I'm really glad Peter Jackson is doing this. While Guillermo Del Toro is fantastic, it just feels right having Jackson direct it.

*shivers*

The Hobbit has been my favorite book since I first fell in love with it when I was eleven. With all the production problems, I thought it might not ever get made. Having Peter Jackson at the helm and getting two movies is simply awesome.

Can. Not. Freaking. Wait.

That video was great. I still insist this should only be one movie rather than two and I fear Jackson's over-indulgences but... I'm definitely looking forward to this.

You're right. I simply do not understand. Like I said, Pan's Labyrinth is great, Devil's Backbone is good and the rest pretty much suck, including Hellboy II. Very similar to Night's career in my opinion.

But anyway, that video was SWEET. Totally brings back memories of the Lord of the Rings. Del Toro probably would have been fine, but Jackson completing the entire journey is perfect.

I just wish I didn't have to wait 2 years to see this.

Video was just pulled from YouTube, here's the same one at movieweb (with ads):

<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.movieweb.com/v/VILfowodzBXkPL" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="550" height="253"></embed></object>

So.....does movieweb have it on youtube?

Or you could go right to the source.

<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="800" height="600" src="http://www.facebook.com/v/10150223186041807" allowfullscreen="true">

It's on Peter's facebook page, if you have that..

*edit---oh ok, didnt realize, thanks pinata!*

Yup, that be the aforementioned source.

The more the better, alot of people would be happy if he did the entire Silmarillion.

You have to take in the fact that the population at large doesn't view these films the same way you do. Even if you think he made only one great movie and then a bunch of trash, most people would disagree. Now, obviously everyone is free to have their own opinion, but since the masses don't appear to agree with your assessment of Guillermo Del Toro's film output, why would you be surprised that most people think a comparison to M. Night Shymalan is extreme?

Per Metacritic Del Toro has directed 7 movies, the highest being rated a 98, while only two are below a 72 (at a 55 and a 52).

Shyamalan has also directed 7 films, the highest rating at a 64 and two others at 62 and 59. Everything else he has done since his first three films score as 44, 36, 34, and 20. Now, Metacritic isn't a perfect system, but using these numbers alone, it's pretty clear that most people would probably think otherwise about your GDT and M Night comparison.


And just from my standpoint, Del Toro at his worst (which I believe to be Mimic) is much more watchable than what I consider to be M Night Shyamalan's worst (which is pretty much everything after Unbreakable to me).

Wow, that brought a tear to my eye. So happy this is being done right with Peter, Ian, Andy, etc....and in the right place: NZ.

Yeah you're right. Somebody else actually posted the same data, except using rottentomatoes, on the previous page. I probably shouldn't even have responded to nando820's post because, like I said, somebody else already posted data showing that Del Toro's movies have been much better received than Night's. I'll just accept that I'm in the minority and hope he makes another movie that I actually like. For what it's worth, I'm still elated that Jackson is doing the Hobbit rather than Del Toro.

Nice. Really looking forward to seeing this. Thanks for posting.

Do we know who is doing Smaug?

Whoops, missed where someone else posted something similar. My bad.


Despite the fact that I was fine with Del Toro doing the films, the hardcore nerd inside of me was thrilled when it was announced that PJ would be making them.

That's not my point. FOTR was a tightly edited and focused feature. Even the extended cut showed a great amount of focus. By ROTK, it was all over the place and sloppy. The extended cut was even worse.

It's none of our business. Smaug's love life is Smaug's concern alone.

I like RotK, but I would still agree with that assessment. After the first couple of times that I watched it, I actually found myself getting bored at times while watching it. That didn't happen with FotR or Two Towers (not even in extended form).

On the other side, though, I do think RotK has some of the best scenes of the entire trilogy, despite being the only movie that I get bored a little bit with at times.

Like Costanza, you just hit your high note and should leave.

Anyway, I hope it's not a recognizable voice. Take The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe for example. I love Liam Neeson and he has a great voice, but every time Aslan opens his mouth, I'm just like "oh, hi Liam". Same with James Earl Jones. That guy has an amazing voice and in restrospect was perfect as Mufasa and as Vader, but while watching the Lion King you can't help but notice that it's just Darth Vader doing the voice of Simba's daddy. Same exact thing with Dragonheart. Sean Connery as a dragon...come on man.

It seems like with today's technology somebody's voice could be altered in such a way so it doesn't even sound human. To me it would be weird if Smaug had a human voice. I just always pictured Smaug as something almost otherworldly and pure evil, so it just wouldn't seem right if he had a human voice and would be even worse if we actually recognized the voice. It seems like they should be able to synthesize the voice into something really eerie and almost disturbing.

I say Serkis should have first crack at doing ADR for Smaug. If not him, then it might be good to get Rhys-Davies in there or one of the other LotR players with no part in The Hobbit. I just like the idea of keeping it "in the family".

So they rebuilt Rivendell and even constructed new areas of it, but Hugo Weaving still hasn't been confirmed to be coming back to play Elrond?