The Hobbit to be a trilogy.

[jamtomorrow]

So sayeth Peter Jackson.

[ilnino]

I loved Lord of the rings.. but that Hobbit trailer does nothing for me.

[maarow]

I can't help but think this is going to be terribly self-indulgent. The LOTR trilogy did a great job covering a thousand pages of story in nine hours. Taking the same number of films to cover a fraction of that ground, on a much less mature work...I can't imagine how it will not seem bloated.

[jamtomorrow]

Bottom line, I'm very much looking forward to The Hobbit, but I do share linino and maarow's concerns, largely because I think most fans are looking to The Hobbit to deliver more of the same stuff they got with LOTR, and if you look at the source novels, in terms of both concept and execution, The Hobbit ain't that.

However, I think there are two encouraging factors to take into account. Firstly, it would seem that a substantial amount of additional material, beyond that provided by Tolkein in the book, has been created by Jackson and co to up the quotient of high fantasy and grand-scale action. And secondly, if you look back at the LOTR trilogy, there is in fact quite a lot of hobbit-centric whimsy in there, which is integrated with the darker and more violent aspects of the films very well, so perhaps they'll pull it off again.

[Erutaron]

Aug 19, 2012 1:19:33 GMT -5 jamtomorrow said:

Firstly, it would seem that a substantial amount of additional material, beyond that provided by Tolkein in the book, has been created by Jackson and co to up the quotient of high fantasy and grand-scale action.

Not just created by Jackson, Del Toro, et al, but developed from source material Tolkien wrote and published himself. Jackson has never made it a secret that the film version of the Hobbit is not merely an adaptation of the book, but an adaptation of a lot of related "appendices material" that appeared in LOTR as well.

- Tim