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The One Ring Forums:
Tolkien Topics: Movie Discussion: The Hobbit:
Hobbit movie preproduction and preparation:
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Amon Amarth
Lindon
Jan 10 2008, 8:00pm
Views: 562
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Hobbit movie preproduction and preparation
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Hello, let me introduce myself as I am new to TORn but not new to being a fan of the movies and all things Tolkien. I cannot claim to be an expert so in educational terms, I'm probably in middle school while some people here are PhD level! But anyone who knows a little about Middle-Earth names will know my screen name and maybe the band that uses it. What I'd like to maybe get a discussion going or just get people ruminating over is the particular logistics, planning and preparation involved in making not just one movie but two as they say. I have just been watching the appendices to the LotR EE DVD's and have been thoroughly impressed with the amount of conceptual design, production design, location scouting, construction, etc. etc. that had to occur before filming started. Now we know that with these two movies things should be somewhat easier. They've already done a lot of the groundwork and there isn't as much to do. But having said that they still need to design and conceive quite a lot for example animating the Trolls, (although we already know what they look like), designing the spiders (we already know the Wargs), designing the Goblin and Thranduil's caves, building Laketown, designing/animating Smaug, etc. For LotR it looks like they started in earnest about 2 years before principal photography. They started even a bit before that back when PJ and Co. were stil working with Miramax on the project. So they had a long time in lead up. Clearly they don't have as long. But still a movie like this requires the same amount of effort. Judging by the info from the press release they say shooting starts in 2009, but not exactly when. I assume later is better? Probably a bad idea to start in the middle of the year as that is winter in NZ. I don't know. But regardless, it's less than 2 calendar years (24 months) away. I would think they would have to start now with all the design work. I don't recall the exact timeline of the negotiations to get the Hobbit deal official but clearly the important parties should have known before December that the deal was struck. Was it possible for PJ on his own to give the OK to the WETA guys to start work? Would studio approval have been required? I'm sure a lot of the guys like Falconer, Wooten, Mahy, Taylor et al. all had ideas in their minds of what they wanted things to look like and clearly they would have been smart to start early. Does anyone know for certain (or not for certain) if the proverbial "smoke" is pouring from WETA Workshop? People on the ground in NZ certainly would know and I know that TORn has "spies" in WETA.
Also PJ was involved intensively from the beginning. LotR was the only thing he was doing and therefore could devote all his attention to the intricate details of pre-production. You see him getting involved in everything. Clearly he cannot devote anything close to the same attention now. So wouldn't it be imperative to name a director ASAP so that he can get started ASAP and guide the necessarily long pre-production process? Or if not, maybe a Rick Porras type guy to run that operation before whoever the director is can actually start directing? Will this be handled by New Line as per the line in the release "New Line will manage the production of the films, which will be shot simultaneously."? All things to think about.
(This post was edited by Amon Amarth on Jan 10 2008, 8:03pm)
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Edit Log:
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Post edited by Amon Amarth
(Lindon) on Jan 10 2008, 8:03pm
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