News just in this morning, The Hobbit will stat in New Zealand for production. There were rumblings that it would be moved to another location in the midst of actor strikes & negotiations, but it’s been confirmed that PJ will keep the films in New Zealand, where LoTR was shot.
Happy news indeed!
Peter Jackson has announced his picks for The Hobbit.
http://bit.ly/bOvHb4
More info soon.
It is official, The Hobbit has finally gotten a green light! Peter Jackson will be taking the helm on the 2 part, 3D version of the film. With all the delays we can finally expect to see the first movie start filming in February 2011, with 2012 and 2013 release dates.
While there is a glut of 3D movies out there, this one promises to be done with the latest technology that won’t leave viewers with a headache or frustrated that the picture quality wasn’t the best.
Casting is still in the works, but HobbitCast recently learned that Martin Freeman is the front-runner for the role of Bilbo, as was speculated early last year.
While the labour dispute amongst the actors in New Zealand still looms on the horizon, we’re confident that PJ will help get it settled and give us the movie we’ve been waiting for.
With things ramping up in the new year, HobbitCast will be there every step of the way. Check back often for more updates for all things “The Hobbit” related.
An update from our friends at The One Ring.net. Peter Jackson will indeed be directing The Hobbit. Follow the link for more info!
http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2010/10/01/38921-new-york-times-jackson-to-direct-the-hobbit/
TNT is once again doing their LoTR marathon! While we wait for word on The Hobbit, get your Middle Earth fix on TNT.
Hobbit panelists at DragonCon 2009
As promised, here is some of the latest Hobbit movie information we have been able to get. Sunday afternoon I attended at panel presented by the folks at The One Ring.net. The information we got is this…
First of all, the Hobbit movie(s) haven’t been given the green light yet. What does that mean? That means that the movie doesn’t have any official backing yet. Even without the green light, a lot of prep work is going on right now. The Hobbiton area of New Zealand is being regroomed in preparation for shooting that may start next spring. The actors we know that have signed on for the film are: Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf) and Andy Serkis (Gollum/Smeagol). According to sources the role of Bilbo is still not yet decided on, but the front runners include Simon Pegg (Shaun of The Dead, Star Trek) and Martin Freeman (Love Actually, Hitchiker’s Guide). The whispers of Tom Cruise meeting with PJ in New Zealand are true, but nothing about him having a role in the film has been confirmed.
As alluded to earlier, the movie will actually be two films. Possible release dates for the films are December 2011 and December 2012. It would be quite fortuitous to release the first of the two 10 years after the release of Lord of The Rings. In soundtrack news, Howard Shore has signed on once more to compose and conduct the soundtracks for the films. It’s appropriate that he would do this as they are trying to maintain the same feel we had with the original Lord of The Rings movies.
The writing team is busy working on the scripts for the movie and meet regularly with Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labryinth, Hellboy) to go over the script and tweak things. del Toro has moved his whole family to NZ at this time in order to be closer to PJ and his team. In addition to the writing and music goings-on, there is another choice still to be made. The art direction is in the process of being decided. Of course the usual suspects of Alan Lee and John Howe will be a part of the team, but there are several other notable artists that are being looked at as well.
All in all, lots of interesting news from the front lines of The Hobbit. Thanks to the folks at ToRN for allowing us all access to their brains at the Con!
More updates coming soon…
Working on organizing the notes I took so I can do a proper wrap up of DragonCon and especially the Hobbit panel. Look for more news later today.
Day 2 of the con & it started with a Lord of The Rings Online panel. Pretty cool stuff coming up in the new ex-pac. The panelists talked a bit about the lore of Tolkien & how we, as fans of the Lord of The Rings would receive the new content. Much like how we might receive new information about the upcoming Hobbit movies.
The afternoon panel was with Craig Parker, Haldir in the LoTR trilogy. He jokingly speculated about whether or not Haldir would make an appearance in the Hobbit, perhaps in the Battle of The Five Armies. He admitted that if Guillermo del Toro asked him to be in it, he would jump at the chance. As of now, there isn’t any firm word on if del Toro would include this in the films.
Tomorrow’s panel on rumours and speculation on the Hobbit might reveal more! For now, sleep beckons.
Great first day of con! Saw a lot of good costumes & some things that cannot be unseen.
Starting tomorrow we will be updating *live* from