Peter Jackson re-doing The Hobbit for 2006?

Cafe Society
#1

Forgive me if this is common knowledge and I’ve just been out of the loop…

While looking for LOTR: Return of the King trailers I came across a trailer mislabeled as RotK that in fact had scenes for a new version of The Hobbit. (Possible subtitle: Smaug Awakens. Certainly many of the scenes shown included a dragon.) Peter Jackson is supposed to be directing; Ian Holm, Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis are listed as stars. The alleged release date is Dec. 19, 2006.

Is this for real, or was someone just having fun spoofing a trailer?

#2

Probably just for fun. I don’t see how he could follow up LOTR with The Hobbit. The Hobbit is a lighthearted tale of treasure hunting and those expecting an epic of LOTR-calibur will be disappointed.

#3

I saw that a year ago on theonering.net. It was just something a hopeful fan made for fun and he put it on his website.

Are you serious, Yumblie? Peter Jackson’s the only person I could think of capable of even touching The Hobbit. Anyone who’s read the books (and many more people have read them now because of the movies) will know that The Hobbit was not as deep as LOTR was. However, it is still set in the same universe with the same grand adventures, battles, and morals.

#4

The dragon you saw was from DragonSlayer BTW a good if horribly dated film.

I remember seeing it as a VERY young kid and my brother standing up in the theater screaming “IT’S BEHIND YOU” When the dragon came up from under the water behind the hero.

#5

sunfish,

That ‘trailer’ you saw was indeed a spoof. Somebody spliced together scenes from Jackson’s LOTR movies with scenes from the movie Dragonslayer , a cool dragon flick from the early 80’s. If you haven’t seen it, I heartily recommend it.

On preview I see that Darkhold beat me to it, but I’ve got a link!

#6

I haven’t seen the trailer, but I’ve heard rumors that Ian McKellen and Peter Jackson have been entertaining the idea of makinga Hobbit miniseries when all’s said and done. Of course, that could just be wishful thinking on my friend’s part. Even if they are, I think PJ’s thinking of waiting till after King Kong.

#7

Heh, it figures. Too bad it’s a fake, because I agree with lilbtagna, a Peter Jackson version of The Hobbit would be very cool.

I HAVE just added Dragonslayer to my Netflix queue, though. :wink:

Thanks, folks!

#8

I have always thought (and still do) that PJ’s next movie would have one location and two actors (maybe a converstaion in a cafe). But since Universal drove up to his house with a dump truck full of money and an offer to make King Kong (PJ’s dream movie), PJ couldn’t refuse.

Brian

#9

One of my Deepest regrets about Tolkien is that there wasn’t ‘Hobbit-2’ or 3 or 4 in the years before the LOTR. Bilbo was, after all, 120 years old at the start of the latter book.

I forsaw numerous additional adventures, including a trial scene by the River men of the party survivors for damages after awakening Smog. I see a party of adventurers, keeping 2 steps ahead of an angry mob, trying to take jobs & make money to pay off their debt. I also saw Gandalf as kind of fading in and fading out from time to time. I could see a Dwarf, chest deep in huge spiders, shouting “Gandalf, we could use a Wizard right about now…”

#10

I seem to recall that King Kong was actually the movie he was trying to get off the ground, and dropped in favor of LOTR, when the studio suddenly came through with big funding for it.

He’s going back to King Kong, now.

[sub]Unless that just what he wants us to think. Maybe he’s using King Kong as his version of Blue Harvest, and it’s gonna be the code working title for every movie he makes from now on…[/sub]

#11

I still think Vermithrax, the dragon in Dragonslayer, is the best dragon depiction yet. I liked it’s articulation as it crawled through the caves. Although I have a certain fondness for Smaug in the animated Hobbit, with Richard Boone as Smaug’s gravelly voice.

#12

Tolkien had a hard enough time reconciling The Lord of the Rings with the story at the end of The Hobbit where Bilbo is given the cliché “lived happily ever after” future.

See The History of The Lord of the Rings books for a fascinating look at his creation while it’s in progress.

#13

I’ll second the thumbs up for Dragonslayer. Great fantasy movie and I remember when first seeing it saying to my companions: “Wow, that is exactly what a dragon should look like”. I’ll have to watch it again and see how it stands up to the test of time.

A PL Hobbit project would be great. Might be more suited for TV. There’s also plenty of extra-LOTR material to be mined for future movies. If that’s done, I hope it’s not “done to death”. At this point, though, I’d be very inclined to trust PJ to do it right.

#14

Well I managed to see DragonSlayer again and I have to say the dragon is just as good as I remember it.

The main character annoyed me though. But what the heck the DRAGON is why you’d watch the movie anyway.

Thumbs up.

#15

Dragonslayer is out on DVD today, I believe.

The Hobbit is currently tied up in legal red tape about distribution rights – New Line has the rights to make the Hobbit, but not to distribute it in North America! That’s why PJ is making King Kong next (well, that and the fact that King Kong is his dream project, which he struggled mightily to get made throughout the 90s.)

#16

Actually, IIRC, he was eleventy-one.

#17

I seem to recall that the Tolkein estate still owns the film rights to ‘The Hobbit’ and are opposed to it being made.

I’ve also been told that if JRRT hadn’t sold the film rights to TLOTR way the hell ago we wouldn’t have PJ’s version now.

#18

Johnathan, the Tolkien estate still owns the rights to the Simarillion, and isn’t currently in the mood to sell the film rights. But the rights to The Hobbit were sold by Tolkien long ago (and indeed there’s already been an animated TV version.)

#19

If Jackson remade The Hobbit, I’d see it in a heartbeat. I’ve been wishing for that ever since I saw FOTR.

#20

It’s Peter MacNicol. Annoyingness is inherent in the actor…

And Baker, Paladin was Smaug? There’s a fascinating tidbit of information I wasn’t aware of…now every time I see the Rankin-Bass Hobbit, I’ll be picturing Smaug carrying his six-shooter wands and a little business card with a hotel address in Minas Tirith…