The final chapter in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy hits theaters in just under 2 months and as the title subtly hints at . . . there may be a battle involved. Jackson recently spoke up about the intricacies involving such a large-scale battle that I'm sure is going to eat up some serious screen time. What we have here is some concept art, followed by a rudimentary map by Jackson that lists the location of said armies and where they'll be coming from. Below that you'll see some words by the director discussing the logistics of putting together such a feat.
Peter Jackson discusses what you see in the battle map above:
Before we could loose the first arrow, we had to design the landscape itself and figure out, ‘Okay, if we have 10,000 orcs, how much room are they going to take up?’ ‘Are they going to fill up the valley or look like a speck?’ Then we could start drawing the arrows on the schematics. Tolkien uses eagles in a way that can be kind of awkward because they tend to show up out of the blue and change things pretty quickly. So here they’re just part of the plan, not the saviors. I mean, I do realize that if the eagles had just been able to bring Frodo to Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings and let him drop the ring in, those movies would have been much shorter. We have a rule that we’re not allowed to go more than two or three shots of anonymous people fighting without cutting back to our principal characters. Otherwise the audience just ends up with battle fatigue.
Even if THE HOBBIT films didn't hit the film collective as hard as THE LORD OF THE RINGS, I'm definitely curious to see what will be delivered come the final installment. If anything, the titular battle should be a hell of a display to see on the big screen. Here's hoping Jackson delivers the most entertaining installment of the series with its final chapter.
THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES will bring the epic on December 17.