In the first decade of the new millennium, we had a slew of fantasy movies – The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. Now another trilogy based on the book, The Hobbit by J. R. R.Tolkien is slated to be produced and released this decade.
The Hobbit will be released in three parts. The reason? Peter Jackson felt that due justice would not be done to the rich storyline in just two parts. According to him, a lot of interesting detail would have been left out and nobody wants that. Apparently, the decision was made after watching a cut of the first movie that he and his screenwriters were thrilled with the way the movie was developing, and wanted a shot at going the whole hog. He has the full backing of the studio bosses and producers – New Line, MGM and Warner Brothers Group.
The story begins 60 years before the events in The Lord of The Rings, in Middle Earth. Jackson said that he would not have been able to present the adventures of Baggins, the Dwarves of Erebor, the Batle of Dol Guldur and the Necromancer’s rise, if he had to wrap everything up in two movies.
He has immense faith in the ability of his crew, especially the cast, who’ve so convincingly brought the characters to life on the big screen.
The first film is slated for release a fortnight before Christmas this year, with the title ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’. The second part will be released around the same time in the coming year and the final movie in the summer of 2014. The movies will be shot in digital 3D, and we can expect some scintillating sound and visual effects. They will be released in 2D, 3D and IMAX versions.
The Cast
Gandalf the Grey will be played by Ian McKEllan and Martin Freeman will play Baggins. Cate Blanchett returns as Galadriel and Orlando Bloom as Legolas Greenleaf. Frodo Baggins will be portrayed by Elijah Woods. Ian Holm plays Bilbo when he’s old.
While many fans are ecstatic that they are going to see more of Baggins and his adventures, some are just a little miffed that they will have to wait for another two years to see the climax of the story. With The Lord of the Rings, it was three books that were made into three stories; but here it’s just one book that is being made into three movies. So many fans and critics will probably be asking how they are going to logically divide the story into three parts. Now what we don’t want to see is the story being stretched just for the sake of making a trilogy.
Another theory is that there’s no clear division of the book into two halves, as it was with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. What we saw was most of the book’s story (quest for the horcruxes) in part one and part two dominated by the battle of Hogwarts. It seems Jackson wants to avoid doing that and he is probably in a better position to evenly distribute the story when he has the option of three movies.
This is a guest post by Jem Larson of buyVerizon.com, a site that offers savings and current information on Verizon FiOS availability, as well as Verizon.com services.
