THE HOBBIT - PREVIEW

The Hobbit (2010)

Starring: TBA
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Rated: Unrated
U.S. Opening Date: TBA 2010

THEY SAY

Based on JRR Tolkien's novel of the same name, The Hobbit is the story of Bilbo Baggins, who is seen in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Hobbit follows Bilbo as he first encounters Gandalf. He is somewhat unwillingly swept off on an adventure to the lonely mountain to rid it of the dragon, Smaug. The dragon is guarding a treasure of enormous value that he had firstly taken from the dwarfs who once lived there. A major battle shortly, ensues.

WE SAY

Ever since Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies became the box office juggernauts they were, there has been talk about filming The Hobbit, basically a lighter in tone prequel of sorts to Tolkien’s epic Rings trilogy of novels featuring a similar set of characters.

However the filming rights resided at New Line (the studio which produced the first three films) and relationships between them and Kiwi director Peter Jackson, who directed the Rings movies for them, soured apparently over the alleged payment of royalties. At one point New Line let drop that they’ll make a Hobbit movie without Jackson’s participation. This led to an online ruckus by Tolkien fans who insisted that they won’t go see any movies in which Jackson wasn’t involved.

Things have however been patched up it seems and the legal dispute settled and plans are going ahead to make two films out of The Hobbit novel.

Jackson won’t be directing, but he will be the executive producer. (His wife and producing partner Fran Walsh has also signed on.)

Internet Tolkien fans sighed a collected sigh of relief even though it as this stage unclear who will be actually directing the two movies. Considering that he is busy on a sci-fi actioner titled District 9 in Cape Town, it probably won’t be South African-born Jackson protégé Neil Sonnekus. (Sonnekus was set to direct a film version of the Halo computer game to be produced by Jackson before the idea of a film was trashed by the studio. Jackson is also executive producer on District 9. It will be Sonnekus’ directorial debut. He has previously caught attention when he made an eye-catching ad for Renault featuring a dancing Transformers-like sedan.)

As yet it is not known who will be signing on to star in The Hobbit. Some stars of the original Lord of the Rings films have apparently however expressed in reprising their roles.

One would think now that Golden Compass bombed at the U.S. box office that New Line might think twice about embarking on another expensive Fantasy movie, but they probably argued that they had been backing the wrong Fantasy franchise . . .

News update: Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth) to direct!

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