Most of you probably know that one of my all time favorite films is the Lord of the Ring Trilogy. Just none better. When the movies were being released I heard talk of The Hobbit being made, but that it was tied up on rights, litigation and so much other paperwork it seemed unlikely The Hobbit would be made with any great haste.
Since it is 2008 and the original trilogy was released in 2001, 2002 and 2003 to say it’s happening quickly would be a serious exaggeration. That being said, The Hobbit will apparently see the dark of theaters around the world! I hadn’t checked in over a year, but tonight while Tracy and I were looking up some facts on another movie we tripped over the fact that The Hobbit 1 and The Hobbit 2 are to be released sometime around 2012. Del Torro is directing and yes Peter Jackson is fully involved. He is actually working on the script. The scale of The Hobbit will be as big as the original three movies with an estimated budget of 150 million for each movie, about 300 million was spent on the original three. They are also going to film both movies at the same time, just like the original three.
Originally it seems The Hobbit was to be one movie and The Hobbit 2 was to be a lead-in to The Lord of the Rings; but it seems now that The Hobbit will be broken in to two parts with the end of the second movie leading into The Lord of the Ring in some manner.
No actors have apparently been signed, but Del Torro wants to use as many of the original trilogy actors that are available, healthy and can be used; including Ian Holmes who played Bilbo.
Can you tell I’m excited? The trilogy was just movie magic and for that matter King Kong wasn’t bad either. Peter Jackson has been off my radar since King Kong, but I will be happy to give him my 8 bucks to let him take me away for several hours and visit a land as tumultuous as our own, but still so different.
Here are some links: IMDB-Hobbit 1, IMDB-Hobbit 2 Wikipedia