25-Apr-2009 - Empire Magazine HOBBIT Report
by Parker Lyons
Empire Magazine's April Issue features an interview with Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro. This is the first time in a while that the two have spoke about THE HOBBIT's progress. You can buy the issue on news stands or online, but here is a brief summary: - Phillippa Boyens, Fran Walsh, Jackson and Del Toro have been working on treatments, story outlines and structure for the last few months
- Jackson and Del Toro just pitched their idea for the main story outline to Warner Brothers and it was approved
- Now that they have WB's approval, they will start writing the script
- They also have people standing by to start the casting process
- GDT has also been spending time at Weta doing research and development on creatures
- Mike Mignola, Wayne Barlowe, John Howe and Alan Lee have all been participating in the creature design
- They are on target for shooting March of 2010
- The two movies will span the entire length of the book - there will be no "bridge" film. The story will not be just the journey of Bilbo and the dwarves, however. It will expand to include Gandalf's whereabouts and some of the back story
- THE HOBBIT will also show Sauron's back story: how he manifests himself for the RINGS trilogy
- Shooting the film in 3D is still under discussion. There are some concerns however that shooting it in 3D will distort the tonality set by the original trilogy
Notable Quotes:
Jackson: We do cover some of the events earlier, like Thráin, (dwarf king) Thorin's father, and we're sort of fleshing out the Hobbit and expanding it sideways, up and down. We just 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 of the style, if you like, of the trilogy, too.
Del Toro: To make a movie of the Hobbit that didn't go over three hours.
Jackson: You would be rushing along...
Del Toro: You would be losing iconic moments. The animated version avoids Beorn, who is a great character, and some people always feel that you should lose the Spiders (of Mirkwood), or this or that. We wanted to keep every iconic moment that was in the book and give it some weight.
Empire: How are you going to handle the dwarves, many of whom aren't fleshed out in the book?
Del Toro: There is a very specific function that Gimli had in the trilogy. And technically and expressively, the dwarves in The Hobbit serve another. They have to become valiant, brave, sometimes funny - and yes, all of those were in Gimli, but there are moments in which the dwarves have to be tragic, or they have to be incredibly moving. Those dwarves, physically and dramatically, will work like three-dimensional characters that will as soon make you laugh as they will make you fear for their lives, or they will move you. Hopefully to tears, in some instances...
Jackson: We're going to choose five or six, pretty similar to the ones that Tolkien spends a bit more time on in the book, and develop some quite interesting relationships between them and Bilbo. We don't want them to be just Thorin plus 12 comedic sidekicks.
Jackson: What I think everybody has to get right in their minds is that we're creating a Middle-earth that's pretty much the same as the trilogy's Middle-earth. Hobbiton is going to look like the same place. Hobbits are going to look the same. But it's another guy going in with his own filmmaking style. That's why I think this could be a better idea for him to direct these films than me. Let's all see what somebody else does with Middle-earth. Let's go in there with another director and another set of lenses and another cameraman, and see what they do with it. I think that's exciting. He's not pretending to be me. People have got to get that into their heads.
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