'The Hobbit' chat: Jackson's involvement
The chat with Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro about the new ‘The Hobbit’ movies took place today — or yesterday depending on where you live. And some minor facts came out of it. Peter Jackson mainly spoke about his role in making the movie, but there were some other interesting tidbits too.
About a possible Blu-ray set of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies, Peter Jackson said, “We are working on a blu ray [sic] version of the LOTR trilogy with Warner Bros at the moment, not sure when it is due for release. It certainly won’t be this year.”
Guillermo also confirmed the (likely) involvement of Howard Shore for the movies’ score. “Yes- absolutely, Shore is the VOICE of these films and we will absolutely be invited back. Peter and Fran have talked to him a couple of times already and Ive [sic] exchanged emails about the subject. He will return.” Interesting, since Peter Jackson replaced Shore at the last moment for his ‘King Kong.’
Jackson outlined the production process like this, “[...] at this point in time the plan is to write for the rest of this year and start early conceptual designs. 2009 will be dedicated to pre-production on both movies and 2010 will be the year we shoot both films back to back. Post productin [sic] follows one film at a time with The Hobbit being released Dec 2011, and F2 release Dec 2012.”
They also talked about how Jackson used multiple crews while filming the trilogy. “Guillermo always shoots his own material, so we’ll do our best to construct a schedule that allows him to do that. It will depend a lot on how the scripts break down. I’d happily shot some second unit stuff, anytime Guillermo asked me to. But let’s see what happens.”
And lastly, this is what Jackson had to say about his involvement in the creation process. “My interest is helping Guillermo make the very best films he can. I love writing and I’m looking forward to that. Guillermo will be writing, along with Fran, Philippa and myself. [...] I see my role as being part of that writing team, which will create the blueprint, and then helping Guillermo construct the movie. I want Guillermo to make his movies, and I want to make sure we end up with a 5 movie series that’s as good as it can possibly be.”
When asked why he didn’t make the movies himself, Jackson added, “Having directed the LOTR Trilogy, I really felt that I put my heart and soul into dramatising [sic] this world and story, only a few years ago. The idea of going back in and essentially competing against my own movies, seemed to be an unsatsifying [sic] way to spend the next 5 years. However, I love Tolkien and care deeply about the movies we made. I couldn’t bear the idea of somebody else making them without our involvement. Being a writer and producer is the perfect way for me to work here. Guillermo has the ultimate responsibility of directing, and for him it’s easier to make these movies feel different, simply because he’s not me, and he therefore has an original vision, with new ideas to offer.”
You can find the whole Q&A session via the link below. It’s a lot to work trough though.
