Peter Jackson's THE HOBBIT To Be A Trilogy

[JeffSaylor]

THIRD Film Announced For 2014...

Peter Jackson will make a third film in his upcoming adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, it was jointly announced today by Toby Emmerich, President and Chief Operating Officer, New Line Cinema, Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officers, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, and Jeff Robinov, President, Warner Bros. Pictures Group.

Jackson recently wrapped principal photography on what he originally planned to be a two-film adaptation of The Hobbit, which is set in Middle-earth 60 years before The Lord of the Rings. Jackson stated, “Upon recently viewing a cut of the first film, and a chunk of the second, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and I were very pleased with the way the story was coming together. We recognized that 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, gave rise to a simple question: do we tell more of the tale? And the answer from our perspective as filmmakers and fans was an unreserved ‘yes.’ We know the strength of our cast and of the characters they have brought to life. We know creatively how compelling and engaging the story can be and—lastly, and most importantly—we know how much of the tale of Bilbo Baggins, the Dwarves of Erebor, the rise of the Necromancer, and the Battle of Dol Guldur would remain untold if we did not fully realize this complex and wonderful adventure. I’m delighted that New Line, MGM and Warner Bros. are equally enthusiastic about bringing fans this expansive tale across three films.”

The first film in the trilogy, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” will be released December 14, 2012, with the second film releasing on December 13, 2013, and the third film slated for summer 2014. All three films will be released in 3D and 2D in select theatres and IMAX.

My thoughts? While more Middle-earth on film is only a good thing, I find it unbelievable that Peter Jackson is able to make three films based on the shortest novel in the Lord of the Rings series. Where each film in the LOTR trilogy was based on one book, here we receive three films based on one book. Amazing.

Source: Weta

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[ZombieSlayer909]

Wow this is unexpected!

I'm wondering what the third film will encompass? Jackson made it sound as though the original two would tell the story of the Hobbit while this new third film would be something different. My hope is that it would be more of a collection of short stories, an Appendix if you will.

The third film could include all the extra stuff that didn't make it into Hobbit, go back to the LOTR trilogy and do additional material there or pick and choose any of the massive amount of backstory and character files that Tolkien presents in the Appendices. Those appendices present hundreds of years of history and the LOTR trilogy only scratched the surface.

Overall this is fantastic news. Some of the best films of all time lead by a team of very talented filmmakers. I'm stoked!