Jackson, Del Toro Announce 'Hobbit' Changes

With the first Hobbit movie now only three years away, director Guillermo del Toro tells Empire that plans have changed for the two-film franchise. Word was, del Toro and Peter Jackson would make a film based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit with a second film to be based on other writings by the author that would serve as a bridge between this series and Lord of the Rings. “We’ve decided to have The Hobbit span the two movies, including the White Council and the comings and goings of Gandalf to Dol Guldur,” del Toro announced. Jackson says the move was made for very practical reasons. “We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie. The essential brief was to do The Hobbit, and it allows us to make The Hobbit in a little more style, if you like, of the [LOTR] trilogy." The only aesthetic difference I see this creating is that cameos from most of the Lord of the Rings ensemble would be impossible, like Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn. There were hypothetical situations that had Aragorn and Frodo making appearances in the second film, which would have contained a lot of the stuff in The Silmarillion. But this is definitely the way to go.

Comments

[Lillian James]

Thank God. This is ten times better.

[Timmy Two Moons]

Oh oh. While I"m happy that the Hobbit will get the treatment it deserves, I am sad to see the stuff from the Silmarillion go. There is so much incredibly cool stuff in that book. I hope they decide to make 20 movies out of that material. Beren and Luthien, Galdriels history with the Noldor. To see Feanor. Wow! good stuff.

[Lengthy Johnson]

Well, this two-part setup for the Hobbit is the only natural one. It is disconcerting that it took so long for Jackson/del Toro to realise it. Principally, I blame Jackson for it. His judment has been a bit off for quite some time now.

Silmarillion is basically unfilmable.