This is great news… at least if you are a Tolkien fan. It appears MGM is planning to produce two (not one) films based on The Hobbit, and that their first choice for director is none other than Peter Jackson. Read the story here.
While I don’t like some of the liberties that Jackson took with LOTR (especially the Ents!), I think he would be a natural choice for the project. While they could probably make due with one film, I won’t complain.
(HT The Busybody)
Au contraire, Jackson would be a horrible choice for this project — especially given what he says he would do with the two-movie running time!
Fair enough, Peter. While some of the changes would intrigue me, I too think it would be better to stick to the Hobbit more closely. I imagine it’s pretty much a done deal though; if the production company wants him and if he is interested in doing it, then I can’t see them going for someone else.
Peter: I like some of Jackson’s ideas here, as long as he sticks closely to the ample material Tolkien himself wrote on these topics… I think it would actually be kind of neat to have Bilbo’s bumbling adventures juxtaposed with these darker events going on around him… Contrary to your suggestion, it could amplify the difference between Frodo’s and Bilbo’s adventures.
I think Jackson’s way of doing this is the ideal prequel to the trilogy he’s already done. It would be really incongruous to do the Hobbit now without including the other material Tolkien later wrote about the story that wasn’t in the novel itself. The Council of the Wise and the storming of Dol Guldur deserve a film treatment, as does the meeting of Gandalf and Thorin beforehand as revealed in the Unfinished Tales. There’s room for some Aragorn, although I’m a little hesitant about some of what Jackson has in mind. Having Aragorn and Arwen at Rivendell would make a lot of sense given that they did live there, and the same is true of Legolas. He would have led the party of elves who captured the dwarves, and he could easily have been in charge of the guards and later the army.