Peter-Jackson-Doctor-Who At a recent event in Edinburgh, Scotland, ‘Doctor Who’ showrunner Steven Moffat addressed Peter Jackson’s eagerness to direct an episode of the classic show:

“He’s serious about it. We talked at The Hobbit premiere – he just wants a Dalek.  So we’ll give him a Dalek and he’ll direct an episode. I think he’d like to us to go to New Zealand. I think it’s entirely possible.”

Series 8 is scheduled to start filming in January 2014, however there has been no word yet on when PJ would film his episode.

It’s not likely we’ll see the TARDIS flying over Hobbiton, however I think it is very likely that PJ will get his wish to film against the gorgeous backdrop of New Zealand.

Thanks to Blogtor Who for the Q & A highlights.

desolation of smaug poster Comic Book Resources (CBR) chimes in with this long, comprehensive report by writer Andy Liegl on our panel at San Diego Comic-Con last month!


With Peter Jackson absent from Comic-Con International in San Diego to finish production on The Hobbit trilogy, the duty of bringing Middle-earth to Comic-Con fell to the staff of the TheOneRing.net. Consisting of TheOneRing personalities Alex and Kellie Rice, Josh Rubinstein and Rebecca Perry, with Cliff Broadway and Cathy Udovch driving most of the dialog, the panelists dug deep into the The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second film of The Hobbit trilogy. Continue reading “CBR reports on TheOneRing.net’s Comic-Con panel!”

Peter Jackson stands in front of a set as photographed by DGAQuarterly / Louise Hatton.
Peter Jackson stands in front of a set as photographed by DGAQuarterly / Louise Hatton.
Currently in print at the best magazine racks and by subscription, DGAQuarterly (Directors Guild of Amercia’s print magazine) features a lengthy interview with director Peter Jackson. There aren’t any real “The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug,” spoilers but the lead image does show Jackson in front of a wet set that could be Laketown. If you click the link to the full article,
you will see images that must be from Jackson’s personal collection of his early work including a shot with Kate Winslet on “Heavenly Creatures.”

We call it a kitchen sink interview because it contains so much depth and covers a wide array of topics, touching on many of Jackson’s most important films while keeping in focus that his work on Middle-earth movies is so far, his greatest triumph and what he is most likely to be known for.

The Q&A with writer Jeffrey Ressner ranges over the Kiwi’s whole career with fascinating bits on his earliest days:

My first movie, Bad Taste, was really made up as we went along over four years, and it didn’t even have a script. Not having actors or a script tends to be somewhat limiting. [Laughs]

Jackson adds to the lore that surrounds the making of the “Lord of the Rings,” films with an amazing story about how his shooting studio in New Zealand came to be:

We thought, ‘Well, if The Lord of the Rings happens, this is exactly the sort of place we’d need. This is absolutely incredible.’ But it was very expensive. At the time it was just Fran and I, and if we committed to it and for some reason the film didn’t happen, we’d be in big, big trouble. I mean, we were mortgaging our house just to make the down payment on the place. One day the real estate agent was showing us around; the paint factory had been closed for six months, so it was mothballed and covered in dust. The cafeteria was dull and gray, and there were a lot of old Formica tables with chairs stuck up on top of them. Just before we left, I saw a paperback book sitting on one of the cafeteria tables—it was a copy of The Lord of the Rings. I called Fran over and pointed to it, and we looked at each other and then said to the guy, ‘OK, we’ll take it.’ And that became Stone Street Studios.

He also drops this gem that almost sent me back to my Blu-ray player:

I have to say, I saw a bit of my Kong about a year ago, and I actually think the last half-hour—those scenes in New York through the end of the Empire State Building sequence—is probably the piece of filmmaking of which I’m the proudest.

There is a lot more to this interview if you follow the link above. It may be one of the best Jackson interviews in print. We at TheOneRing have a good one in our pocket we hope to share before we see Smaug again in theaters, but this DGA piece is highly recommended.

If you missed the link, try this: http://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/1303-Summer-2013/DGA-Interview-Peter-Jackson.aspx.

hobbit-lotr2-words-per-second Ringer Tajik tells us of this fascinating analysis of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and its two follow-ups by Mark Lee at Overthinking It that adds more fuel — and some hard numbers — to the gently simmering debate over the three-film decision that Jackson and the studios made in mid-2012.

The image at right, part of Lee’s analysis, is certainly food for thought. Continue reading “The Hobbit: too little butter over too much bread?”

If you have a Tolkien/Middle-earth inspired poem you’d like to share, then send it to poetry@theonering.net. One poem per person may be submitted each month. Please make sure to proofread your work before sending it in. TheOneRing.net is not responsible for poems posting with spelling or grammatical errors.

German cinema magazine.
German cinema magazine.
German Magazine Cinema, has published a pretty fascinating article all about the second Hobbit movie, “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” dropping casual spoilers as if they are common knowledge. What is a little odd is that the magazine doesn’t make clear where it gets quotes from Peter Jackson or Evangeline Lily or Orlando Bloom and it sure doesn’t make clear where all the spoilerific plot information comes from. We can’t vouch for the accuracy of the quotes.

Friends at thorinoakenshield.net have a full online translation of the print publication and since we aren’t German speakers, we can’t say if anything is lost in translation, but it reads pretty clearly.

Here are some highlights but if you read beyond this point, expect full-on potential spoilers! (We can’t say if they are true or not, but the writer surely dishes the info matter-of-factly.)

****Seriously, last chance, major potential spoilers!****

“A greedy dragon, a rather testy skinchanger, a river ride full of action and the battle of the White Council against the Necromancer of Dol Guldur: Middle-earth fans should be prepared for something big; because with “The Hobbit – Desolation of Smaug” (starting December 12th) Peter Jackson will (once again) show all he’s got.”

“A lot of the appendices will also be used in part 2.”

“Hardcore fans will find the revelation of the Necromancer (Benedict Cumberbatch as CGI shadow) as witch master Sauron just in a couple of sentences in the book. And according to Tolkien the pale orc Azog doesn’t survive the Battle of Azanulbizar (in the beginning of “The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey”), while Jackson definitively turns him into Thorin Oakenshield’s arch enemy now. Orcs invading Esgaroth on the other hand was completely invented by Peter Jackson. Just like Tauriel – this young, only 300 years old elf which will add a bit of femininity to the male dominated story.”

“This story needs estrogens”, Evangeline Lilly jokes. And Peter Jackson adds: “Thanks to characters like Tauriel we will discover more about the life in Mirkwood, which is completely different from Rivendell.” But the Silvan pointy-eared beauty is not supposed to be a mere copy of Arwen from the old trilogy. After all the people of the wood elves is a lot more dangerous and suspicious than Elrond and his companions. “We are like ninjas from the undergrowth.” (Lilly)”

“Peter Jackson not only uses additions like this to narrate a coherent chronicle of Middle-earth, he also uses them to sprinkle a little treat for spare time hobbits here and there. For example fanboys will anticipate the first encounter of Legolas and Gloin, father of grumpy dwarf Gimli from the “Rings” films. Other than “An unexpected Journey” the sequel is going to be distinctly darker though, stresses Jackson.

“One climax of the new trilogy, which over 2000 actors and extras worked on, is the death of the dragon. Whether Smaug’s fall will end part 2 however is yet unknown. Certain is that the Battle of the Five Armies will play the center role in “The Hobbit – There and Back Again”.

Those are the highlights and you can read the full translation right here, from ThorinOakenshield.net along with scans of the magazine’s pages while the German publication can be found online here, but we didn’t find a link directly to the article.