The Hobbit has a director and a sequel

[SzczerbiakManiac]

Double-Bleeah!
According to the LA Times:
1) Peter Jackson isn't gonna direct The Hobbit
2) They're writing a fücking sequel to it

Yes, Del Toro is a talented director, but I want Jackson, dammit! And unless it came from the pen of John Ronald Reuel, I'm not interested in a sequel.

[mousepod]

Well, as much as I love Jackson's work, King Kong just was too flawed for my full approval.

Del Toro, on the other hand, hasn't let me down yet.

Let another director tackle Middle Earth, I say.

(I'm not going to comment on the sequel)

[Alex]

It improves my baseless perception of it to know that Peter Jackson won't be involved. King Kong was mostly horrible. Return of the King was almost completely horrible. The Two Towers showed the slide from the greatness of the first to the horribleness of the second.

Good riddance, says I. Before tackling anything so large again, Jackson needs to go serve a 5-10 year penance doing small movies that force him to reign things in a bit and relearn control.

I too will withhold comment on the sequel except to note that writing new original content for the Tolkein universe seems a very difficult idea to pull off.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

I couldn't be happier with the choice. Del Toro keeps growing in my esteem, both as a director and as a producer.

(cough, cough... The Orphanage is on DVD now. We should all watch it together, possibly at Casa de Mousepod...)

[Gemini Cricket]

I like Del Toro as well.
I don't mind the choice.
I do mind them sucking money out of their audiences for a Hobbit sequel, though.
I hope it doesn't stink.
I hear Ian MacKellen is going to be in it. Are they going to dust off Ian Holm to be in it, too? lol. Too old, methinks.

[mousepod]

Originally Posted by LSPoorEeyorick

I couldn't be happier with the choice. Del Toro keeps growing in my esteem, both as a director and as a producer.

(cough, cough... The Orphanage is on DVD now. We should all watch it together, possibly at Casa de Mousepod...)

To continue the derail for a moment - the Blu-Ray is on its way to me right now - but the PS3 is being repaired by Sony (blah) - so it'll be a couple of weeks.

Maybe we'll have a small and impromptu movie afternoon on Sunday... see the usual thread for details.

...now back to the original topic...

[innerSpaceman]

I'd be happy if Jackson's plumber directed The Hobbit. His last two LotR movies SUCKED.


But a Hobbit sequel to bridge the time gap between the two Tolkien masterworks??? OMfrellingG. That's craptacular fu<ksterism maximatainially!!!

[Chernabog]

Originally Posted by mousepod

To continue the derail for a moment - the Blu-Ray is on its way to me right now - but the PS3 is being repaired by Sony (blah) - so it'll be a couple of weeks.

WhaaaA? What happened to the Ps3?

And WOW I can't believe how harsh you guys are on PJ and Company. Or those that thought that the first LotR was great and the last two sucked (sorry, but there were two moments in TTT that brought me to tears -- when the ents attacked Isengard, and when Gandalf showed up on his horse in Helms Deep.... and I thought the battle sequences and Shelob were spectacular in Return of the King). I loved the movies. The only movies I've seen more than once in the theatre are: Rocky Horror, Amelie, Triplets of Belleville, and the LotR trilogy (in extended edition, no less). I'm of the opinion that PJ is fvcking brilliant.

FYI -- I'm re-reading the novel and PJ changed WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY more than I remembered (I read LotR once, a few years before the movies came out). Besides the very general storyline, many of the characterizations, locations, etc. were completely changed to make the story more cinematic. For some reason I thought it was just "little changes" here and there (with the exception of the Scouring of the Shire ending) but that is not the case.

So if you're such a "purist" that if it didn't come from Tolkien's pen, it's crap, then I'm sorry. A filmed version of exactly what I'm reading in LotR would be boring as sh*t. It is interesting to me because of the backstory that I'm WAY more familiar with than the first time I read it, where I skimmed over all the "history" stuff and had no appreciation for what had happened prior to the story upon my first reading.

I've been involved over the last year in Lord of the Rings Online, which has lots of the locations from "Fellowship of the Ring" but also entire locations that are just mentioned in the "history" books -- Angmar, Evendim, Forochel, Helegrod, Carn Dum -- and compelling locations and stories have been made for these areas -- many of them just made from scratch by the game company.

I have no doubt that if video game programmers could come up with this stuff, someone like Guillermo Del Toro, who I also think is a fvcking brilliant director, would come up with ways to a) make The Hobbit more cinematic and b) make a sequel set in the same world which isn't crap. What I mean is I don't think the idea is a crap idea from the outset.

What I had thought originally was that they were SPLITTING The Hobbit into 2 parts (which would be way too long for a simple story). But I don't think that creating The Hobbit 2 is a creatively bankrupt proposition, or that good things cannot be done with it because it isn't expressly a "Tolkien" story, or whatnot, as long as it doesn't conflict with what happens in LotR.

The title though, has to go. Hobbit 2: Electric Boogaloo! That's not hot.

[Gemini Cricket]

I loved all three LOTR movies.
I watch them over and over.
I saw all three multiple times in the theater.
The only thing I despise of all three is the Mouth of Sauron in the extended Return of the King film. What the heck was that?! lol.

I didn't like PJ's King Kong.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Oh, I like LOTR. Some films more than others, but I like it. And King Kong, even, though it's far from perfect; I'm in the minority here, but there was a lot I enjoyed about it.

But I'm also a big fan of Del Toro, and am interested to see what exactly he does with it.