‘The Hobbit’ Might Get The Green Light In A Few Days

Will The Hobbit be greenlit within the next few days? One delay after the other — notably the very shaky financial situation at MGM — has pushed the film back from the starting line. But a new report says that Warner Bros., New Line Cinema and MGM ‘appear to be close to greenlighting’ the two parts of The Hobbit.

The LA Times bases this report on several anonymous sources, which say that the studios have “nearly” finalized the deal to have Peter Jackson direct as well as co-write and produce, and that other issues that have put off production are nearly finalized as well. One of those issues relates to the rights negotiations with the estate of original author J.R.R. Tolkien.

The final issue remains MGM. The LAT reports that Warners and New Line are ready to pull the trigger, but that MGM’s debt situation is so complicated that getting the go-ahead there requires the agreement of “more than 100 debt owners.’ MGM is said to be eager to get the film rolling — no doubt because that would augur the next step towards financial solvency for the studio — but still has to raise money to do so. The paper says there are several options: borrowing money from Warner Bros., securing outside investment (which seems most likely) or bringing in yet another partner such as Fox, which already releases MGM films overseas. (When there are films to release.)

Then there’s the issue of actors’ guilds and unions, which prompted by one organization in New Zealand and Australia, pressured actors not to take jobs on The Hobbit. That left Jackson threatening to move the production from New Zealand to Eastern Europe, a step he seemed reluctant but willing to take. The LAT says the issues underlying that conflict are also nearly resolved.

Bottom line: all the LAT’s sources say that the green light is imminent so that production might start in mid-January and the first film might be ready for a holiday 2012 release.

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The Hobbit Begins Shooting In June

The Peter Jackson-produced, Guillermo del Toro-directed two-film adaptation of The Hobbit will begin shooting in June.

 

This according to actor Ian McKellen, who is returning as Gandalf. He wrote the following on his official website:

THE HOBBIT’s, two films, start shooting in New Zealand in June. Filming will take over a year. Casting in Los Angeles, New York City and London has started. The script too proceeds. The first draft is crammed with old and new friends, again on a quest in Middle Earth. The director Guillermo del Toro is now living in Wellington, close to the Jacksons’ and the studio in Miramar.

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Fan-Made ‘The Hunt For Gollum’ A Smash Hit: Servers Crash

A Lord of the Rings-themed fan-produced film called The Hunt for Gollum premiered online on Sunday, and within 24 hours it had had about 250,000 views, with nearly all fan comments on the Web site giving the film a thumbs-up.

The premiere was so successful that it brought down the film’s Web servers for a few hours. Director and executive producer Chris Bouchard, speaking exclusively to SCI FI Wire by telephone from England, explains, "The Web server got completely overwhelmed by all the traffic. We got it back online quite late that night. I think everybody saw the release and went on at the same time. It was the number of requests it couldn’t handle. It’s quite cool! We had no idea how many people would watch it."

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The Lord Of The Rings Now Available On Kindle Through Amazon

Amazon now has available The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy) for the kindle.  Published on April 19, 2009 by Harper Collins e-books, this digital download contains the original trilogy written by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The original series was first published in 1954 and has since been reprinted in many languages and has seen millions of copies in print form.

It has now been translated into digital form for the Kindle and is available for the Kindle through Amazon.com.

The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy)

An Update On ‘The Hobbit’ Film – Looks Like Two Movies

The upcoming 20th birthday of Empire Magazine has been guest edited by none other than Steven Spielberg. By the power of his magical directing beard, he appears to have secured some rather nifty exclusives for the mag, and now they’re starting to flood out.

Quite impressively, they’ve got the scoop on Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro’s revised plans for The Hobbit. Previously we’d been told that they were going to make two films, the first an adaptation the novel and the second to bridge the gap between that book and The Fellowship of the Ring. Now, however, it seems that The Hobbit itself is going to take up two full length pictures all by itself.

Empire quote each of the Hobbitmasters. Here’s Del Toro:

We’ve decided to have The Hobbit span the two movies, including the White Council and the comings and goings of Gandalf to Dol Guldur.

And Jackson:

We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie. The essential brief was to do The Hobbit, and it allows us to make The Hobbit in a little more style, if you like, of the trilogy.

There was a rumor recently that Del Toro would have a whole trilogy to play with, not two films but Jackson’s comment here about ‘the essential brief’, stepping down from the original plan and suggesting this new idea was how they’d be fulfilling their obligation, leaves me with the impression that the bridge narrative has been ditched altogether.

I’m assuming this spells the end of fan dreams to see Viggo Mortenson’s Aragorn in action again. Here’s hoping Jackson is just keeping a potential third film under his hat and the old rumours were based on something solid.

The special issue of Empire magazine hits UK shelves on the 23rd, and promises much more on The Hobbit, not to mention Tintin and lord knows what else Spielberg has won them access to.

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