Where did you get that info James - as I’ve not seen it anywhere and several websites are still convinced that it is due on the 14th?
Final production video (well, not post-production):
It was put back to the 26th, but has since been restored to the 14th.
Apparently it’s a trilogy now! Not too sure that’s a good thing to be honest. The book of the Hobbit is pretty short meaning that its going to be really drawn out/meander around between other Tolkien books/have brand new story in it. :s
Um… what can we say? Other than that it’s all about the money? Will cost proportionately very little to create the extra film (since presumably they’ve already shot all the relevant scenes and don’t want to edit them out?), and yet they can make coming on for $3 billion, rather than “a mere” $2 bn.
:evil:
I can’t say I’m particularly happy about this…
What was to be the two films were to be based on the book and the 150 page appendix that made reference to related events in Return of the King. I was happy for this two be two films… but three…
It quite clearly is for the money, though I trust P.J. - so I’m happy to wait and see whether my trust is misplaced.
He will undoubtedly have filmed enough, but the quality will surely suffer.
Perhaps - hopefully though he has the brains to turn the two 3 hours films into three just over two hours films.
Some Hobbit-related news:
Oh yeah… Apologies for not breaking the news sooner.
Reviews are now out!
As far as I can tell - it’s good but has some flaws (some of which are forgivable due to their inherency to the story).
Is one of the flaws the fact that it’s only a third of a film, in spite of being two and a half hours+?!
Yes - supposedly it takes about an hour or so before they leave Hobbiton…
That said, the majority of the book could have done with some expanding (it is exceedingly brief at times!)
An hour or so before they leave hobbiton?
Deja vu, anyone?!
For those interested in seeing the film in HFR 3D here is the, limited, list (probably not wholly accurate) of cinemas screening it in this format:
For those still at Warwick - I think your closest option is Birmingham Broadway Plaza.
Having seen it today, I was thoroughly underwhelmed. The mine chase/fight scene was just ridiculous and several times Gandalf arrives just in the nick - rather poor by comparison with LotR and far too much emphasis on dwarves eating and drinking.
Disappointed would be one word for it - though probs not as much as the dozen or so people who got bored and left my screening!
Yeah - the one part of the film that I actively disliked was the chase scene in goblin town. It wasn’t necessary and though I’m not sure what it was like in non-HFR, it didn’t look all that great in HFR.
It was a very close retelling of the book: it’s much lighter than LotR and really just tells the tale of a band of dwarves constantly getting into trouble and being saved just in the nick of time by, at first, Gandalf until he leaves the company and then Bilbo.
I wouldn’t have described it as gripping myself.
I guess the simplest summary is that there wasn’t enough material in there for a film, let alone a near three hour film. Shameless money-spinning!
Though I’ve yet to see the later films, I think there was just about enough content to make three films (there was enough content for this film) but not three three hour films (and oh God - certainly not three extended editions!)… It would have improved the film greatly if it had been cut down to 2/3 of the running time, and they needed have removed any of the actual content. Too much of it seemed as if they were playing for time… which wasn’t necessary at all - obviously Jackson can’t get his head around making Middle Earth films that aren’t 3 hours long… which is sad. If they decided to change from two three hour films to three films - why couldn’t have made three two and a half hour films…
As to shameless money-spinning - I wouldn’t say Jackson is guilty of that, if he were guilty of something I’d say he’s merely a fanboy that is guilty of over-indulging his own interests to the detriment of the films…
We’ll see.