Size Doesn't Matter

13 December 2012. This is a date that should be imprinted into everyone’s mind – from those who know that by divine law, Olórin is not allowed to use his magic directly against orcs to those who only know him as Gandalf.

For it is on this day that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will finally be released in the UK.

Though many may take this date for granted, it was not always certain that The Hobbit would ever become a reality. Let us look back and remind ourselves how lucky we are to be able to see a hobbit that is directed by Peter Jackson.

Peter Jackson wanted to make The Hobbit as far back as 1995. But the distribution rights belonged to one studio, the production rights to another, and no-one seemed ready to sell anything. So New Line Cinema (who owned the rights to Lord of the Rings) told Jackson to go ahead and make the Lord of the Rings trilogy first.

When The Return of the King was released in 2003, the issue of The Hobbit resurfaced. New Line Cinema however, at the time, had their hands full with a number of lawsuits; Peter Jackson, The Tolkien Trust, and Saul Zaentz (producer of the 1978 Lord of the Rings cartoon) were all suing New Line Cinema for ‘withholding profits’.

Fortunately, by 2007, most of these were settled, and remarkably New Line Cinema soon after decided to partner up with MGM (whotogether owned all the necessary rights on The Hobbit) to co-produce and co-finance the film.

This immediately brought up the question: who should direct the film?

Ever since Peter Jackson’s trilogy appeared in the cinemas it was pretty obvious to the public that he was the best man to also make The Hobbit. The studios, however, did not share his view, they chose Guillermo del Toro. A terrible choice. The man was previously quoted saying “I don’t like little guys and dragons, hairy feet, hobbits” and “I don’t like sword and sorcery, I hate all that stuff”.

Pre-production began in 2008 and for the next two years, as expected, Del Toro managed to continuously find spectacular ways to ruin The Hobbit. Amongst these were redesigning wargs because he found they looked too much like hyenas and making animals speak so people would not be less weirded out by a speaking dragon at the end. He even spent a lot of time watching WWI documentaries because he thought that many elements in The Hobbit represented aspects of WWI, despite Tolkien explicitly stating this is not true.

Thankfully Del Toro got ‘fed up by too many delays’ and left in early 2010. Again, the studios got into a huge discussion about who should be the director, considering almost everyone from David Yates (Harry Potter) to David Dobkin (WeddingCrashers).

However, due to overwhelming fan pressure, and a sudden surprising wave of common sense, the studios eventually settled for Jackson. Jackson was finally on board as director. But the drama had not yet ended.

In late 2010, after building of the sets had already begun, the actors unions suddenly begun protests and ordered their actors to stop working. Strikes were so extensive that Warner Bros (who by then had merged with New Line Cinema) threatened to move production elsewhere (the Harry Potter studies in the UK were mentioned at some point). But eventually that cleared up as well and production remained in New Zealand.

Very soon after the failed union protests, in October 2010, the budget was announced at $500million, higher than any movie that has gone before it and almost twice the budget of the currently most expensive film (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End).

In November 2010 Peter Jackson famously ordered 30 red EPIC cameras (each costing some $58,000). These record in what is called 5k, a resolution that most cinemas don’t even have the equipment to display at.

In April 2011, in another controversial move, Peter Jackson revealed that the movie will be filmed in 48 frames per second (fps), deviating from the standard 24fps – which has been used for almost every movie since the 1920s. This should reduce ‘strobing’ and immerse the audience even more. But critics who saw it at the April 2012 cinemacon were sceptic and said it looked almost ‘too real’.

But perhaps the most controversial choice of all was just recently, in July 2012, when it was announced that The Hobbit would be made into 3 films and turned into a trilogy because apparently ‘there was too much material to cover in one film’. This meant that The Hobbit, which consists of only about 300 pages in its original hardcover, wouldbe made into the same number of movies as the 1600 page Lord of the Rings. Whether this is just a typical money-milking stunt, or whether there really is three movies’ worth of material, only time will tell.

All in all, we can be very glad that Peter Jackson did end up directing and he even managed to get most of the old team back. I’m really excited to see what Peter Jackson and his team have come up with and can’t wait to see the first instalment of The Hobbit.

But before we watch the prequel, and as we anticipateits release, what better time is there to rewatch the Lord of the Rings? – To refresh our memory of Legolas and Gimli before we meet their fathers (yes, that’s right, Thranduil and Gloin are appearing in The Hobbit).

Now, back on home ground, in a clever move by the ICU Cinema, they will be showing the Lord of the Rings marathon on the 2nd floor of the Union, on the 4th of November, just a few weeks before the release of The Hobbit. The marathon should last from 1pm to 11pm. This is a lengthy film session for sure, and lasting all ten hours is known amongst the cinema staff as a feat of manliness only surpassed by staying awake for the entirety of their December all-nighter.

But Frodo’s journey from The Shire to Mount Doom took over 6 months in real time. And so anything under ten hours wouldn’t really do the journey justice.

This will probably be the last chance to see the trilogy on a 33 foot screen in professional 35mm quality before The Hobbit is released. And for a fiver online or six at the door all I can say is I’ll see you there!