a third The Hobbit movie?

[martasfic]

On a slightly lighter note from all the politics/heavy personal stuff...

TOR.n is reporting a L.A. Times story saying the studios are considering making a third Hobbit movie. Specifically:

The Burbank film studio originally planned to release two “Hobbit” movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary prelude to “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and principal photography on those two pictures finished in New Zealand this month. The first is set to come out in December, followed by the second in December 2013. The two films combined cost about $500 million.

But Jackson has concluded that there is enough material from the book, as well as the extensive appendixes to “The Lord of the Rings,” to make a third film, according to three people who were not authorized to speak publicly. New Line Cinema, the Warner Bros. unit overseeing production of the movies, is eager to see it happen, and talks are underway with actors and others who would need to sign off on the plan.

Aside from this being very cool news (icanhas?), I've been wondering how thy were going to break up the movies? I'm assuming the Hobbit itself provides the plot for the first movie, and that after that there's some kind of a LOTR preview. This is a guess completely out of nowhere, but I'd assume it would be about events in Gondor and Rohan, culminating with Gandalf discovering the news about the Ring and the first battle at Osgiliath. But I don't know.

So in light of that, I was wondering. I'm assuming the first move will be The Hobbit itself. If you were to make a movie of the other material between Bilbo's and Frodo's quests, what events and characters would you center it around? What canonical events would you use to create a self-contained story, and how would you tell that tale?

(No spoilers for the actual movies, please.)

Comments

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

This is all very surprising to me, because I thought that the movie was fairly close to finished as a two-parter.

The impression I'm getting from everything I've read over the last year or two has been leading me to believe that the first movie will probably end right about the time Bilbo and the Dwarves escape the Elves via barrels in the river. We won't even see Smaug until movie 2, much less the whole Battle of Five Armies.

Part of the time in movie 1 will be filled with some backstory - we'll spend more time with Radagast, we'll get at least the beginning of the White Council/Necromancer/Dol Guldur story that's been built up from material in the Appendices. That's more than enough to be going on with for one movie, I thought, and there's certainly more than enough story left for a second part.

I can't imagine where a third would come from.

[dreamflower]

Hmm...

Well, I am thinking the first *two* will be The Hobbit; the first one dealing with the story up to Mirkwood, and the second with the rest of the story, blended with the events about the Necromancer and Dol Goldur.

Third movie? Well, if *I* had my druthers it would be set in the Shire mostly, and deal with Bilbo readjusting to the Shire, Tookish politics, Drogo and Primula's courtship, marriage and death, Bilbo's adoption of him and the friendship that develops between Frodo, Merry, Pippin and Sam.

The non-Shirish material could deal with Aragorn and Arwen's courtship; the hunt for Gollum; Gandalf's search for proof about the Ring, and maybe some scenes of Boromir and Faramir growing up and of Legolas and Gimli in their homelands. Perhaps scenes showing Saruman turning Wormtongue, and hinting at their future treachery.

But mostly hobbits.

In the Shire. *grin*

Perhaps end at the point the first movie begins in the Shire: with the preparations for the Long-Expected Party.

[mrowe.livejournal.com]

There are many events during that period that I'd love to see on screen, but afaik the rights to any material in Unfinished Tales and HoMe are with the Tolkien Estate, so can't be used in a movie; just using the Appendices would require a lot of making things up if they can't use other canon sources.

Also, it's starting to read a bit too much like milking the franchise for all it's worth (and a bit more).

*sigh*

I dunno, perhaps it would still be worthwhile...

[thelauderdale.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see a prequel (still gleaned from the Appendices, though) about the Dwarves in exile, and the fate of Thror, and the feud and eventually war between the Dwarves and the Orcs. It too would require a lot of making things up.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I'd love a film about Aragorn's adventures before the events in LOTR.

[labourslamp.livejournal.com]

I would make an "I, Aragorn" sort of biopic thing that deals with his youth up till LotR...

At least I would have, if the Jackson films hadn't arrested his character development so that he was an 80-year-old man-child, thus necessitating the weakening of every other leader-like character in the non-Frodo-and-Sam plotlines. I was hoping, when they had initially said, "No, we can't do an Appendix movie," that Jackson had realized that he had squandered his one chance at a decent "sixty years between" movie. I don't think there's any equivalent thematic material that could link the disparate events otherwise. Anything else you'd have to make up, and... well, I don't have much faith in that.

At least there's a better chance now of Jackson's 'verse crashing and burning. Maybe in 20 years we can get someone else's take, when Hollywood runs out of other movie material again. It would do wonders for the fandom.

[lin4gondor.livejournal.com]

It seems quite possible to me for them to do a third movie, with so much to choose from in the Appendices. A third movie that serves as a bridge to LotR would be awesome -- and I think it could be done fairly easily with the material available, tying it in to both the Hobbit and LotR. I'd love to see more of the history of Rohan and Gondor, including Thorongil's travels and more of the battle of Osgiliath and Faramir and Boromir's dream that began their quest.

[jay-of-lasgalen.livejournal.com]

There are already two films that deal with events in the Appendices: The Hunt for Gollum

and Born of Hope.

Both are made by fans, and are very, very good.

[vaysh]

Thank you so much for these links. ♥

[marta-bee.livejournal.com]

Thanks for those links, Jay! I meant to watch Born of Hope but never got around to it. Guess we know what I'm doing tomorrow. *g*