Moviefone scored an interview with Peter Jackson about the pair of ‘Hobbit’ movies that have been burning up internet bandwidth as every site remotely related to popular culture has been scrambling to get the lowdown on what in the devil has been going on. Director Guillermo del Toro has feed us information on our message boards and we have some reliable sources, but producer Jackson set the record strait on a couple of important facts:
* He says the 2nd script is now finished. “So the studio’s got both scripts now, which is a milestone,” said Jackson.
* The two movies haven’t been “delayed” because they never had a schedule
* No actors have been cast because the film hasn’t received a greenlight from the studios
* He confirmed our report about the MGM situation slowing up the start of production
You can read the whole story right here. Thanks to Magpie on our message boards and the blog of TORn friend Doug Adams on his LOTR music blog.
Linuxelf sends some new clips along: First up is an in-depth interview with Peter Jackson, plus this: Ever wondered how many New Zealanders as extras where in the LOTR movie trilogy? This article does the maths & attempts to find out! 🙂 see how some of the extras had a blast to pass the time! And finally TTT interviews the day after the NZ premiere with, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Elijah Wood, Peter Jackson, Karl Urban, they are also asked what the strangest questions they had been asked by reporters. Enjoy!
Investors want to give MGM $500 million to start making new productions according to Nikki Finke at Deadline.com. Relativity Media, backed by a hedge fund, must see the profit potential in projects and properties like “The Hobbit” and further James Bond films. The report says this offer was made three weeks ago which means they probably weren’t following TORn’s advice, but maybe those holding MGM’s $3.7 billion debt will, and allow this to happen. In any case, the auction for MGM seems to be dead. If this deal is accepted, “The Hobbit,” could go forward right away. One also wonders if last Thursday’s long meeting was more about urging the bondholders to accept an offer like this and less about asking them for more money directly. Of course, investors may also want to carefully watch their money and that taps into the deepest fears of financiers wanting creative input into films. But with the LOTR track record of Producer Peter Jackson and proven visionary Guillermo del Toro directing, those fears are tempered. Thanks to Sunflower on our message boards and the many pairs of eyes keeping us up to date.
Andy Serkis has been describing life as Gollum and praising the talents of friend and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. The British actor is reprising his most famous role in the film adaption of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit, due to be released in 2011. Serkis thinks the magic of the character comes, partly from the motion capture techniques used to make the film. “The really key moment really was Peter’s understanding that drama is what happens between two beings,” the 45-year-old said. More..
Linuxelf continues to load up the YouTube library of yesteryear. Heading up today’s entries is fun New Zealand television coverage from our own “Return of the One Party”. They (channel 3) call it the “Three Ring Party” and later refer to it as New Line’s party, never quite catching on that it was a fan organized gathering. But they did talk to site friend and expert costumer Judy (look for the beard) and reported from our stage while Emerald Rose is playing.
After the video below are links to fun interviews with the likes of Peter Jackson, Orlando Bloom & Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Andy Serkis, Ian McKellen, Billy Boyd, Elijah Wood and John Rhys-Davies as well as footage of fans touring Edoras.
The guys over at MTV caught up with the incredibly talented and extremely busy co-founder and director of WETA, the Oscar Award winning Richard Taylor, right after he got off “a big meeting about how to make the new designs of armor for the new film” no less. Taylor  shared a deal of information regarding the early pre-production that’s been going on in New Zealand while the rest of the world is anticipating the long-awaited greenlight for the two Hobbit films.
“The lovely thing about ‘The Hobbit'”, says Taylor, “is that the race of the dwarves comes to the forefront in the story, and [we’ll depict] the uniqueness of the collection of the dwarves. There’s a journey through the story with Bilbo, and that’s something that’s incredibly exciting — that we’re going to have a chance to feed and develop and watch them take on a much greater presence than the one dwarf named Gimli was able to in the Lord of the Rings. Gimli had an incredible presence, of course, but he was only one character. And it’s fantastic to think that we’re going to be able to develop the dwarves to such a higher degree … the richness of their culture. The fact that through so many different dwarfs, you’ll get to appreciate their cultural differences, where they come from, them as a people.”
Taylor had more to say concerning the early design phase that they’re currently in, about the new and wonderful worlds that the story of The Hobbit takes you to, and about working with Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson.
Andy Serkis has been describing life as Gollum and praising the talents of friend and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. The British actor is reprising his most famous role in the film adaption of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit, due to be released in 2011. Serkis thinks the magic of the character comes, partly from the motion capture techniques used to make the film. “The really key moment really was Peter’s understanding that drama is what happens between two beings,” the 45-year-old said. 