Well, the writing was on the wall, wasn't it? During Comic-Con word started to leak out that Peter Jackson was angling to do more shooting on The Hobbit. Talks started to get serious between Jackson and Warner Brothers last week, and now today it's been made official. To Jackson's Facebook page we go...
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."
As we previously learned, Jackson has the rights to about 125 pages of J.R.R. Tolkien's writings that expand on the world of The Hobbit, and flesh out some of the story's major gaps. The likely plan of action has about 2 months of filming to take place in New Zealand next summer, with a release to follow a year later. That would mean we'd be getting a new Hobbit film for three straight years.
Slashfilm is suggesting the subtitle could be The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug or The Hobbit: Riddles in the Dark based on some recent domain name registrations, but nothing is confirmed right now. I've yet to get properly excited about The Hobbit, and while my enthusiasm is bound to creep up over the next few months, this announcement doesn't do much for me. I continue to be wary of all the padding out Jackson needs to do to make two films out of The Hobbit, and now expanding it to three is even more reason for concern. Now comes the process of signing the cast for an additional movie, which I'm guessing they won't do without a significant pay hike.
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