I called Freeman as Bilbo more than two years ago. And I'm still excited about it

breaking news -- the hobbit will stay in new zealand, after months of deliberation and doubt.

this is probably the best hobbit news to come out in years.

quote:

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The night is darkest ere the dawn… and dawn has ever been the hope of Men!

After days of closed door talks between New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Warner Bros. executives, the verdict is out today:

THE HOBBIT WILL BE MADE IN NEW ZEALAND.

Mr.John Key has only minutes ago announced at a press conference in the Beehive theaterette that Sir Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films will indeed be filmed in New Zealand.

Media outlets have yet to post links to any videos… but stay tuned to TORn for updates as more of the good news makes its way on to the interweb.

TODAY IS A PROUD DAY FOR KIWIS… AND A JOYOUS ONE FOR FANS AROUND THE WORLD.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ONE AND ALL.

For a sample of how news organizations around the world are reporting here are some links: CNN, TVNZ, Bloomberg and ABC to name just a few. Video of the announcement has been extremely slow to load. Peter Jackson’s team hasn’t released a statement yet but is expected to.

The party has already begun over at our message boards. Head over to join in the celebrations!

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finally.

i expect final casting announcements (ian mckellen, andy serkis, etc) to be confirmed soon.

Still concerned about the story.

Oh well, hope for the best.

the story? that should be the least of your worries with this movie. great source material.

I still have lingering concerns about the story for the second movie. The Hobbit is badass of course, and in length and depth much more amenable to a 3 hour movie then any of the parts of LOTR. BUT the plan is two movies, which either means a stretched out Hobbit with lots of filler (20 min goblin car chase scene!!!) or they have to start making stuff up.

I love Tolkien, and yes there is a TON of other material out there, but almost none of it concerns the period between the Hobbit and LOTR. I would be pumped for a Similarian, or Lost Tales, or Children of Húrin movie--but all of that pre-dates the Hobbit story in the Tolkien universe time-line. Between Hobbit and LOTR all we really know is from a couple of throwaway lines in the LOTR concerning Strider protecting the woods or Gandalf tracking the movements of Gollum.

Are they still making two Hobbit films?

Yes, they still are.

In my opinion, there's plenty of things that can be worked in. I don't think anything needs to be added in for "filler" or stretched out unnecessarily. The White Council will be pretty neat to see, and tracking Gollum is fairly important to the story, I would say. Maybe they can even work in some stuff that was left out of LOTR into these movies. (Tom Bombadil?)

I trust Sir Peter.

Here's a cool video that was originally gonna be to try to convince WB to keep the movies in NZ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciW7xzQb5S4

Oh cool, so is it that the book is getting split into two films, or is the first film going to be the book and then 2nd be about the time between the Hobbit and LOTOR? I know both ideas were mentioned since this whole thing first was discussed.

del toro wanted to the latter, but pj has said they will be splitting the hobbit in two.

bumpity bump by request

and I am going to add this website for movie info:

http://the-hobbit-movie.com/

[This message has been edited by Stump02 (edited 1/15/2011 11:02p).]

thanks for the bump.

So Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, and Elijah Wood are officially back, and Christopher Lee is strongly rumored.

http://movies.ign.com/articles/114/1143529p1.html

Pretty great news.

I was at the Hobbiton set last month - lots of cool stuff going on there! They've pretty much completely rebuilt the holes that were destroyed based on detailed plans and photos, and are expanding the village quite a bit beyond what was built for LOTR.

Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Andy Serkis as Gollum? Meh, I just don't see it.

That's awesome corndog. New Zealand is in my top 5 countries I'd like to visit before I die.

Abso freakin lutely lame to work Frodo into this movie.

yea why is frodo making an appearance?

They said they will use him with the old Bilbo to set the story up by Bilbo telling Frodo the story.

Also, Christopher Lee back to play Saruman

I dig the idea of old Bilbo telling the story. See nothing wrong with that.

but with bilbo and frodo writing the story, frodo would know a lot about the ring and gollum.

indeed he would, Uli...indeed he would. nice catch

calm down....

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b220017_Is_Peter_Jackson_Screwing_Up__i_The_Hobbit__i__.html

shalackin with the shalackin

Wood talks about his role and how it doesn't infringe on the story:

http://the-hobbit-movie.com/2011/01/21/frodo-talks-about-the-hobbit/

Filming delayed again due to PJ getting emergency surgery for a perforated ulcer. Should (hopefully) be the last delay for this movie.

Production start date set for March 21st.

PJ is recovering fine and will be ready to go.

Please Lord let this movie get started!!!

http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2011/02/07/the-hobbit-gets-a-date/

for those of you interested, you can check out the first press conference with the cast here

quote:

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Ringer Spy Mr. Underbelly monitors movie titles that are registered by major film studios. Mr. Underbelly noticed that New Line has recently registered the following two film titles:

The Hobbit: There and Back Again

and…

The Hobbit: An/The Unexpected Journey

This is the first indication of what the ‘official’ titles will be of the two Hobbit films. What are your thoughts? Remember, this is not confirmed officially, but it is a relatively good indication of what the two film titles could be.

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[This message has been edited by sharkenleo (edited 3/4/2011 10:48a).]

"There and Back Again" makes sense since that is what Bilbo titled his story of this adventure.

Been waiting on this movie a long time.

me too aab. way too long. hard to believe it's finally happening. for so long it seemed like it might never.

apparently they're supposed to start filming within the next few days!

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/category/hobbit/hobbit-movie/

i just watched lord of the rings (EE of course) again the other day and watched the behind the scenes stuff, and i got super re-excited that jackson is directing the Hobbit

of course