn’t have any chance of it matching Return of the King in the long run.
“The Hobbit’s overseas total reached $288.5 million, and worldwide is now at $438.6 million. While it will hold well through the end of the year, it does now seem certain that the movie will fall well short of $1 billion worldwide.” – BoxOfficeMojo
So really? It isn’t Return of the King? Rather than report The Hobbit is making serious bank, despite your dire predictions, and it performed well though the holidays, the story is its failure to make $1 billion? And, if that were the point, with “only” $250 million to go to reach that number, when is it no longer “well short” and are we sure that will not happen? It is destined to have much less staying power than, say, Skyfall? Whatever the right and wrong of it all, I think the $600 million invested by movie studios in a product that has a three-year-yield window, would be pretty happy with a $750+ million earned in 21 days.
Next week we will be treated to tales and headlines of how the latest Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie “slays the competition” at the box office, unless it doesn’t finish first and then we can read how it was slain by other films, perhaps including The Hobbit.
The third film will be a test of Thorin’s Oakenshield’s character.
None of this really matters for those who simply like the movie. Once the film is on safe financial footing, and the studio is happy to let Jackson do his thing twice more, who cares? Well I do for one. Accuracy is always important. Not shorthanded, easy reporting, but actual accuracy. That comes from my background as a journalist and as a film aficionado. From the same place comes my belief that word choices, like “plummeted” do matter. If you use that in a headline (and writers of stories often do not write headlines) make sure it really means that and it is accurate and isn’t just there to grab extra clicks.
TheOneRing.net and I don’t make any extra money from The Hobbit since we make none at all to begin with. I really hope all good films always find an audience and empower filmmakers to tell stories. (Speaking of movie goers, another topic for another day is my belief that critics are completely, wildly out of touch with film audiences but nobody needs to hear that rant – or let me know if you do.) But permit me one final point, that is directed very squarely at Warner Bros., MGM and New Line and the production company behind The Hobbit.
Dear studios and Team Jackson:
Please do the following if you want to make more money and at the same time want to throw fans a bone:
Send, to be added to digital copies of your digital movie, a teaser trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. People want to watch your movie again and again but reward them for repeat viewings with some idea of what is in store next December. Tack it on after the credits so folks can enjoy the film, sit through the credits and then thrill with the promise of things to come. You managed it almost a decade ago with the LOTR films, so no excuses. If you have a will, you can do it again and it would win a lot of hearts and minds.
For readers of The Hobbit, which became an almost overnight classic following its 1937 debut, the new movie may elicit some puzzlement. Seemingly extraneous flourishes clog up what many remember as a simple fairy tale, and random characters appear at every twist and turn throughout Middle Earth.
Yet those fans who went on to immerse themselves in J.R.R. Tolkien’s wider lore will find inspiration. For the most part, director Peter Jackson does not exercise an extra heaping of artistic license. Rather, Jackson—reportedly something of a nerd himself—borrows from the larger Tolkien literature to create a rich Hobbit tableau.
“Jackson knows the lore pretty well and wanted to bring that larger material in there wherever he could,” said Michael Drout, an English professor at Wheaton College who founded the academic journal Tolkien Studies and edited the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. It’s this so-called textuality—or texts behind texts behind other texts—that lends Tolkien’s work the air of reality, he said, and which Jackson seeks to capture in his films.
Jackson isn’t free to tap into any detail he wants from Tolkien’s wider works, however. “He had a very difficult task in that the movie rights extend only to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings,” said John Rateliff, an independent Tolkien scholar and author of The History of the Hobbit. “He’s well aware that there’s a great deal more material set in that world, but contractually not allowed to use that material in the movies.”
Wherever you are in the world, come online and watch our Live Video channel for a special Tolkien birthday edition of TORn After Dark: join the Los Angeles smial of the Tolkien Forever group holding our Tolkien Birthday Toast event at the famous Cat & Fiddle Pub (where they shot scenes from Casablanca).You’ll be a welcome dinner guest as we have classic Brit food and spirits and debate the new Hobbit film! Fans will be arriving a little after 7:00pm Pacific Time and we will go live during dinner at 7:30 via our live streaming video account (hosted by Stickam). Be part of the fun and frolic with Barliman’s Chatters here on our Live Event Page! See you there as we toast……. “To the Professor!” at 9:00pm.
