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Wednesday, November 25
With his Lovely Bones opening next month, writer-director Peter Jackson spent some time talking with the British press about a few of his upcoming producing projects. One of the most-anticipated is The Hobbit, the sequel to Jackson's Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Jackson told In The News that an initial script has been delivered to the studio.
The Hobbit will be two movies and we've written the first script anddelivered it to the studio who seem to be happy with it. We're now halfway through the second script and Philippa [Boyens],Fran [Walsh], Guillermo [Del Toro] and myself are doing the scripts and having great fun. It was an interesting experience because eight or nine years have passed since we wrote the Lord of the Ringsscreenplays and I was worried it'd be weird or hard or uncomfortable to go back there, but as soon as we started writing the scripts it wasfun, actually, and easy.
Del Toro will be directing The Hobbit, a situation he is "happy" about, stressing that "it's our job to support him and to help him tell the story." Jackson told BBC News that having Del Toro in on the writing process should make the transition easier.
We're writing the screenplays with him, so in terms of the script, there is continuity. We're writing Ian McKellen's dialogue just the same as we did in Lord Of The Rings. But Guillermo, being the director, will obviously take the script and interpret that and shoot his film. So that'll be interesting to see. That's actually the reason I wanted him to do it. I felt like I'd be trying to compete with myself and deliberately do things differently, which is not the way I want to work. I want it tobe natural.
Jackson stated that The Hobbit will be shot "in 35mm, old-fashioned film" because of Del Toro's desire to have the movie "in the same space as the original trilogy." Meanwhile, Jackson's other producing project, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, will be in 3-D. Jackson said that the movie is complete. Mostly.
Tintin is great. It's made. The movie is cut together and now [we] are turning it into a fully-rendered film. So the movie, to some degree, exists in a very rough state.
All that's left is to turn the movie from motion capture into 3-D animation, which will only take a mere two years to complete.
Posted 11/25/2009 by Ryan
Related: Peter Jackson | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | Guillermo del Toro | The Hobbit | Tintin
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Friday, November 20
After a notable role as Eomer in the second and third chapters in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Karl Urban went on to star in the ill-fated Pathfinder, Marcus Nispel's Vikings-versus-Native Americans action film.
Urban followed up his little-seen Pathfinders starring role with the supporting role of Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy in J.J. Abrams' revamped Star Trek, a role that promised to put him back in the spotlight. However, Abrams' film focused primarily on the relationship between James T. Kirk (played by Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto), rather than on the the Kirk-Spock-Bones trinity that served as the basis for the original series. In a recent interview with IGN, Urban said that he hopes that his role gets beefed up for Star Trek 2, if only to pay homage to the original.
The structure [of the new film] wasn't really the traditional triumvirate that you've seen on the television show. It was really more a movie about establishing everybody. I certainly hope that [screenwriters] Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman and J.J. continue to strengthen and evolve those characters into those directions.
I would love to play scenes being essentially Kirk's moral compass or point of conscience. The way McCoy was written, he really sort of verbalized the war going on in Kirk's conscience, and I certainly would love to see more arguments of passion versus logic with Spock because they're always fun.
Urban also offered his opinion on the direction the second Star Trek film should take.
I think the challenge is to come up with the most important mission, the mission that literally tears these people apart. The mission that is the definitive Trek mission. We have to come up with something akin to a Dark Knight or The Empire Strikes Back. Something like that.
Urban recently shot And Soon the Darkness, which is in post-production, and is currently filming Priest.
Posted 11/20/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Chris Pine | Roberto Orci | J.J. Abrams | Alex Kurtzman | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | Pathfinder | Star Trek | Karl Urban | Star Trek 2 | Zachary Quinto
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Wednesday, November 18
While everyone else was trolling around for hints about whom he might pick to play Bilbo, The Hobbit director Guillermo del Toro dropped an unexpected casting bombshell: That he will appear in his own movie. As a monster, no less. Coming from someone who takes his monsters so seriously — heck, he even takes them home as decorations — this promises to be a treat.
Del Toro won't be one of the major monsters; certainly not the dragon Smaug, whom he has spent the better part of a year designing. Like Alfred Hitchcock, he will only make a brief cameo in his movie. Here's what he says about the part:
I had a hand on the design of the creature and I will personally sculpt the appliances that will be applied on my face and hands.... I will have a line or two and die quickly.
So with that in mind, what are the options? There are a lot of creatures in The Hobbit, some of them familiar from The Lord of the Rings, but del Toro is planning on giving even those his own personal twist. Here are some of the more likely prospects.
Posted 11/18/2009 by reelz
Related: Peter Jackson | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | Guillermo del Toro | The Hobbit
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Sunday, November 1
With all of the legal troubles MGM has been going through, it was beginning to look like The Hobbit, the prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, would never get made. However, in early October, MGM announced that it had secured funds from "key lenders" to move forward with the production and that filming would begin in Spring 2010.
Sir Ian McKellen has confirmed that the production is on track and that he will be returning as Gandalf, but said that "there won't be many of the actors going back." Now, at least one of those actors in question has said that he isn't interested in returning to Middle Earth. John Rhys-Davies, who played Gimli the dwarf, told Empire that he was asked about the possibility of playing Gimli's father, Gloin, but that he has "completely ruled it out."
There's a sentimental part of me that would love to be involved again. Really I am not sure my face can take that sort of punishment anymore.
Rhys-Davies' character was the only starring dwarf featured in the LOTR trilogy, but The Hobbit will have 13 dwarves, a fact that weighed on his mind when deciding not to play Gloin.
Why would you want to do it if it was just a couple of shots? When you've been one of one, why would you want to be one of 13?
Posted 11/1/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Ian McKellen | John Rhys-Davies | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | The Hobbit
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Monday, January 19
When it comes to The Hobbit, the prequel to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Ian McKellen returning as Gandalf or Andy Serkis returning as Gollum seems natural, considering their characters' involvement in the original J.R.R. Tolkein novel, but Dominic Monaghan and his fellow hobbits returning seems odd, since their characters were not even born when The Hobbit takes place. Still, that's precisely what Monaghan revealed to MTV: "They really want us to come back, and I think there's a really strong chance that we might be back."
The return of Monaghan and company would have to include some serious re-writes, however. "We're not in 'The Hobbit,' no, but I think the idea in [Peter Jackson's and director Guillermo del Toro's] heads is that the trilogy of the Lord of the Rings films was so beloved by the fans that they're really keen to try to say thank you for the support that they gave to the Lord of the Rings movies and possibly bring back some of those characters that they know and love."
Whether Monaghan and company will appear in The Hobbit or its sequel, which will link the movie to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, is uncertain.
One thing that is is clear is that Serkis is ready to protect his "precious" again as Gollum: "I am going to really be looking forward to it," he told ComingSoon.net, "I mean the combination between [Del Toro] and Peter is extraordinary as well. I know they are writing at the moment."
Next Showing: The Hobbit is scheduled for December 2011
Posted 1/19/2009 by Ryan
Related: Ian McKellen | Peter Jackson | Dominic Monaghan | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | Guillermo del Toro | The Hobbit | Andy Serkis
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Thursday, May 1
Ian McKellen will reprise his role as Gandalf in Guillermo del Toro's Hobbit prequels.
The actor confirmed the role when he told Brit movie mag Empire that he "loved playing Gandalf" and "It's not a role you turn down." He went on to say that he was offered the part in the very room where Peter Jackson offered him the part for the first trilogy.
The Hobbit will be based on the original Tolkien book and is slated for release in 2010. The second Hobbit movie will be an original story covering the period between the Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring.
Posted 5/1/2008 by reelz
Related: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | The Hobbit
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Monday, February 11
After the runaway success of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, not everyone is happy in the Hobbit kingdom.
J.R.R. Tolkien's estate filed suit against New Line today claiming that the studio failed to pay a gross profit participation for the trilogy, which grossed nearly $6 billion worldwide. The Tolkien Trust, a British charity that manages Tolkien's estate, seeks $150 million in compensatory, punitive damages and a declaration from the courts that would allow the group to terminate future Tolkien-based projects by New Line, including the long-rumored Hobbit project.
Posted 2/11/2008 by reelz
Related: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | The Hobbit
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Wednesday, May 16
Could it be that the ring is still exercising its powers on young master Frodo? Variety is reporting that Elijah Wood, star of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, will be taking the lead role in the upcoming The Passenger, a biopic about the heroin-addicted father of punk rock, Iggy Pop.
The movie, which will be directed by Nick Gomez (Drowning Mona), will focus on Iggy Pop's early years, during his rise to fame with The Stooges.
According to wikipedia, "The Stooges became infamous for their live performances, during which it was not uncommon for Iggy Pop to leap off the stage (thus inventing the "stage dive"), flash his genitals, smear raw meat (and on one occasion peanut butter) over his chest and/or cut himself with broken bottles."
Fantastic!
Next Showing: The Passenger is set to come out during summer 2008.
Posted 5/16/2007 by reelz
Related: Iggy Pop | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | Elijah Wood