Hobbit film pitfalls

[Primula Baggins]

TORn tweet from ComicCon about an hour ago (PJ was a surprise guest on the Tintin panel with Steven Spielberg):

PJ: "I don't have any new interests since about the age of 17. Those interests inform my choices about films" #SDCC #Hobbit

Illuminating?

[axordil]

Most men would say that, if they were honest.

[SirDennis]

Possible pitfall:

People might ask, if Elrond, Legolas, Figwit/Lindir, and Galadriel are back, why not Arwen and a young Aragorn (who lived at Rivendell at the time, no?)

[axordil]

Was that while Arwen was hanging out in Lórien?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It's still possible that there WILL be a young Aragorn, though I doubt it. And while Liv practically begged to be allowed to have a cameo, as Ax points out, there is certainly a textual reason why she isn't there. But of course, most of the people who would be wondering probably won't have even read the books anyway.

[SirDennis]

Visiting gramma then? From the last video diary it seemed that Galadriel was in Rivendell. (I think I am forgetting something about Bilbo's first visit to Rivendell?)

That aside, it seemd for years that Sir Christopher wasn't going to be in this thing... and then all of a sudden, there he is.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It does seem that way, though I'm not sure that it was 100% clear that that it is a case.

That does, however, bring up a definite potential pitfall. If they have a meeting of the White Council while Bilbo and the Dwarves are in Rivendell, I think that has the potential to really bend the tone of the story in a way that gets too far away from what Tolkien wrote. That is my fear in general about the whole White Council/Dol Guldur side story.

[kzer_za]

I'd say that is the place where the movies have the greatest chance of going wrong, especially since much of it will need to be invented.

[Holbytla]

Dol Guldur has all the makings of Harry vs Voldemort/Wizard duel redux.

[SirDennis]

I don't have a clear idea of what Dol Guldor will mean for one scene or the other but I do agree that it may disrupt the fabric (and in doing so, the tone) of TH.

Do you think the White Council bit will be held at Rivendell, changing the party's time there from the respite that it has always been into a Council of Elrond type thing, reframing the entire quest in the process?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The third production video seemed to suggest that, didn't it? Although it really isn't clear at this point.

[sador]

But of course, most of the people who would be wondering probably won't have even read the books anyway.

You mean, haven't read the appendices to The Lord of the Rings and done the math.
In fact, math seems to have been one of Jackson's problems in The Lord of the Rings, and of Tolkien's in The Hobbit (from which you will deduce that I've finally finished Rateliff's book ), so I don't see any reason Arwen won't be somehow in the films - especially as whoever went to Dol Guldur would likely pass through Lórien.

And it's nice to see SirDennis here.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The more that I think about these films, the more I conclude that it will be very difficult -- bordering on impossible -- to show the White Council confronting Dol Guldur, and then NOT tie that directly to the Battle of Five Armies. Which I think would be utterly disastrous to the idea of adapting the book The Hobbit with even the same degree of fealty that Jackson and company adhered to in adapting The Lord of the Rings.

What say you?

[Alatar]

I disagree. I think Dol Guldor will be the Climax of Film 1 and BoFA the climax of Film 2. There may be some connected reference like that in Quest for Erebor, but nothing overt.

"The Kingdom under the Mountain and the strong Men of Dale were no more. To resist any force that Sauron might send to regain the northern passes in the mountains and the old lands of Angmar there were only the Dwarves of the Iron Hills, and behind them lay a desolation and a Dragon. The Dragon Sauron might use with terrible effect. Often I said to myself: "I must find some means of dealing with Smaug. But a direct stroke against Dol Guldur is needed still more. We must disturb Sauron's plans. I must make the Council see that.'"

And yes, I know that the rights for QoE are not officially obtained, but who knows what deals may have been done in the background over the last few years.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Addressing your last comment first, I agree. As I've mentioned several times over several different boards, the comment made in Entertainment Weekly last October that "Warner and its New Line division have been busying themselves recently with, among everything else, clearing up rights issues that remained with the J.R.R. Tolkien estate" seems to suggest exactly that, that some kind of deal over rights was being negotiated. Since there really wasn't any question at all over the scope of the right to use LOTR and The Hobbit, I can't think of anything that that comment (assuming it is true) was referring to other than negotiations for a limited use of UT.

That having been said, I find it very difficult to believe that they are going to build up the Necromancer and Dol Guldur as the big enemy of the first film, only to have have them completely disappear in the second film. It just doesn't jibe with the way that movies are made. Mind you, I hope you are right and I am wrong. But that is not what my heart tells me.

[Inanna]

I somehow imagined the party escaping the dungeons of the Mirkwood king as the last scene of movie I... all those barrels floating away on the river. Thats how FOTR ended, why not TH I?

[Alatar]

I think most agree that will be the last scene of Film 1, it may not, however, be the climax of the film.

[Elentári]

Interview with Orlando Bloom, at Movies.com on returning to play a younger Legolas in The Hobbit

Orlando Bloom, costar of The Three Musketeers, told Movies.com that he is looking forward to revisiting Legolas for The Hobbit, even though he’ll be playing the character at a younger age, some ten years after he first inhabited the role. “We’re talking about an elf here, man, so what we’re saying is a few hundred years, give or take,” Bloom said in a recent interview. “It’s a pretty ageless kind of thing. I am really excited about it.”

Playing the beautiful, ageless elf who was part of the Fellowship of the Ring, Bloom was an early breakout among the series’ ensemble cast members, and he subsequently became a star on the merits of his contributions to that franchise as well as the Pirates of the Caribbean films. He said that he expects that returning to the role will be fairly easy, even though a big part of his connection to Legolas was related to his then-inexperience as an actor, much less in a film series with as much infrastructure as Peter Jackson’s trilogy.

“I think that character is in my veins,” he explained. “In preparation I go back into the way I prepared for the character ten years ago.” At the same time, Bloom admitted that he has changed since then, but indicated that returning to the world of Middle Earth will help him reconnect with a part of him that he and the character originally shared. “Obviously it’s a lot more informed today with the experiences I’ve had. But the innocence and the vulnerability and naivety in some ways of Legolas was part of who I was at the time as an actor, but it will be something that I’ve kind of maintained in a way.”

“It played because elves are immortal, and there’s an innocence to them, which is something that is the thing that I will be conscious of.”

Bloom also said that he’ll be bringing some new elements to Legolas, including a slightly more unpolished sensibility, since he’ll be several years younger than he was in Lord of the Rings. “The other way that I’ve thought about it is that in a way, because it’s a prequel, he was probably a bit of a younger gun,” he observed. “So he was a bit more loose; this is like a precursor to Lord of the Rings, it’s like a warm-up to Lord of the Rings for him, in a way, so that’s interesting.”

So...what do we make of this? Elves are certainly immortal but are they really "innocent??" Is he on the right track with his intended portrayal or not? Whilst many were satisfied with his interpretation of Legolas in LotR, equally as many felt his performance to be "wooden" and to have missed the mark from the character in the books, and would welcome a more light-hearted "Wood Elf" in The Hobbit..

[axordil]

Innocence can be born out of insularity. To spend centuries with your own kind is to guarantee surprise when you do travel more widely in the world.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

In my opinion, Bloom has no idea what he is talking about.