The Hobbit becomes a trilogy!
Movie News | Jul 30th, 2012
Director Peter Jackson has confirmed on his Facebook page that the Hobbit will be broken up into 3 movies now! Lord of the Rings geeks will either love or hate this. I for one am quite excited to see more from Peter Jackson’s take of the Tolkien stories. Sure, the Hobbit isn’t that long but there’s a lot of stuff untold in the Appendixes of Return of the King. I’d love to see more of Aragorn (which I hope Viggo Mortensen can come back), the rise of Sauron and other things. Other questions arise like how long each film will be, and where PJ will break up the stories? Does he end with Smaug in Movie 2 and have Battle of the Five Armies and all the other stuff in part 3? Or do the first two movies be The Hobbit and have all the other stuff be the third movie? I have faith in Peter Jackson and his WETA team and it could be a very long time before we see anything else from Middle Earth so I’ll take 3 movies anyday!
From Peter Jackson’s Facebook page.
It is only at the end of a shoot that you finally get the chance to sit down and have a look at the film you have made. Recently Fran, Phil and I did just this when we watched for the first time an early cut of the first movie – and a large chunk of the second. We were really pleased with the way the story was coming together, in particular, the strength of the characters and the cast who have brought them to life. All of which gave rise to a simple question: do we take this chance to tell more of the tale? And the answer from our perspective as the filmmakers, and as fans, was an unreserved ‘yes.’
We know how much of the story of Bilbo Baggins, the Wizard Gandalf, the Dwarves of Erebor, the rise of the Necromancer, and the Battle of Dol Guldur will remain untold if we do not take this chance. The richness of the story of The Hobbit, as well as some of the related material in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, allows us to tell the full story of the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and the part he played in the sometimes dangerous, but at all times exciting, history of Middle-earth.
So, without further ado and on behalf of New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Wingnut Films, and the entire cast and crew of “The Hobbit” films, I’d like to announce that two films will become three.
It has been an unexpected journey indeed, and in the words of Professor Tolkien himself, “a tale that grew in the telling.”
Cheers,
Peter J
