1. Sounds like he's taking the exact right approach. Can't wait !

Posted at 11:29AM on Jun 30th 2008 by Petro1734

2. When I first heard they were making two Hobbit movies, I thought "great, they'll break the book into two parts and have a very authentic and detailed adaptation." It always seemed like too much material to cram into one movie, even if it's over 3 hours long. Yes, I lamented every paragraph of omitted material from Lord of the Rings =\

Now that I know what the plans are, I'm feeling a bit more trepidation. I'm sure they can pull off the Hobbit, though not quite matching my previous grand vision. But how can they make a movie with depth from hints, bits and pieces of lore? Best stick all those leftover ideas into the extended edition!

Posted at 3:56PM on Jun 30th 2008 by Ben

3. Guillermo del Toro's idealism is refreshing, but ultimately it will be up to the suits, and not him, unfortunately.

Posted at 3:59PM on Jun 30th 2008 by elenion

4. If you think that 60 years between Bilbo's return to Bag End and the kickoff to the War of the Ring is just mentioned in "hints, bits and pieces of lore" you've not bothered to read the appendices to LOTR, as well as great amounts of material in Unfinished Tales, The Peoples of Middle-earth, and other posthumous Tolkien books put out by his son. There is more than enough material there for an entire movie: the White Council, Sarmuman's turn to the dark side, Aragorn's battles in Rohan and Gondor as well as the resentment growing toward him on the part of Denethor (without even knowing exactly who Aragorn is), as well as the abortive re-conquest of Moria by Balin and the Dwarves....the problem would be finding a plot line to follow.

Posted at 6:53PM on Jun 30th 2008 by Tim

5. That's the problem, though -- there's so much, and much of it is "thinly" sketched (I use that word reluctantly, because Tolkien can pack more in a line than most authors) without the dialogue and detail that can rein in Jackson and del Toro. I admire both directors, and I *love* the LOTR movies, but there's part of me that really winces at the idea of Jackson fleshing out the stuff in the appendices. I start thinking of the Eowyn soup scene, the drinking contest between Legolas and Gimli, and that awful "and then a bazillion skulls fall on top of our heroes!" scene in the Paths of the Dead.

And that's the stuff that survived -- so many of Jackson's awful ideas (Arwen fighting at Helm's Deep) were chucked during filming, or were squashed by the lethal criticism of Christopher Lee, Ian McKellen, and Viggo Mortensen, all of whom kept waving the book under his nose. Taking all that into consideration, suddenly it seems like a REALLY bad idea to have them tackling the fact-driven appendices.

And I'm not entirely sure, as all of the rights-wrangling has me confused, but I'm not sure how much of Tolkien they actually have access too. Del Toro referred to "four books" which makes me think it's LOTR and The Hobbit, and whatever they spin a second movie out of HAS to be in just those appendices. Nothing from The Silmarillion or Lost Tales can appear in the movie, which will make for some really awful gaps.

It hurts to be all skeptical and negative because man, I would LOVE to see Aragorn's full story onscreen. I rather wish Tolkien had written an entire book about his adventures in the wilds -- the Saga of Aragorn and Arwen just hints at so much that I would have loved to read in full. Sigh.

Anyway, sorry to ramble at you, Tim... :D I could debate this stuff for hours. 'Hobbit' movie stories are such a blessing and a curse that way!

Posted at 7:07PM on Jun 30th 2008 by Elisabeth

6. Sounds like "The Silmarillion" isn't available as a source to pull from. That's too bad, there's a bunch of interesting story lines that could be used from that book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silmarillion

Posted at 3:41PM on Jul 12th 2008 by Erik

7. It seems like the Hobbit could be done in one long film rather than 2. As for the appendacies, I'd be afraid they might turn out more like the first 2 prequels to Star Wars.

Posted at 3:19PM on Jul 14th 2008 by greenwolf22