### Author:  [@freekalette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freekalette)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/42 "2008-04-27T16:08:25Z")
[QUOTE=Qadgop the Mercotan]
And The Sheriff is a N\<\\>r!!!
The Sheriff is near?
[sub]Sorry, I couldn’t resist anymore. It popped into my head everytime I saw the thread title[/sub]
[/QUOTE]
_Blazing Saddles,_ ya?
---
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2008, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/43 "2008-04-27T16:12:29Z")
[QUOTE=freekalette]
_Blazing Saddles,_ ya?
[/QUOTE]
Oh, it’s twue, it’s twue!
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### Author:  [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2008, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/44 "2008-04-27T16:42:07Z")
Hey, I’ll bet they’ll have a flashback to the War of the Dwarves and Orcs.
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### Author:  [@freekalette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freekalette)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2008, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/45 "2008-04-27T16:43:14Z")
Oh, this is rich. I start a thread about Tolkien-related goodness, and have the good fortune to be graced by the presence of a legend, and he changes the subject.
Why, why must you smite me, Og? _wails and gnashes teeth_
---
### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2008, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/46 "2008-04-27T16:45:43Z")
[QUOTE=Qadgop the Mercotan]
He’s busy. After New Line told him (and the world) that they’d _never ever ever_ allow him to participate in **The Hobbit** in any way, shape, or form, ever in the future of the world and middle-earth, cross their hearts and hope to die
[/QUOTE]
Why is that?
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2008, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/47 "2008-04-27T16:52:01Z")
[QUOTE=Sage Rat]
Why is that?
[/QUOTE]
It might have had something to do with his [suing them](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/business/media/27movie.html).
---
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2008, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/48 "2008-04-27T17:32:29Z")
[According to this article](http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/btm/feature/2008/04/25/del_hobbit/) Guillermo Del Toro may do a workman like job. but he has no true love for the material.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2008, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/49 "2008-04-27T17:32:46Z")
[According to this article](http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/btm/feature/2008/04/25/del_hobbit/) Guillermo Del Toro may do a workman like job, but he has no true love for the material.
---
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2008, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/50 "2008-04-27T17:44:18Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot]
It might have had something to do with his [suing them](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/business/media/27movie.html).
[/QUOTE]
The JRRT estate is suing New Line too. As is Saul Zaentz. [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117980703.html?categoryid=13&cs=1](http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117980703.html?categoryid=13&cs=1)
Seems New Line has been accused by many folks of not paying what they what they promised to.
---
### Author:  [@freekalette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freekalette)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/51 "2008-04-27T18:41:00Z")
[QUOTE=astro]
[According to this article](http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/btm/feature/2008/04/25/del_hobbit/) Guillermo Del Toro may do a workman like job, but he has no true love for the material.
[/QUOTE]
:dubious: Hmmm, something’s not right.
That article contradicts everything I’ve heard GDT saying lately in regards to helming the films. True, he didn’tread LOTR until recently, citing that he found it hard to get into, and that he much preferred the simplistic storytelling and geeral innocence of the Hobbit. But I’ve been keeping up with the TORn site over the past week or so, and he’s posted on their boards saying how much he loves the story and how excited he is to be involved.
Anybody got any more info on this?
---
### Author:  [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2008, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/52 "2008-04-27T18:44:18Z")
[QUOTE=Simplicio]
The problem with a Hobbit movie is we’ve already seen most of it in LOTR. The Shire, Hobbits, Dwarves, Gandalf, trolls, magic ring, Rivendale, fighting orcs underground, Gollum, eagles, wargs, giant spiders, more elves. All would just feel like reheated left overs from LOTR.
[/QUOTE]
Which is the main reason I (perhaps alone in the universe) had hoped that The Hobbit would be filmed some day, with no connection to anyone that had worked on the Jackson films. I loved the movies, especially **Fellowship** , but they’re not the only or _necessarily_ the best way that Middle-earth could have been envisioned. Fans of the films seem to forget that Jackson didn’t invent that world, he interpreted it. Somebody else could make Rivendell et al. look brand-new and exciting with a new interpretation of the source material. I don’t see any particularly need for continuity between a Hobbit movie and the LOTR trilogy. Let it be an adaptation of the original novel, which was written as a stand-alone story. And certainly don’t try to shoehorn in Legolas, Aragorn, Arwen, Galadriel, or Sauron (who at this point wasn’t really the Necromancer, who was an off-stage character anyway).
(In an entirely different yet kind of the same vein, one of the things I disliked about the film version of Interview With a Vampire was that, even though it was the first Vampire Chronicles movie made, it was obviously done with an eye on the sequels in terms of its depictions of Lestat and Louis, instead of being true to the source novel.)
Re: Lawsuits. They seem to be part of doing business in Hollywood, and they don’t stop the principals from working together when there are buckets of money to be made.
---
### Author:  [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/53 "2008-04-27T20:31:16Z")
Couldn’t give a shit about _The Hobbit_, but according to [imdb.com](http://imdb.com), del Toro is also planning to direct: a movie of _Dr. Strange_, and an attempt to film _At the Mountains of Madness_. Yowsah!
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### Author:  [@freekalette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freekalette)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2008, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/54 "2008-04-29T12:28:24Z")
[MTV interviews GDT](http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1586421/story.jhtml)
…in which he discusses his previous comments about fantasy, among other things.
I’m long overdue for a reread of the series, but I’m going to start in a week or so.
---
### Author:  [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/55 "2008-04-30T22:05:31Z")
Ian McKellen [says](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080430/ap_en_mo/people_ian_mckellen_2) that del Toro has asked him to play Gandalf in _The Hobbit_.
(Has everyone seen the \*Extras \*episode where McKellen explains his acting technique in LOTR? That’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on TV.)
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/56 "2008-04-30T23:14:37Z")
[QUOTE=Eleanor of Aquitaine]
(Has everyone seen the \*Extras \*episode where McKellen explains his acting technique in LOTR? That’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on TV.)
[/QUOTE]
No, I haven’t. Link! Link!
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### Author:  [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2008, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/57 "2008-05-01T00:07:05Z")
[QUOTE=squeegee]
No, I haven’t. Link! Link!
[/QUOTE]
For your enjoyment: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43sbtkQM6zc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43sbtkQM6zc)
Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian - _action_ - “You Shall Not Pass!” - _cut_ - Sir Ian, Sir Ian, Sir Ian.
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/58 "2008-05-28T17:26:41Z")
[Penny Arcade](http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/5/28/) comments on the second hobbit movie.
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### Author:  [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/59 "2008-05-28T18:26:05Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra]
Otherwise, what else is there?
[/QUOTE]
Envision if you will _makes director camera square with fingers_ **The Young Eowyn Adventures**.
Eowyn, and her rag tag bunch of Rohan tweens, find misadventure in the kingdom, humor and hijinks beset them as their rival, young Grima Wormtongue, plots their embarassment and comeuppance.
Hannah Montana meets Harry Potter meets Young Indiana Jones…it’s gold baby!
---
### Author:  [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2008, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hobbit-is-a-go/446787/60 "2008-05-28T18:28:55Z")
[Q & A with Jackson and Del Toro](http://www.comingsoon.net/news/hobbitnews.php?id=45413). It’s pretty interesting, but long.
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