Fiordland residents have spotted director Peter Jackson, along with five helicopters, as he hunts for filming spots for The Hobbit movies. Yesterday, Jackson’s spokesman, Matt Dravitzki, confirmed Jackson was location scouting in the Queenstown area before filming starts next month. He would be there for a “few days” and crews were also looking for sites in the North Island. Dravitzki said he was unprepared to offer further details until filming started. Jackson is adapting JRR Tolkien’s prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy into two movies. His private jet, a Gulfstream, was seen at Queenstown Airport on Monday. More..
Category: Peter Jackson
Here’s some news concerning what’s NOT going to happen in the upcoming Hobbit films. The Belfast Telegraph caught up with Sean Bean who, as fans well know, played the tragic character Boromir in the Lord of the Rings films, and asked him whether he sees himself returning to The Hobbit in some way.
Here’s what Sean Bean had to say:
I don’t think so. I played Boromir and I got knocked off in the end so I don’t think it would be… I mean I could come back as a different character but I think he [Peter Jackson] is looking for a new kind of style and maybe a new look.
I know a few people who are in it and should be very exciting.
Sir Peter Jackson and his crew are on a Queenstown-based location scout of the South Island this week. Sir Peter’s assistant at Wingnut Films, Matt Dravitzki, yesterday said his boss was not available for interviews while he was in the South Island because the team were on a gruelling location scout. “Location scouting for The Hobbit is currently under way in both the North and South Islands.
“Locations will be chosen ahead of the commencement of principal photography in February.”
Mr Dravitzki said further details would be available once shooting started and it went without saying that New Zealand’s unique landscape would double for JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth. More..
From MTV: Why did it take the man behind Gandalf so long to commit officially to “The Hobbit”? In a surprisingly candid post on his website, Ian McKellen opened up on Wednesday (January 12) about behind-the-scenes developments and his own ambivalence surrounding the two-part project.
“Could I let Gandalf go? Would anyone else care if I did?” he wrote, going on to cite the example of the “Harry Potter” franchise. “Elsewhere, does anyone care that Michael Gambon was not the first to play Dumbledore?”
The issue all along was not whether he still feels creatively energized by Gandalf — “I long to do it,” McKellen told us of the role back in November of 2009. Rather, the sticking point was simply that the production faced delay after delay and, as the 71-year-old McKellen put it, “All I had to decide was what to do with the time that is given me.”
First, producer Peter Jackson and director Guillermo del Toro struggled to get the production off the ground as MGM faced severe financial difficulties, and then a planned date to begin shooting early last year came and went. Del Toro departed the project, Jackson stepped in to direct and the production faced a dustup with New Zealand’s trade union. The prospect of shooting outside that country bubbled up. More..
Here’s another neat interview with Elijah Wood (this time courtesy of Collider.com) concerning his return to Middle-earth as Frodo Baggins and having Peter Jackson return to the director’s chair after Guillermo del Toro’s departure.
From Collider.com:
COLLIDER: Was there a chance that you wouldn’t be able to do The Hobbit because of Wilfred?
WOOD: No. As it was always with The Hobbit, they wanted to do it very early in their schedule, so it just happened to work out very well.
COLLIDER: So, did you always know that you were going to be going back and doing it?
WOOD: I didn’t always know. I had an idea.
COLLIDER: What’s it like to be returning to Middle Earth again?
WOOD: It’s a gift. We’re now going on over a decade since I went out to New Zealand to start The Lord of the Rings, so it’s just going to be a beautiful reunion. I was actually out there in February and a lot of the same crew and designers, and so many of the family are a part of making The Hobbit as well. It’s just going to be a beautiful, very surreal reunion.
Continue reading “Elijah Wood Speaks Even More About “The Hobbit””
Peter Jackson is making Hobbit production diaries again! Actually, well, it’s not Peter Jackson but Peeder Jigson (AKA ‘That Mitchell and Webb Look’ and ‘Saxondale’ actor James Bachman). Take a look as Peeder struggles with Hobbit financing, and house chores, apparently. Strong Language Warning. Check out Bachman’s Funny or Die page here.
Peeder Jigson’s Video Diary – Pt. 1 – watch more funny videos