History & Development of Peter Jackson's THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
The history, the drama, the blood, sweat, tears and joy of Peter Jackson's attempt to bring J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings prequel to the big screen!
Unless youve been living in a hole in the ground, like a certain fictional character, it cant have escaped your attention that The Hobbit has finally gone into production and has been filming for the majority of the year in New Zealand. Fans of Peter Jackson and J. R. R. Tolkiens prequel to The Lord of the Rings bothrejoiced and breathed a sigh of relief when principal photography finally began in March after an eight year journey from the end of The Return of the King to get the film into production. But considering all that has gone before, should we still be worried that the finished film(s) will disappoint?
An Unexpected Journey
First of all, a plotted history for those not up to speed. Jacksons involvement with The Hobbit can be traced back to 1995: while working on The Frighteners, he considered making a Tolkien trilogy with The Hobbit as part one and The Lord of the Rings being split into two films. After failing to get the rights for The Hobbit from United Artists, Jackson pushed ahead with The Lord of the Rings, which became a trilogy in and of itself at the behest of New Line Cinema. Following the box-office success of both this and King Kong, MGM (who owned United Artists) expressed interest in teaming up with New Line to make The Hobbit. After a heap of tedious lawsuits involving New Line and Tolkiens estate, Jackson was installed as executive producer, with Guillermo Del Toro signing on to direct in 2008, Jackson choosing to co-write, produce and not direct... seemingly exhausted and worn out by the constant battles. The screenplay slowly took shape throughout 2009 with a view to creating two films, the latter of which would segue into the beginning of Jacksons trilogy. Further delays occurred with Del Toros busy producing schedule and continual script revision, pushing the release dates back to 2012 and 2013. Because of MGMs financial difficulties, The Hobbit was not given an official start date for shooting. After much heel-dragging, the studio that was once the biggest in the world had collapsed, leaving both Bond 23 and The Hobbit in limbo. Tired of all the delays, Del Toro then left the production, to the despair and wrath of Tolkien fans. After a search for a new director drew a blank (Brett Ratner, anyone?), Jackson did the inevitable and finally gave in to his desire to return to Middle-Earth. Jackson signed on to direct and the production was finally green-lit, to start filming in February 2011. Youd think it would be plain sailing from there, but no. In response to non-union labour being used in the production, the International Federation of Actors advised its members to boycott The Hobbit or face expulsion from their given union. When New Line tried to shift production to Eastern Europe, thousands of New Zealanders protested, fearing that losing the production would cost their economy over $1.5bn. After two days of talks with Prime Minister John Key, New Line agreed to film in New Zealand after all, provided the government clarified existing labour laws and provided new tax breaks for big-budget films. To put the icing on the cake, Jackson was hospitalised with a perforated stomach ulcer, threatening to push the start date back yet again (he has since fully recovered).
Apocalypse Now or Heavens Gate?
In an attempt to allay the trepidation you may have after reading all this, it should be pointed that such production problems are nothing new. While The Hobbits own particular delays are unrivalled in length, they are not unusual in the issues being fought over. Production problems are part of the great tapestry of studio filmmaking its the great downside to working with more people and bigger budgets, the purest expression of the poisoned chalice that is Hollywood and its successors. It wouldnt take very long to come up with a list of films which have been ruined due to production problems. It took the best part of 25 years to bring Watchmen to the screen, and regardless of your views on Zack Snyder, one cannot watch it without feeling pangs of disappointment that we never got to see Alan Moores comic interpreted by Terry Gilliam or Paul Greengrass. Go back to the 1990s and we have the remake of The Vanishing: 20th Century Fox forced George Sluizer to change his iconic ending to the original, resulting in a hideous mess which made no sense. And then, of course, we have Heavens Gate, a film so badly misjudged and mismanaged by director and studio alike that it single-handedly bankrupted United Artists. On the other hand, there have been a significant number of films which have emerged from equally bad production histories, either as pretty decent or in some cases as total masterpieces. Gone With the Wind went through three directors, dozens of screenwriters and the most megalomaniacal producer in Hollywood, David O. Selznick and yet despite being four hours long, it broke box office records and received unanimous acclaim. David Fincher may have all-but-disowned Alien 3, but in either of its versions it is sorely underrated and is the closest of the sequels to Ridley Scotts original. And lets not forget Apocalypse Now: a film whose sets were destroyed, whose stars suffered heart attacks, which arrived in cinemas two years late and three times over budget and which still stands as perhaps the greatest war film of the modern age.
Cause for Concern
So far we have established that any general worries about the delays on The Hobbit can be at least partially mitigated by the histories of other productions. But what about the specific issues relating to The Hobbit? On the one hand, there are several reasons why we should be worried. Firstly, the two parts are being filmed in 3D, which as any intelligent filmgoer knows is a trashy gimmick designed to combat piracy by pulling people back into the cinema. And so far, its failing: box office takings are at an all-time high, but when you adjust for the inflated prices of 3D tickets, audience numbers have fallen by 2% over the last 12 months. Out of the remaining audience, a majority pay to see 3D films in 2D, regardless of whether they were shot in 3D or retrofitted. Cinema chains and studios are now at the stage where they have huge numbers of brand new 3D screens, but no-one wanting to use them so to force people back into 3D screenings, more films are either being converted or shot in 3D. The Hobbits 3D feels like an insurance policy for New Line, and will add nothing whatsoever to the experience. Secondly, there are questions remaining about Peter Jackson, not about his health, but about his motivation. Although he has been with the project all the way through, there was a sense when he signed on to direct that he was doing it because he had to rather than because he wanted to. Some of his reluctance could be put down to his other projects Steven Spielberg's Tintin which Jackson produced is in the final stages of post-production for release this Christmas and then it's expected he will direct the animated sequel, and his long-awaited Dambusters remake is still being mooted. But even if he is deeply devoted to directing, there are worries about whether the success of The Lord of the Rings has gone to his head and damaged his craft. King Kong, for all its greatness, was over-long and indulgent in places, and his last film The Lovely Bones was deeply misjudged. Finally, there are concerns about the book itself. The problem is not whether the story can be split over two films; Tolkiens other works contain more than enough in the way of backstory or tangential history for Jackson to fill in the gaps. The problem is that The Hobbit is a lot lighter and more straightforward than The Lord of the Rings. There are a lot of characters to focus on, which will be difficult to differentiate on screen, and Tolkiens songs are rather too silly and cheesy for the tone of the original trilogy. Think about it: would The Fellowship of the Ring have been made better by the sudden appearance of Tom Bombadil in yellow stockings? Didnt think so?
Reasons to be Cheerful
On the other hand, in amidst this doom and gloom, there are some reasons to be cheerful. First of all, there is the simple comfort of knowing that the film is already in production, with a third of the footage already shot and many of the visual effects already finished. Of course, this still doesnt guarantee that well end up with the film that cast and crew intended anyone who knows about the filming of Superman's I and II will know all about that. But at least we dont have to worry about New Line collapsing or Jackson being booted off in mid-production; having come this far, even the most cynical of studio heads will want to make sure that things are done properly. Secondly, there is the comfort of familiarity, brought on by the fact that so many old faces are returning to the production. For a while the cast list was growing at such a rate that it seemed less like a film than a reunion party, but merely knowing that Ian McKellen will be reprising Gandalf, or that Sir Christopher Lee, aged 88, is coming back as Saruman, brings a warm glow to the situation. Most significantly, Andy Serkis has returned, not only to reprise Gollum but to direct and supervise the second unit. Having set up his own studio specialising in motion capture, Serkis combines experience of Jackson and his sensibility with the technical know-how needed to deliver great battles. Oh, and hes a bloody great actor. Finally and most contentiously the few sneak peaks weve had at the production so far have looked really, really good. Without wishing to feed the hype and contradict my own article on spoilers, the production blogs released by Jackson have not put a foot wrong in the designs, the cast or the execution. The fact that so much is being shot like The Lord of the Rings genuine locations, plenty of coverage, organic effects where possible puts fears of a shallow CGI- fest to bed. Every aspect of the design feels like there is a natural continuity between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings without consciously re-treading old ground. In the end, all the speculation around The Hobbit is somewhat pointless. We wont have a clear picture until production has wrapped, and even then things are bound to be kept secret until the first few premieres. But on the evidence of what we have seen so far, the doom-mongers would appear to be wrong in expecting a total disaster in the wake of Del Toros departure. Whether or not its as good as The Lord of the Rings will have to wait, but so far, so very good maybe.