The Hobbit Trilogy? Fine. But don’t link to LOTR.

UPDATE: Peter Jackson has announced that The Hobbit will become a trilogy, but his desire to expand The Hobbit rather than stretch out to the beginning of Frodo's storyline and LOTR is made clear in the below statement on his Facebook page.

His reference to, "the story of Bilbo Baggins, the Wizard Gandalf, the Dwarves of Erebor, the rise of the Necromancer, and the Battle of Dol Guldur" is particularly exciting.

"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."

 

Cheers,

 

Peter J"

Peter Jackson is in ‘serious talks’ about a third movie to follow on from the two parts of The Hobbit he’s already shot. At Comic-Con he teased the idea, stating that he might like to go back and shoot more footage next year, avoiding the word ‘trilogy’.

The Hollywood Reporter have posted an article stating that Jackson, producer Fran Walsh and writer-producer Philippa Boyens began exploring the logistics of turning the two instalments into a trilogy, and their sources say that those talks have been accelerating in recent days, with the studio on board if all the right financial arrangements can be made.

“If we’re going to do it, we have to make a decision soon,” says the THR source. “It’s strongly driven by the filmmakers’ desire to tell more of the story.”

Right now there are two movies: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (December 2012) and The Hobbit: There And Back Again (December 2013).

Warner Bros. are weighing up the finances of creating a third movie, which would involve signing new contracts with the cast as well as re-negotiating their deal with the Tolkien estate.

My only hope is that this is a fleshing out of the existing Hobbit material, which Jackson is already editing. Some bloggers are already becoming excited at the idea of an ‘over-arching’ franchise that will link The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings. Read the material though and this seems like an impossibility, or even worse, a mighty stretch. Bilbo ages in Hobbiton for decades and not a great deal else happens bar a few isolated incidents like the overrunning of Moria.

The ‘epilogue’ section of The Lord Of The Rings was a little on the long side already, particularly in the extended DVD version. The worst thing Peter Jackson could be doing with this additional shooting is

As a fan of the books and the films, my hope is that there is simply too much great Hobbit material to cram into one movie and that we won’t be seeing a sequence of scenes leading us into the ‘unexpected party’ at the beginning of LOTR.

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