“What was that? I thought I saw a twinkle of a light in the forest,” says Balin, one of the 13 dwarves traveling with Bilbo Baggins shortly after they enter the labyrinths of Mirkwood in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit.”
Having completed principal photography after 266 days on his “Hobbit” diptych, director Peter Jackson – who announced the news earlier today on his Facebook page – must also feel he’s seen a twinkle of light in a forest. Or, at least, the light at the end of a tunnel as long as the one in Moria beneath the Misty Mountains.
The shoot was preceded by enormously complex political and financial wrangles, including the suing of New Line Cinema by Jackson in 2005 and by the Tolkien Estate and HarperCollins Publishers for unpaid sums from the profits made by “The Lord of the Rings” films. The latter case was settled, freeing New Line to proceed with “The Hobbit,” and Jackson’s relationship with the studio was repaired.
Believing the project would be less satisfying than “The Lord of the Rings,” Jackson initially intended to serve as executive producer. The Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro was hired to direct in April 2008. He remained on board, shaping the screenplay with the “Rings” team of Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens until May 2010, when he departed because of delays caused by MGM’s lurch into bankruptcy, from which it subsequently emerged. “The Hobbit” is a co-production between MGM, New Line, and Jackson’s Wingnut Films, the distributor being Warner Bros., which owns New Line.
In October 2010, Jackson finalized a deal to shoot both parts of the film in New Zealand, where the International Federation of Actors issued a Do Not Work order stating the producers had refused to “engage performers on union-negotiated agreements.” The filmmakers threats to film abroad, possibly in Eastern Europe, which would have cost the New Zealand tourist industry billions of dollars, led the government to grant Warner Bros. a substantial tax break, to subsize the marketing costs, and to change a law clarifying when someone is an employee or a contractor.
“The hyperbole surrounding ‘The Hobbit’ insisted it was crucially important to the future of the local film industry and for this country's image as a tourist destination. Both points are highly dubious,” complained an editorial in The New Zealand Herald.
“This was about the shooting of just two films. If the industry cannot stand the loss of them, it must be in a sickly state. It was surely over-egging matters to suggest all international film-makers would sidestep this country as a consequence.”
Back-to-back filming on the two parts of “The Hobbit” began on March 21 last year, Jackson shooting them in 3D at 48 frames per second, for greater sharpness, instead of the industry standard of 24. “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” tracing the first leg of Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and the dwarves’ odyssey, during which Bilbo acquires the One Ring from Gollum (Andy Serkis, digitally captured again), will be released December 14. “The Hobbit: There and Back Again,” which included the journey to Laketown, Bilbo’s encounter with the dragon Smaug, and the Battle of the Five Armies, is set for December 13, 2013.
The specific challenge faced by Jackson and his fellow writers is meshing the lighter tone of “The Hobbit” (published in 1937) with the comparative doominess of “The Lord of the Rings” (1954-55) – the diptych and the triptych surely intended to comprise, eventually, one long masterwork. It’s been rumored that greed will be a major theme – that of the dwarves’ leader, Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage), mirrored by that of Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch), who for years has guarded their treasure as his own. Visually (as in the depictions of the Dead Marshes in “The Two Towers”), there may be further echoes of World War I, in keeping with Tolkien’s experiences on the Somme.
Tolkien purists will be most itchy about Old Bilbo (Ian Holm), Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), Saruman (Christopher Lee), Frodo (Elijah Wood), and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) from “The Lord of the Rings” being imported into “The Hobbit”; none of them appears in the novel. However, they can look forward to the turning into stone by Gandalf (Ian McKellen) of the trolls who seize the dwarves early in the story, the dwarves’ journey downriver to Laketown concealed in barrels, and the great reveal of Smaug’s first appearance. You’d bet your life against Jackson failing to render these scenes with maximal Middle Earth atmosphere.