[Epic Movie] The Hobbit: Part 1 (coming December 2012)

Thought Freeman was great in Sherlock, really looking forward to this.

The thread title made me think that there was gonna be an Epic Movie parody sequel based solely on the Hobbit (the part 1 being a reference to Mel Brooks).

 

I've been salivating over The Hobbit being filmed with the same imagination and care as The Lord of the Rings was by Peter Jackson. Yes, I had some problems with Jackson's LOTR (a company of Elves coming to Helm's Deep? I don't think so!), and I think he got a tad too melodramatic at times, but was astonished, all the same. I expect to see departures from The Hobbit in the new film, hopefully few in number, and more melodrama, but I also expect to love it. Can't wait!

 

Ahh OK. Thanks, although Gandalf the White didn't look anything close to 21 in the movie. Maybe they just left that fact out so no CGI was necessary for Ian's aged face.

Also I assume Frodo being in this movie is just going to be for one of those flashbacks effect.

 

Actually the fact that Bilbo didn't seem to age was a plot point and evidence leading Gandalf to believe that the ring he had found was in fact the Master ring. They even covered this in the movie version of Fellowship when Gandalf said, "You haven't aged a day." That is why Bilbo looks SO much different at the end of Return of the King, the ring was no longer keeping him young. If you are going to point out on screen that the character looks the same after 50 years or so, it makes more sense to go with the same actor.

 

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From what I remember of the books, it wasn't that Bilbo hadn't aged at all, but that he had aged very well, retaining his youthful vigor because of the ring.

I don't know if I said that very well, but it makes sense to go with a man a bit younger than how Bilbo appeared at the beginning of Fellowship.

 

I don't have my copy with me, but here are the links to wikipedia and a LOTR wiki that both either say or imply the ring prevents natural aging.

 

Hrm...Guess you're right. It's been some time since I've read those books. I thought ring just really slowed down the aging process, as opposed to halting it outright.

 

FYI:

Don't have links at the moment...

But from what I've read, Frodo's involvement in the Hobbit movies is that he will be shown reading from the book, telling the story to a group of Hobbit children perhaps. This is how they'll tie these two Hobbit movies to the LOTR trilogy, with Frodo reading the story and serving essentially as a narrator, not unlike how various characters' voices served as narrators in the LOTR trilogy.

Legolas' father was certainly heavily involved in the goings on of The Hobbit, just as Gimli's father was among the group that went with Bilbo. I imagine Legolas' presence could simply be explained in this way, being around his family and people, and also allow for showing why he begins LOTR as being already bitter toward dwarves as a people.

 

That's how I interpreted it also. Quoting from FOTR:

"Time wore on, but it seemed to have little effect on Mr. Baggins. At ninety he was much the same as fifty. At ninety-nine they began to call him well-preserved; but un-changed would have been nearer the mark."

So was he literally unchanged, or figuratively unchanged? In the movie, I think they did do a flashback when Bilbo first encounters Gollum, and he looked younger. Of course, in that flashback that used Ian Holm. But to do an entire movie with Ian Holm playing a much younger man (or, I guess, Hobbit) would be tough both physically for him and also tough for the audience to believe it.

 

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

 

Read in the new EW that Leonard Nimoy is rumored to be voicing Smaug the Dragon. This would be EPIC.

 

Peter Jackson's first video diary of The Hobbit is here. No embedded/YouTube link yet, but shouldn't be long. Also available on Peter Jackson's Facebook page.

Looks good so far!

 

Thanks for that! Looks terrific.

Here is the embedded video now:

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I didn't read the books but there are a lot of hardcore fans that are upset over the Itaril/Ronan character in this movie. Evidently they don't know who Itaril is, and this character has a leading role?

Either way it's kind of funny that I saw Hanna over the weekend and the first thing I thought of when I saw Saoirse Ronan was she looked like a Lord of the Rings character.