A very minor spoiler

So, I'm sometimes bemused or amused but often interested in what Amazon.com puts in my 'Recommendations'. The logic of their algorithm sometimes escapes me, and other times it's all too obvious though wildly wrong.  Yet their system also lets me know about some interesting things I wdn't come across otherwise.

As a rule, I only check the Recommendations in Books, but a week or so ago I accidently hit a button that made it show All Recommendations, which included lots of little action figures from the newest Peter Jackson/Tolkien movie. And one among these caught my eye, since it's of a character not appearing in the first movie (nor, I suspect, the second): Bolg, son of Azog. Given the context (he appears in a two-pack with 'battle-damaged' Gandalf) and Tolkien's original, I suspect he'll be making his appearance in the third movie, just in time for The Battle of Five Armies.*

In any case, if (like me) you didn't know Bolg was scheduled to make an appearance in Peter Jackson's version of HOBBIT-world but find evidence that he will interesting, and if (unlike me) you like to collect four-inch figures,** you might want to check it out. Here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Bridge-Direct-Gandalf-Adventure/dp/B008LQWNV4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361755783&sr=8-1&keywords=bolg+hobbit

--John R.

*The text accompanying the figure on the amazon site says he appears in the first movie, which is not the case; either they've got which installment in the three-film set wrong or he'll actually be in some extended version of this first one down the line.

**I'm oldschool enough that I prefer little lead miniatures you can paint and use in yr DandD game. I still have some of these from the Bakshi LotR film. Of them, one of their hobbits, the Saruman (or 'Aruman' as Baskhi sometimes called him), the Gandalf and Strider figures were all pretty good, though best of all was Gollum (and worst was horned-hat Boromir, though that was not the miniature-maker's fault)

Three Films

So, it seems the rumors (or is that 'rumours'?) were true: Peter Jackson announced yesterday that, having just concluded principal photography on the two HOBBIT movies, he's now decided to go ahead and make it THREE films instead.

Obviously, this will involve new filming, new scripting, new everything. There's much speculation about where he cd break Bilbo's story into three pieces, but I don't think that's what they'll do. Consider: it's only four and a half months until the release date of the first film. Given all the special effects, scoring, editing, &c. they'll have to do, it's too late to change that one much. Besides which it's clear from hints Jackson has been dropping for a while that he really wants to film material from the Appendices (which for all events and purposes means Appendix B, supplemented by Appendix A). So I think the two HOBBIT films will remain pretty much as they are, and that the third film will be a 'bridge' spanning events from the years between Bilbo's return home and the Long-Expected party sixty years later. We know a lot about the events in these years, but since Tolkien chose not to write that story, any movie based on these materials will obviously contain less Tolkien, and more Jackson, than any of the other five. We'll see what they come up with.

Four and a half months to go . . .

--John R.

current reading: WHERE THEY STAND and MEMOIRS OF HECATE COUNTY

The Lost HOBBIT cartoon (1966)

So, here's a lost mathom: a twelve-minute cartoon version of THE HOBBIT slapped together by American animators forty-five years ago in order to fulfill a contractual obligation and keep their option on adapting Tolkien's book open.

That such a piece once existed was known, but I was not aware that the footage survived, much less had a chance to see it before.

I'll save commentary for a follow-up post: here's the film.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.337585-A-Long-Lost-Adaptation-of-The-Hobbit-Makes-Its-Way-Online

--JDR

It Begins

So, Thursday I bought a copy of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY for the first time in a long time -- not for any interest in the cover story (about a show I've never watched, and hadn't even known was based on a novel series by a writer now living in my old hometown*), but because I saw a little headline in the upper left corner: "THE HOBBIT: A Sneak Peek from Peter Jackson."

This turns out to herald a four-page piece on the forthcoming film, three and a half pages of which are pictures and the remaining half-page a brief interview with Jackson. And with this, the whole game of lamenting the things Jackson changed can begin.**

Up till now, those of us interested in the film have mainly been wondering how much of the original Jackson was going to include (the consensus: just about everything), which actors & actresses from the LotR film trilogy wd be returning in at least cameo roles (the answer: just about all of them who can plausibly do so), and what bits of off-stage action (like the White Council) or flashbacks (Smaug's original attack on Dale & the Mt, Thrain's doomed expedition) might find its way on-camera (the evidence so far: at least some). But what we cdn't tell was what Jackson might add, and what he might change. Some of the things he added to the original films worked spectacularly well (most memorably the beacon-fires sequence) while others fell spectacularly flat (Frodo repudiating Sam's companionship nr Cirith Ungol). The same was true of the things he changed: some proved to be great ideas (recasting Sam as more a friend than a lackey) and others duds (Denethor as a slavering loon). But there's been no way to guess what Jackson would add or change this time around.

Until now. Two very small examples can be gleaned from this article, brief as it is. The first is mention of the casting of an actress (Evangeline Lilly) to play an elf named Tauriel -- a character nowhere appearing in Tolkien's book. I suspect she wears a red shirt, but more on that another time. So here we have something new added -- we run into quite a lot of wood-elves in the course of the story, only one of whom (Galion) is given a name, so working up one of that faceless lot into a recognizable character makes sense.

The other example is the sort of innocuous change that drove Tolkien into a state when it occurred in the Zimmerman script,** the only film adaptation of one of his books he's known to have examined closely. One of the shots from the film shows Bilbo examining his contract, which is a long, long many-folded ream of paper, quite unlike the simple, terse contract given verbatim in the book (and reproduced in facsimile by Tolkien himself as a single two-sided sheet). Furthermore, the accompanying caption explains that

"Bilbo's actually got to sign a contract the dwarves have written up, and there's nothing like Dwarvish fine print"

Thus, the scene as Tolkien wrote it, with the contract being left on the mantle for Bilbo to find the next day after the dwarves have left, will be changed for a bit of comic business. What's not clear is how the new scene they'll have to write to replace it will play out -- just that the idea that they've offered him their terms rather casually, which he'll accept simply by turning up, seems to gone by the way. All we know is that the scene as filmed will be rather different from what's in the book. How well the new story will work or not we'll just have to wait and see (literally).

At any rate, from here on out we shd be getting a stream of detailed information about the film, although paradoxically I suspect this will give us relatively little insight into what the film itself will be like.

--John R.

current reading: BLOOMSBURY PIE by Regina Marler and PORTRAITS IN MINIATUE by Lytton Strachey.

*TRUE BLOOD and Charlaine Harris, respectively.

**Tolkien objected, strongly, to the scene in the script at the Prancing Pony where the innkeeper assigned Mr. Underhill room number fourteen and had him sign the registry.

Filming Begins on Peter Jackson's HOBBIT

So, Janice had shared this with me a few days ago the following promo clip about the start of filming on THE HOBBIT. Now, thanks to another Janice (this time Janice Bogstad), I've seen a link for those of us not on Facebook. So, for any of those semi-Luddites like me who are (a) on line but (b) not on Facebook, yet (c) obsessed w. all things Tolkien, here's the piece:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150223186041807&oid=141884481557&comments;

It's nice to see old familiar scenes (Bag-End, Rivendell) and faces (Jackson himself, McKellan, Alan Lee, Serkis, the final voice-over from Ian Holm), and to have a chance to see new cast members (Martin Freeman, the dwarves). Jackson mentions how walking around in the rebuilt sets gives him the odd feeling of being inside a movie -- and of course he is inside a movie, making a documentary at the very moment he's speaking. It's also odd, from my point of view, that Jackson now looks younger to me than he did a decade and more before due to all the weight he lost: it takes me a moment to recognize him when he re-appears. The Maori blessing-of-the-soundstage seems a bit stagey, but it was interesting to learn that they're apparently going to start filming the best scene in the book on Day One: Bilbo's encounter with Gollum.

We wants it, my precioussss.

It's going to be a long twenty months between now and then . . .

--JDR

Peter Jackson's HOBBIT

So, thanks to a link provided by a post to the MythSoc group, here's the news that Peter Jackson's taking over to direct THE HOBBIT himself is looking a whole lot more likely all the time. Here's the story:

http://scifiwire.com/2010/06/peter-jackson-will-be-dir.php?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Obviously they haven't worked out an agreement yet, but it looks like they're trying hard to arrive at a way to make this work. Suspect we'll be hearing more soon, one way or the other.

Stay tuned.

--John R.