The latest from Entertainment Weekly:
Zaentz, huh? Surprised he isn’t angling to get Ralph Bakshi on the job. 
I think PJ is just playing hardball now.
I really liked Jackson’s LotR, but I still have nightmares about some of it …
Ugly Elf leads Vulcan War Party to Helm’s Deep
Frodo tells Sam to take a Hike … and he Does
Ultimate Flaming Cliff Diving – Featuring Denethor!
Pirates of the Pelennor
The Eye of Mordor’s Scooby Doo “HRR?” Moment When the Ring is Aced
And others.
I don’t mind if somebody else makes The Hobbit, really.
I know the topic of discussion has strayed a bit away from this idea, and SuaSponte touched on it a little on the first page, but does anyone else here think The Hobbit should not be made into a movie at all? I do. I mean, not a lot of people are clamoring for The Silmarillion to be filmed because it would make no sense as a movie. I think The Hobbit has the same problem, albeit to a lesser degree, though it suffers the additional problem of being more readily comparable to LOTR itself. The only way it would work as enjoyable cinema is if the director, Jackson or no, eviscerated the main story and made it about a dragon attacking a town and how the people (with no help from hobbits, eagles, or dwarves) defeated it.
I’m serious here. Does anyone remember what actually makes up the plot of The Hobbit? Most of it consists of a hobbit tromping around in the woods and caves with no less than thirteen dwarves who get into wacky hijinks like being tied up by giant spiders, tied up by trolls, tied up inside barrels . . . and so forth. The big scene with Gollum involves him and Bilbo telling riddles, many riddles, to one another and then he is never seen again for the rest of the story. There is a scene in which Gandalf, who in the LOTR movies went toe-to-toe with Saruman and killed the Balrog single-handedly, is chased into a tree by goblins who proceed to light the tree on fire and sing songs about it.
I’m not saying it was a bad novel, but would you really want to watch a movie with all of this in it?
I would be willing to bet most fans of the LOTR movies would be let down by the staggering heights of anti-climax that could be reached by a faithful adaptation of The Hobbit to the big screen. There is no way that it would work as an epic in the style of Jackson’s movies. The more similar to those films it is, e.g. by bringing back the Gandalf/Gollum/Bilbo actors, the more jarring the difference would seem. I would not be sorry if this movie is never made.
A nice argument, but I read the Hobbit first. I read it in 1976, not long before the Xerox sponsored made for TV Hobbit special.
I would like to see it done. I would like to see it done right as two movies. I could care less about the experiences of the LotR movie fans. I am being selfish.
I would also enjoy seeing the stories of the Silmarillion done as either a series of movies or a Cable TV series. I would also enjoy seeing Smith of Wootton Major.
Jim
Plus, they already have all the stuff, godammit!
Simple man’s point of view. Back to all the detailed arguments with all the cerebral shit…
Q