SDCC: Gloom descends upon San Diego as THE HOBBIT movies look doomed

Has Comic Con ever began on such a somber note?

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

Has Comic Con ever begun on such a somber note in it's recent history? The mood of The One Ring's Comic-Con panel today on The Hobbit movies -- I'm hearing --- was comparable to the atmosphere at a morgue. It felt like 300 or so geeks sat around wondering what could have been; an eulogy for a premature baby that, despite best efforts, just wouldn't hatch.

If The Hobbit does happen, we feel pretty confident now that Peter Jackson will be the director, said Larry Curtis, a staff member of TheOneRing.net. But the if hung heavy in a hall filled with about 300 fans, many of whom had come hoping for better news.

IF!! It's rather subtle in it's wording, of course, and it's nothing those who visit film sites daily won't be aware of but to use that phrase in a room full of LOTR geeks, at the movie-pop culture event of the year -- well I think for many it truly signaled the beginning of the realisation kicking in. That reality is The Hobbit isn't going to be made unless Warner Bros, whom The One Ring say have the 'wherewithal to finance the movies on its own, loves the script' decide to take a risk on it and buy MGM out of it's rights, but we think that time has passed. As Brendon Connelly puts it - the announcement at the panel that The Hobbit won't be in 3D may have brought cheers when it was made, but fans will quickly realise that it was 'meaningless' as these movies aren't ever going to begin filming.