Ian McKellen dropped a whopping bit of casting news at a recent fan event: Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis' upcoming 'The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum' will feature Frodo and Gandalf.
Jackson was a producer on the project from the beginning, and HE wanted Guillermo Del Toro to direct. IIRC Jackson wasn’t super jazzed to do The Hobbit, but, when Del Toro left and because New Line couldn’t be fucked to wait for him to finish a different project, Jackson was the only acceptable replacement that fit into their timeline. Jackson did not want to be doing more LOTR, and it’s probably still true. The Hobbit was a turd with too much money tossed at it, while LOTR’s was lighting in a bottle with many years of preproduction* and passion behind it. Jackson will never make anything as good again.
As good as they are? They were atrociously bad. They were so bad I lost all faith in Peter Jackson as a director. They got worse the longer he worked on them. A steady decline in quality the longer he was involved in the project. Even camera angles were bad in those films. Shit directors do the day of.
I mean, think those two are pretty similar actually. In terms of quality. I mean it’s pretty close the more I think about it. Star Wars might have a slight Edge actually. Very slight.
Eh the only watchable of the sequel trilogy is the first one IMO.
The Hobbit has the fantastic peformances of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman holding up the 2nd movie.
I also forgive Jackson for having a third movie because the battle of the five armies is less than a page in the book, and Hollywood as a whole is incapable of handling that concept.
The first Hobbit film is the only watchable one too though. Except it’s only watchable in the First Act.
Well I can’t agree with anything you’re saying about the second movie. It’s true I did like the initial scene between the two. However it was completely and utterly destroyed by the stupid Tom and Jerry style Chase sequence that followed it. That was the only redeeming scene in the entire film. Just that one simple scene. That was then ruined immediately afterwards. At least the second Star Wars had some great scenes. Multiple scenes. The whole movie was bad but it had some few redeeming aspects. And at least it was an interesting direction to take the series even if they screwed up immediately in the next film. The second Hobbit film has a nothing really to recommend it. On the other hand it has a just Avalanche of terrible aspects.
I agree though the third movie of both series are both so atrociously bad they don’t even bare talking about. They’re both gargantuan pieces of shit. So bad that everyone involved should be horse whipped repeatedly.
I recall the first one being okay, but the trilogy exponentially worsened as the latter films tried harder and harder to replicate The Lord of the Rings. Any charm that existed at the beginning was long gone by the third, and Bilbo himself basically became a minor character in his own story.
Certainly you know the history of those movies? They were not the level of LotR, but there’s many reasons for that and Jackson is not any of them. I don’t know what we would have gotten without him.
That’s fair. And add to that the question, is there enough of a story to make a movie? Probably, but The Hobbit showed that when you try and stretch it too much, it shows.
I believe they’d have turned out spectacular, if they had stuck to Guillermo del Toro‘s original vision, instead of bloating one movie worth of book to three overly long movies.
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Peter Jackson is involved, so having a sliver of hope
Extinguish that hope and recall that he was also involved with The Hobbit.
The reason for those movies being as good as they are is because of Jackson.
The reasons they are still pretty bad is because he and his team were brought in to save the project.
New Line refused to give them the time they needed to cook and forced them to stick to the original launch windows.
Jackson was a producer on the project from the beginning, and HE wanted Guillermo Del Toro to direct. IIRC Jackson wasn’t super jazzed to do The Hobbit, but, when Del Toro left and because New Line couldn’t be fucked to wait for him to finish a different project, Jackson was the only acceptable replacement that fit into their timeline. Jackson did not want to be doing more LOTR, and it’s probably still true. The Hobbit was a turd with too much money tossed at it, while LOTR’s was lighting in a bottle with many years of preproduction* and passion behind it. Jackson will never make anything as good again.
Edit: fixed some words.
As good as they are? They were atrociously bad. They were so bad I lost all faith in Peter Jackson as a director. They got worse the longer he worked on them. A steady decline in quality the longer he was involved in the project. Even camera angles were bad in those films. Shit directors do the day of.
They could be a lot worse.
They could be the star wars sequel trilogy, for example.
I mean, think those two are pretty similar actually. In terms of quality. I mean it’s pretty close the more I think about it. Star Wars might have a slight Edge actually. Very slight.
Eh the only watchable of the sequel trilogy is the first one IMO.
The Hobbit has the fantastic peformances of Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman holding up the 2nd movie.
I also forgive Jackson for having a third movie because the battle of the five armies is less than a page in the book, and Hollywood as a whole is incapable of handling that concept.
The first Hobbit film is the only watchable one too though. Except it’s only watchable in the First Act.
Well I can’t agree with anything you’re saying about the second movie. It’s true I did like the initial scene between the two. However it was completely and utterly destroyed by the stupid Tom and Jerry style Chase sequence that followed it. That was the only redeeming scene in the entire film. Just that one simple scene. That was then ruined immediately afterwards. At least the second Star Wars had some great scenes. Multiple scenes. The whole movie was bad but it had some few redeeming aspects. And at least it was an interesting direction to take the series even if they screwed up immediately in the next film. The second Hobbit film has a nothing really to recommend it. On the other hand it has a just Avalanche of terrible aspects.
I agree though the third movie of both series are both so atrociously bad they don’t even bare talking about. They’re both gargantuan pieces of shit. So bad that everyone involved should be horse whipped repeatedly.
There was nothing good about them.
I recall the first one being okay, but the trilogy exponentially worsened as the latter films tried harder and harder to replicate The Lord of the Rings. Any charm that existed at the beginning was long gone by the third, and Bilbo himself basically became a minor character in his own story.
The first one started great, when they dwarfs met at Bilbos house. It went to shit quickly there after.
The worst part was the fight with the Mountain Trolls. Ugg, one of the most iconic moments in all LOTR lore was a dipshit Disney ride…
Certainly you know the history of those movies? They were not the level of LotR, but there’s many reasons for that and Jackson is not any of them. I don’t know what we would have gotten without him.
I think the real take-away here is that Jackson’s involvement alone just isn’t enough.
That’s fair. And add to that the question, is there enough of a story to make a movie? Probably, but The Hobbit showed that when you try and stretch it too much, it shows.
I believe they’d have turned out spectacular, if they had stuck to Guillermo del Toro‘s original vision, instead of bloating one movie worth of book to three overly long movies.
Oh, that went great for the other LotR texts he’s “expanded” so far… 🤦🏼♂️
Why on earth does that give you hope?
Jackson’s products have gotten exponentially worse since return of king…
I’ll accept it if and only if Peter returns to his horror film roots and practical effects.
A fool’s hope even, but that hope ended up winning in the end.