Between Peter Jackson and myself and this news, one is an Academy Award winning screenwriter and the other is so brilliantly beautiful that I would almost be doing a disservice by spending time expounding on my own instead of letting them speak for themselves. So without further ado:
“It is only at the end of a shoot that you finally get the chance to sit down and have a look at the film you have made. Recently Fran, Phil and I did just this when we watched for the first time an early cut of the first movie – and a large chunk of the second. We were really pleased with the way the story was coming together, in particular, the strength of the characters and the cast who have brought them to life. All of which gave rise to a simple question: do we take this chance to tell more of the tale? And the answer from our perspective as the filmmakers, and as fans, was an unreserved ‘yes.’
We know how much of the story of Bilbo Baggins, the Wizard Gandalf, the Dwarves of Erebor, the rise of the Necromancer, and the Battle of Dol Guldur will remain untold if we do not take this chance. The richness of the story of The Hobbit, as well as some of the related material in the appendices of The Lord of the Rings, allows us to tell the full story of the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and the part he played in the sometimes dangerous, but at all times exciting, history of Middle-earth.
So, without further ado and on behalf of New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Wingnut Films, and the entire cast and crew of “The Hobbit” films, I’d like to announce that two films will become three.
It has been an unexpected journey indeed, and in the words of Professor Tolkien himself, “a tale that grew in the telling.”
Cheers,
Peter J”
As truly, genuinely, outright spectacular as this news is, I can’t help but wonder what this means for Jackson’s planned TINTIN sequel. I loved how he and Spielberg realized the world of Tintin, and I was very enthusiastically looking forward to Jackson’s take on the next journey of Tinin and Company. Hopefully we’ll get some clarification soon and I can go back to being 100% enthused for part three of THE HOBBIT, as opposed to just 98% due to the fear of not getting another TINTIN film.
And just to recap:
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY arrives on December 14th, 2012.
THE HOBBIT: THERE AND BACK AGAIN arrives on December 13th, 2013.
Which means (ideally) that THE HOBBIT: UNTITLED PART THREE arrives on December 12th, 2014.
“There and back again” indeed.