Problems in Middle Earth

Many of my friends have ask me if I was going to work on the Hobbit movies. Or why I'm not actually working on it. And I always says, that I would love too but is it actually happening? There is no need for post production until they've actually started production... But When is this happening? And Why are we still waiting?

After the release of Lord of the ring and the big success at the box office, the talk for making the hobbit story into a movie was already at every ones mouth... Return of the King was release on Dec. 17 2003, and seven years later we still far away from seeing the prequel out in theater. Why???

Will we ever see a hobbit movie on the big screen? Even with the world wide success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy it seem that the problems keeps coming up for the Hobbit.

First, the right of the hobbit was not own by New Line Cinema (studio behind lotr) but by MGM. It took years in court for the studio to agree on term of making the movie.

While all that was happening behind the scenes, the media were already talking of who will direct the movie and who will star as Bilbo. Then Peter Jackson was confirm as the director. Soon to be denied by Jackson himself. Saying that he will not take the director chair but will only produce the movie.official link Many director will be name in the coming years.  Sam Raimi, Geoff Murphy, Guillermo Del Toro...

It took almost a year after first rumors came out for Guilermo Del Toro to join the Hobbit as a Director.
During that time it was also confirm that there was going to be 2 movie (2 parts) film back to back on Location in New Zealand. 2 hobbit movies

But more trouble was coming. New Line was now in trouble with Warner Bros. considering a major overhaul of the company. After major lawsuit against them. First by Peter Jackson himself over money owe to him by New Line for unpaid royalties on the profit of the DVD sales. Then by the supporting actors guild of New Zealand for the same things. And now by Saul Zaentz who had sold on his rights to make the movies to New Line. The Tolkiens family were now considering taking legal action to stop New line from making any other movies based on Tolkien work. more-trouble-for-new-line full story

We still got lots of good news coming after that. Sir Ian McKellen Reprising is role of Gandalf. official link

Lots of news coming from Del Toro regularly on the progress of the project. Rumors of actor who will play Bilbo Baggins... The Tolkiens estate case was settle out of court. And finally a start filming date of January 2009 for a release date of Christmas 2011 for part 1 and 2012 for part 2. All was good in Hobbiton!

Then more trouble! Delay! They decide to wait another year to start filming in January 2010 for a release date of Christmas 2012  and 13. But we everything was still moving forward in pre-production.


December 2009, casting started on extras for the hobbit!!! link hobbit-extras

What about me in all this??? I was at Weta Digital during that time, working on Avatar. I saw a lot of pre-production on the Hobbit. Weta Workshop was working on concept art and already into re-doing miniature. Like Rivendale at a much bigger scale than the one use in Lord of the rings. And I gotta say, it got me very exited!!! Especially all the concept for Smug the dragon. Wow! I can see Guilermo Del Toro's touch in there and I was telling myself this is gonna be awesome! They even started pre-production work on the set location of Hobbiton. When I went to visit the location in January they had started planting plants and trees and they had marked places for new hobbit holes. Image Below...

So Why did I leave and not stay at Weta to work on the Hobbit, my friends are asking? Well since filming hadn't started yet I could see a full year before we start post production and all that was left to work on was Stephen Spielberg full animated feature  The adventure of Tintin and the secrets of the Unicorn., and I was a bit burn out from Avatar and didn't see any interest in working on Tintin... Anyway, i told myself,  I could always come back in a year...

Good thing that I did!!! January comes and they announce more delay and filming will start in June. But the movie is still not green light. And to make things worse, MGM are in Financial trouble, with 4 billion in dept and are filling for bankcrupty. Which might kill the next James Bond and the Hobbit.. will-the-hobbit-survive-mgm

Since then everything is going from bad to worst. In May Guilermo Del Toro quits the director position due to conflict with other projects because of all the delay. official link


Then on June 5th in an interview with the Morning Show in New Zealand, Sir Ian McKellen let it be known that if The Hobbit continues to be delayed, he might not be able to return as Gandalf.Now because of MGM fuck up we lost our director and we might loose Gandalf! Very Sad! full article

The Next few months will be fill with rumors of new Directors and actor to fill in for Gandalf if Sir Ian McKellen didn't return.

Then One good news. Peter Jackson decided to re-take the helm and direct Himself the 2 hobbit mov

ies! the-return-of-the-king


And More good news. Seems that MGM, New Line and Warner Brother came to an arrangement that will allow filming to start in February. he-hobbit-movie-gets-green-light

Again More Bad News! The filming of the Hobbit could move to the UK because a bitter dispute between Sir Peter’s Wingnut Films production company and the actors’ union New Zealand, equity of which last month invoked an international boycott of the film over pay and conditions.
This would be very bad news if it happen. New Zealand is part of Middle Earth. It's a big character of the film franchise and I'm not sure it could move else where.

So will see how things goes from now on. If filming start on schedule in February and if everything goes well we could see the start of the post-production in the end of fall 2011. So to answer my friends, if I ever end up working on the hobbit, there is still a lot that can happen until then. So will See!